Farmacy: Edible Vertical Farms Come to Long Island City’s Socrates Sculpture Park

If you love the vertical farms you see on Inhabitat but have never experienced one in real life, head on over to Long Island City’s <a href="http://www.socratessculpturepark.org/" target="_blank">Socrates Sculpture Park</a> as soon as possible! The park is known for its innovative <a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/photos-tomas-saracenos-geodesic-cloud-city-floats-above-the-roof-of-the-met-museum/" target="_blank">outdoor art installations</a> and its newest one, “Farmacy” by artist Natalie Jeremijenko, <a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/kim-hollemans-trailer-park-recycles-a-camper-into-a-mobile-green-oasis/" target="_blank">infuses the park</a> with edible crops hung to create a portable vertical garden.

Rising on a metal grid framework, Jeremijenko’s vertical farm shows New Yorkers just how easy <a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/axis-mundi-re-imagines-a-concrete-lace-network-for-the-whitney-downtown-museum/" target="_blank">urban farming</a> can be.

Hanging on each of the metal runs is one of the artist’s AgBags, which look a lot like giant pillows with first-aid crosses on them, which hang like flags across the Farmacy installation.

The draped bags are actually pocketed fabric plant holders, which hang over the rungs with their own weight. Inside each of the pockets is soil and plants, which poke through openings in the center of the decorative red x’s. For the Socrates installation, Jeremijenko is<a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/?p=34369" target="_blank"> growing both flowers and berries</a>, but herbs and certain vegetables could also be planted.

The artist, who runs the xDesign Environmental Health Clinic at NYU, has hung the decorative <a href="http://environmentalhealthclinic.net/farmacy/agbag/" target="_blank">AgBags</a> on a box-like framework, but they could easily be hung outside windows and on fire escapes,<a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/help-create-a-more-sustainable-food-system-at-the-brooklyn-food-conference-on-may-12/" target="_blank"> bringing fresh fruit, produce and herbs to any urban environment</a>.

Farmacy appears as part of the exhibition “Civic Action, a Vision for Long Island City,” with other works by Mary Miss, Rikrit Tiravanija and George Trakas.

The show reimagines the now-developed Long Island City area, creating <a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/storm-king-art-center-to-host-a-honey-bee-apiary-by-artist-peter-coffin/" target="_blank">installations which address the environmental and ecological concerns</a> of developing neighborhoods.