Inspiration, Gardens and Determination = Mobilegro

Guest blog post submitted by:

Angela Dimaggio, Inventor of Mobilegro

When I moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Phoenix, Arizona in 1971, I was amazed at the year round growing seasons here. Snow back home, citrus on the trees here. We purchased our home in Arizona and turned the entire backyard into a massive garden. We grew everything, even planted 30 zucchini plants; what a mistake! Even planted peanuts. You name it I had it growing in my backyard.

Within a few years I went through a divorce and landed in a condo with a cement patio for a yard….gone was my beautiful garden. I sat at my teacher desk and drew out my idea to still have some kind of garden ability even if people were dealing with the same problem, limited space, no land, no anything. I drew out Mobilegro, sketches on a piece of paper ( no name at that time).

I put the paper in my desk and said to myself, when I retire I want someone to build this for me. In 2007 I retired from teaching and was cleaning out my desk for the last time. I was shedding a tear because I thought I couldn’t live without the energy of all my high school students around me and my sketches and drawings for Mobilegro fell back into my lap.

I revised the drawings with more sophistication, did the initial patent myself and MOBILEGRO was born. Five versions, two trademarks, 22 domains in 9 countries today. My Linkedin account went from 25 to 1100. People from Australia to Denmark want the Mobilegro product.

I need to mention that many manufacturers blew this old lady off, didn’t pay any attention to me or my product and
it was like climbing mount Everest with a toothpick. I persevered no matter what and here I am today helping people who have lost their homes and who lost their gardens just like I did.

Mobilegro will allow people everywhere regardless of space constraints to once again enjoy gardening. I made it to help people…..and it is doing just that!

Update 04.15.2012:
Mobilegro featured in Phoenix Home & Garden Magazine, April 2012 Picks for the Gardener feature! Congratulations Angela on another incredible achievement!

Roof Gardens Come in All Sizes, Shapes and Styles

There are tiny roof gardens and large expansive roof gardens. There are residential roof gardens and public roof gardens. Yes, there are retail roof gardens and industrial roof gardens as well. A roof garden or green roof, (tomato, tomatoe, potato, potatoe), it is still a planted green roof, and they are everywhere.

The problem that exists is that those who plant, install and manage those green rooftops are not being counted or exposed. They are up high, in most cases and out of the public’s eye, unless you are a taller neighbor. To my surprise, even driving through small town America I chanced upon a wonderful sight. It was one of the smaller roof gardens, I have seen to date. It is a small shed-like building located at Schultz Nursery and Garden Center in Danville, Illinois.

World's Smallest Public Rooftop Garden- Schultz Nursery and Garden Center, Danville, IL

Danville is known for many things, like Dick and Jerry Van Dyke, Gene Hackman and even some famous sports figures. But is Danville home to the world’s smallest, public, rooftop garden? That is what we want to know. It may be at this stage of the game. Hopefully Schultz will find out about our database and add their example to the list. It counts to me and it is absolutely worthy of being on the list.

As far as the largest, I have to give credit to Andrea Martinello of, N.A.T.S. Nursery Ltd. “Specialized Growers and Wholesalers” who informed me that her firm grew the plugs for the (best of my knowledge) 6 acre green roof on the Vancouver Convention Centre.

Vancouver Convention Center 6 acre roof.

So there is a tiny public roof in Danville, Illinois, which is one of the smallest, along with one of our favorite, private and smallest roof gardens, even smaller than my Chicago roof garden of 400 feet and as featured on the blog 66squarefeet a 66 square foot version and there is the largest, Vancouver Convention Center at 6 acres. There is no excuse why you cannot have one now!

Just remember, a rooftop garden can not only range in size, but also in type and access. Whether public or private, commercial or residential, we are adding one rooftop garden at a time here at RoofTopGarden.com. Share this with a roof gardener you know and get them to put their roof on our database. (http://www.rooftopgarden.com/database)

There is no reason why they shouldn’t.

very cool, world’s largest green wall or is it a sign? in U.S.

A huge thank you to Jean-Claude Goldenstein for his efforts with the CRE portal CreoPoint. Jean-Claude is bringing the world of CRE together in one place. He has even brought our greening efforts together, which is so very necessary. Good news, like the world’s largest green wall is hard to come by and thanks to CreoPoint it is here for the PM / FM industry to embrace and understand.

The concept of green walls is as outstanding as its sibling, green roofs. It is simply a fascination for so many folks, but it is truly proving to be more than that. It is becoming a standard to achieve. A hallmark of excellence, if you will. The ingenious of this concept is that it is a sign, but it is a green sign. How can you argue with the beauty of a green sign? The sign industry better watch out because this will definitely catch on and bring life and green to the cold, hard-to-soften high-rise or skyscraper.

Kudos to Green Living Technologies and the PNC on this project. Now I just have to get them to list the project on the Rooftop Garden World database!!

~Linda