On 15 May 2010 Set & Drift hosted a Seed Bombing Potluck at The Farm Proper.

The Farm Proper is an experiment in the urban landscape.
Set & Drift, in collaboration with mi-workshop, have repurposed an industrial dirt lot outside The Bakery in the Barrio Logan neighborhood of San Diego, California. The farm is comprised of abandoned/defunct grocery carts filled with vegetables cultivated organically by a collective of artists, designers, backyard growers, and other creatives. It’s a project meant to inspire urban cultivation and pocket farms. Using abandoned shopping carts as our medium, we’ve designed a scenario to take over a temporarily available industrial lot to provide the community with organically grown food. The designer is the new farmer!

Above: An assemblage of artists and designers discuss and farm: Mike Maxwell, Kevin Joelson, Patrick Kenney, Sean Kelley, Scott Ballum & Stacy Kelley

Project details here.

Full Flickr set here.

Below: Architect Miki Iwasaki of mi-workshop builds architecture for the pole bean climbers.

It’s April, making this officially month #4 at The Farm Proper. Established at The Bakery in collaboration with mi-workshop, The Farm Proper is Set & Drift’s experiment in mobile, urban agriculture.

This bit of a “farm” that’s taken over the dirt lot behind our studio is dedicated to food production: Everything planted (with the exception of some marigolds and cosmos to attract beneficial insects) is vegetable and future food. We’re putting this out there as a replicable model to propagate pocket farms; we hope you and yours will design a takeover of unused land. So we’re sharing every failure and success along the way as our impromptu group of artists, designers, and backyard growers try our best to make this stuff grow.

Month #4 at The Farm Proper

POLE BEANS. We started the pole beans first so by now they’re on their way. They’re finally climbing up the wires, being more agreeable with the architecture we’ve designed for them. We planted some nasturtiums (edible leaves) and kale in between the beans. It’s getting a little crowded so hopefully the beans head up the teepee and clear some air for the plants below. A tip — plant beans. They’re so easy to grow – it’s a good plant to make you (or your kid) feel like a proper farmer. We started the seeds in small containers then transplanted, but they’re so hearty you could plant them direct.

Also coming up: Red Aztec spinach (below) and magenta lambsquarters (an iridescent edible wild spinach)

{For the whole lot of Farm Proper photos, visit Flickr.}

We’ll be hosting seminars and cookouts at the farm so send us a note to partake & receive info!