Page 58 - Green Builder March-April 2016 Issue

TINY HOUSES

Where Does Your Garden Go?

These strategies can help incorporate gardening in even the tiniest houses—even
those that are on the move.

BY GREEN BUILDER STAFF ATTACHED GREENHOUSES

IT’S NOT DIFFICULT to understand the tiny house craze. The homes
are affordable, flexible, and many are designed for mobility. Tiny
houses are often tucked into tiny spaces, even driveways. Yard
space is limited, restricting opportunities to grow food or even to
cultivate landscape plants. But this mobility comes with a price:
the homes can feel transient, rather than lived in. The following five
strategies allow tiny house dwellers to have their landscaping, and
take it with them, too.

GOING UP

CREDIT: WOOLLY POCKETS
CREDIT: JEFF TURNER/ARBORFORGE
Sun Room. An attached greenhouse can be used to grow food
Plant Pockets. Made of 100 percent recycled plastic, modular plants, bring in natural daylight and modulate temperatures inside
Wallys measure 13” high and are 22” wide. They can be installed the tiny house.
indoors or outdoors. www.woollypocket.com
Whether you’re designing or building tiny houses from scratch or
Vertical garden is the best solution for the space deprived. Anything modifying an existing structure, an attached greenhouse can upgrade
that holds soil in a “pocket” and attaches to the wall can do the job. a tiny house into a passive solar structure capable of growing food
Vertical gardens can be improvised out of anything from rain gutters year round. The greenhouse can also double as living space. Mobile
to plastic bottles, but for a more uniform and, well, cultivated look, tiny houses have an advantage here, as the greenhouse can be
there are products that have been developed specifically for this use. oriented to the south for maximum sun exposure.
The Living Wall Planter from Woolly Pocket, for example, consists of
modular planters that can be installed either inside or outside; they can SANS SOIL
be watered either via a self-watering tank or a drip irrigation system.
Growing plants hydroponically—in water instead of in soil—is
Best plants for vertical gardens: annual or perennial flowers (dwarf another good option for the space starved. Plants grow best when
varieties; herbs; bulbs; succulents.) water can circulate, and there are a number of starter kits available. A
ready-made system called the Urban Cultivator simplifies hydroponic
56 GREEN BUILDER March/April 2016 food-growing and is a good option for tiny house dwellers who can’t
grow food plants outdoors. The smallest residential version can hold

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