A floating garden is coming to Anable Basin in LIC

Image source: DNAinfo

LIC’s Brooklyn Grange has found success planting on rooftops, and Cooper Union architecture student Karim Ahmed now aims to find what’s possible through planting on floating gardens. DNAinfo reports that he has one anchored in the East River at Plaxall’s Anable Basin (which is the same location of the future floating beer garden) in Long Island City. Interesting sounding stuff is coming out of that corner in LIC, as Plaxall spends time exploring new ways to use their waterfront.

Ahmed decided to create this project because he wants to explore “the possibility of growing produce on the waterfront of New York City.” He raised $3,176 for the project via Kickstarter. He was also inspired big time by the chinampas of Mexico, Mesoamerican-era barge-like rafts of reeds and soil that would float in the Valley of Mexico, in creating this floating garden.

He started things off by pre-fabricating the parts at Bushwick shop Table of Contents; then he worked on a prototype at Bushwick’s Boswyck Farms. He has been spending recent days in LIC assembling the 20×20 foot garden out of lumber containers.

This weekend, he plans to plant kale, corn, and sunflowers in the floating garden, and has set his sights set on planting pear trees down the road, too.

‘Floating Garden’ Coming to Long Island City [DNAinfo]