Yes, this is a 1966 Ford F250 with a vegetable garden in the bed.
I was down at the Old South Pearl Street Farmer’s Market when I spied this nice vintage truck (I suppose calling it “vintage” means I’m vintage as well, since I was born in the same year as this Ford) parked among the vendors.
At first glance, I’d assumed that the plants in the bed were in containers. On closer examination, it turned out that the bed had been filled with 1,000 pounds of dirt and used as a mobile planter.
This, then, is the Denver Urban Truck Farm, a project done by a couple of grad students in the University of Colorado Denver’s Landscape Architecture program. Advantages of the Truck Farm: ability to move farm to get better sunlight, ability to outrun insect pests. Disadvantages: hauling a half-ton of dirt at all times, rust in bed.
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1966 Ford F250 “Urban Truck Farm” Down On The Denver Street
October 7th, 2010
October 7th, 2010 - 3:27 am
This seems like overkill. When I was an apartment dweller, I put three or four inches of soil on the concrete patio and grew things successfully. A few more inches of soil might help to make things easier to grow, but so would staking them properly, and that would save on weight.
That said, I do like the idea of a mobile farm plot.
October 7th, 2010 - 1:18 pm
Add a topper and turn it into a mobile medical farm hidden from prying eyes?
October 7th, 2010 - 2:05 pm
Nah, that rubberized bed liner will keep the rust mites at bay.
I’m surprised they aren’t growing “other” plants in there. Making it mobile would be the ideal situation for that sort of thing.
October 8th, 2010 - 2:05 am
I’ve always wanted to throw down a layer of topsoil and plant sod on my apartment balcony. How luxurious would that be?
These trucks have given me other ideas. Why bother growing crops? Let’s just install a little Zen garden — complete with fountain, powered by an accessory fuel pump or ten — in the back of a truck, and bring a little bit of nature with us wherever we go!
And power the whole thing with a V10 diesel for increased irony.
October 9th, 2010 - 8:00 pm
One question: How do they use the tractor back there?
I know someone with an urban garden/private junkyard. He has a Chevy C10 that had no engine, so he uses the engine bay for his compost heap.