Informations, resources and tips on growing a green business, sustainable living,
and building eco-friendly lifestyles.
SERVICES
We offer full service guidance and gardening services focused on sustainability-focused food production.
FOR INDIVIDUALS, FAMILIES, CLUBS AND WORKPLACES
URBAN FARMING DASHBOARD – click here for information about all Business Grow’s urban farming services.
Urban Farming / Sustainability Lessons
Urban Farming Personal Concierge Service
Growing organic or no-spray food in the city is not only one of the best things we can do for our health, it's also a very effective way to reduce pollution and help the environment.
Take advantage of Business Grow’s new urban food concierge service – providing food growing advice and services specifically tailored to clients' location and environmental conditions.
We can consult with you to determine optimal food growing locations at your home or office, purchase all necessary equipment, install a garden, then show you exactly how to maintain and care for it to produce tasty, no-spray vegetables. Brochure.
Beginners Food Growing Pack – contains practical food-growing guides, key advice, useful tips and fundamental information – in fact everything you need to know to start growing fresh, healthy, great-tasting no-spray food in the city this spring! Brochure.
FOR BUSINESSES:
For information on our products and services, our principles, benefits, urban farming
and rooftop gardening packages, please click HERE.
For a more comprehensive Urban Farming Strategy covering all our services for businesses,
please click HERE.
Office Food Growing Solutions – Tools, information and services aimed at helping people plant, grow and sow fantastic no-spray food at workplaces in the city. Brochure
FOR SCHOOLS:
For information on our products and services, our principles, benefits, urban farming
and rooftop gardening packages, please click HERE.
For a more comprehensive Urban Farming Strategy covering all our services for schools,
please click HERE.
Urban Farming Teacher Packs – a range of teaching guides that enable even inexperienced gardeners to grow food sustainably, boost self-sufficiency and help the planet.
Each pack contains a detailed ‘off-the-shelf’ lesson plan that equips teachers and parents to teach one of the following urban farming lessons:
1. How to transplant seedlings
2. How to build a plastic bottle fence garden
3. How to grow food on walls (vertical gardening)
4. How to create a balcony garden
5. How to collect rainwater
6. How to grow vegetables from seeds
7. Eco-friendly ways to start seeds
8. How to create a 1-square meter garden
9. How to collect and recycle water and food, and make compost
10. Recycling everyday objects into planters.
Urban Farming Teacher Pack brochure, here.
Urban Farming Teacher Pack sample, here.
Smart Food Packs – a range of teaching guides specifically focused on enabling even inexperienced gardeners to grow food sustainably, boost self-sufficiency and help the planet.
Each off-the-shelf pack contains detailed instructions to enable readers to learn the topics shown under Urban Farming Teacher Packs section above.
Smart Food Pack brochure, here.
Smart Food Pack sample, here.
For a 1-page summary of our gardening and urban farming services, please click HERE.
For a brochure on urban farming, rooftop gardening, and our Urban Farming Starter Packs, please click HERE.
Food Growing demonstrations – One-off on-site food growing presentations aimed at showing people how to become more self-sufficient, improve their health, and support the community – without leaving the workplace. Brochure
FOOD-FOCUSED CSR PROGRAM
Grow for Good: Corporate gardening for community growth, healthier people and a healthier planet.
For a strategy document, please click HERE.
Food Havens – Create your own food haven in the city! Learn the joy and abundance of gardening as well as key information and skills to transform patches of sunlit land, walls, rooftops and other spaces in the city into food havens where you can grow a wide range of healthy, no-spray food. Brochure.
EDUCATION
Urban farming consultant Jonathon Walsh is available to give presentations and seminars about urban food production, boosting self-sufficiency, and related sustainability issues.
Speaker Profile: Here
We also provide a range of hands-on gardening training classes with accompanying handouts.
To see our urban farming classes in action, please download a brochure here.
1. Building a plastic bottle fence garden Report 1 Report 2 | ||
2. Recycling and composting | ||
3. Garden building basics | ||
4. Collecting rainwater | Report 2 | |
5. Where to grow food? | Report 1 | |
6. Gutter gardens | Report 1 | Report 2 |
7. Vertical farming | Report 1 | Report 2 |
8. Garden building basics | Report 1 | Report 2 |
9. DIY Greenhouses | Report 1 | |
10. Magical flower trail | Report 1 | |
11. Rooftop Harvest | Report 1 | Report 2 |
12. Balcony gardening | ||
13. Recovery From Disaster | ||
14. No soil food production |
Jonathon is also teaching sustainability lessons to school children (> Brochure).
