A local entrepreneur inspired by the window farming craze that has spread out of Italy to major cities across North America has opened a retail business to service urban farmers working in ultra-confined spaces.

Tasi Gottschlag launched FoodGROWS as an ecommerce website and a South Vancouver retail space, where many of their products are tested in real-world growing conditions.

Gottschlag is convinced there is a space in the retail market for ready-to-use planters, insect nets and growing kits designed for patios, balconies and windows, to service what until now has been a largely do-it-yourself hobby.

She may be right. The Brooklyn-based social enterprise windowfarms.org has more than 40,000 members, up about 1,000 per cent in four years.

“When I look around, especially in East Vancouver, I would say 50 to 60 per cent of homes have some kind of crop growing in the front or the back yard,” said Gottschlag, who founded FoodGROWS with a silent business partner. “People want to do this, we just want to make it easy.”

FoodGROWS.com is designed to occupy a niche not well served by garden suppliers or serious back-to-the-land outfitters. The website even has a 10-question entry point that helps guide new customers to the products best suited to their space and temperament.

Products range from low-tech wooden planters and wall-mounted pouch planters to high-tech plastic tower gardens for balconies and rooftops and soil-free growing systems, including a tabletop aquaponic herb planter with an aquarium base (goldfish not included).

For people who are strapped for time or who lack experience growing food, kits include planters, soil, fertilizer, tools and organic pest control.

“I think that when people want to do it themselves and innovate, that’s awesome, but there are a lot of people who don’t have the courage, time or desire to go outside and figure it out; they just want to do it, and that’s the market we are going to serve,” said Gottschlag, an MBA grad from Simon Fraser University. “I think there are a lot of 25- to 35-year-old professionals who work full time, but who want more in their lives.”

“Whole Foods is fine, but the next step for your health is harvesting the ingredients for dinner right on your balcony,” she said.

The FoodGROWS warehouse (418 East Kent Ave. South) is part retail space, part warehouse and part living lab, where the products on offer are put through their paces. Gottschlag places a premium on professional support for all her products, so the staff use everything on site to ensure it works and so they can offer practical advice to customers.

rshore@vancouversun.com

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