Lesson reports can be downloaded below.
1. What Happened? (From recycling to waste) |
Report 1 | Report 2 |
2. Bartering | Report 1 | |
3. Time Banking | Report 1 |
Urban Self-Sufficiency Premier Package (USSPP) – a comprehensive package of essential information and practical ideas to help sustainability-minded people grow food, save water, boost self-sufficiency and be kinder to the planet – wherever they live or work.
With a clear focus on on-site food production and sustainability practices, the USSPP will not only show you the most efficient way to sow seeds and transplant seedlings, it will also explain:
- 15 vegetable growing basics
- How and where to buy gardening equipment (includes bilingual shopping guide)
- How to select ideal sites to grow food
- How to transplant seedlings and sow seeds – Learn the basics of creating a garden and growing food quickly and easily
- How to interpret Japanese seed packets
- How to set up a planter box garden – Learn how easy it is to grow food in pots, containers, buckets, and more
- When to sow seeds and plant seedlings in Japan
- How to gain access to growing space if you don’t have any
- How to extend harvest and maximize yield, and much, much more.
Urban Self-Sufficiency Premier Package brochure, here.
- How to Grow Vegetables in a 2L PET Bottle
- Balcony Gardening
- Vertical Gardening
How to get what you want without paying for it [article] – Six ways to get off the grid, boost self-sufficiency, save money, and help the environment.
Making Every City Sustainable [article] – A vision of how to create more sustainable families, communities and cities.FACING CLIMATE CHANGE – United We Stand, Divided We Die [article] – This 2-part special report presents:
1. The key impacts and challenges we face as a result of climate change, and
2. Practical solutions and strategies that can be implemented at a local level by individuals, households and communities to help people cope, thrive and survive the impacts of climate change – a battle we are fighting against ourselves for the very future of our species.
Download:
How to Set Up a Rain Collector - A simple guide to harvesting rain water.
How to Set up a Rooftop Garden - A starter's guide to building a rooftop garden.
How to Grow Plants in Pots - Key information on how to produce healthy food at the home or office with minimum fuss and potentially impressive palate-pleasing results.
Feeding the Future - 15 methods that can - and are - being used to feed the world's expanding population. Many of these methods will be valuable during emergencies if food distribution links have been broken.
Twin Killer Quakes Trigger Sustainability Drive [article] - How two deadly earthquakes drove a first time
gardener to create an innovative sustainability-focused lifestyle in Japan's largest metropolis. PRODUCTS We also offer a range of Sustainability Packs containing practical hands-on guides and information to help individuals, families, businesses, communities, towns and cities become more self-sufficient – within days – by growing kilograms of healthy, near-organic food and capturing thousands of liters of rainwater, and more. Sustainability Pack – Personal GROBRICK FOOD GROWING KITS ACTIVITIES Jonathon Walsh has re-built the rooftop garden at Tokyo International School, set up plants and planter boxes around the premises,
and educated teachers and students in the art of growing food in the city. Extreme Garden Makeover - Urban farming consultant Jonathon Walsh shows how easy it is to convert a weed-covered garden bed into an attractive, multifunctional garden plot. >> Report RESOURCES
'SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CITY' is a new monthly newsletter presenting news, advice and information focusing on the basics of life in the city: growing and eating healthy food and living in greater harmony with the environment.
» Updated version - click HERE
Japanese/日本語 version: HERE
Sustainability Pack – Schools
Sustainability Pack – Business
GroBrick kits contain everything you need to grow herbs and vegetables at the home or office.
They bring life to virtually any space, healthy food to your plate, farming to the city
and greater independence to your life.
GroBricks brochure
- To view a 2012 Progress Report, CLICK HERE
Japanese/日本語 version: HERE
- To view a 2013 Progress Report, CLICK HERE
Download Issue 1
Download Issue 2
Download Issue 3
Download Sustainability In The City brochure here
Urban Farming Guide: How to grow near-organic food very cheaply in the city.
This 23-page beginner’s guide contains everything you need to know to grow healthy, delicious food in the city – minus harmful chemicals. Learn how to sow, grow and harvest safe, healthy and great tasting near-organic food at the home, school or office.
To download a brochure, click HERE
To purchase: Urban Farming Guide:
NEWS / PRESS RELEASES
Press Release [3/2013] – Second Harvest Japan Press Release [8/2013] – Tokyo International School food donation Japan School News [10/2013] – Jonathon’s urban farming work at Tokyo International School was featured in the October 2013 issue of Japan School News. Click here to read. (See top of p2).