InMetta

08/19/2026

Let's make this a reality everywhere🙏🏽

🍇 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝'𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲. 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐩.

Andernach, Germany. Since 2010, this small town of 30,000 people on the banks of the Rhine has been replacing ornamental flowers and unused lawns with edible gardens that anyone can harvest for free.

Tomatoes climbing castle walls. Herbs in raised beds along roundabouts.

Fig and quince trees threading through medieval stonework.

Signs that used to say Keep Off The Grass now say Picking Allowed.

I visited, and it is as beautiful and inspiring as it sounds.

The city started with annual vegetables, and it turned out to be a lot of work. Planting, watering, harvesting, replanting, year after year, requiring paid staff to keep it going.

And this points to something important about the design.

Annual vegetables are wonderful, but they are high-maintenance by nature.

The moment they shifted to perennials, to fruit trees, berry bushes, nut trees, herbs that come back year after year, the system starts to take care of itself.

A food forest needs a fraction of the input of a vegetable bed and produces for decades. It feeds wildlife.

It builds soil. It cools the street. And it keeps giving without asking for much in return.

Andernach is now a food forest city.

Iagine your own street, your school, your company campus, designed as a living, productive, edible landscape that almost runs itself.

That is exactly what we design at Commensalist. 🌳

👉🏼 www.commensalist.com



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07/23/2026

05/04/2026

"Not many people know that the most talked-about moment of King Charles III's entire state visit to the United States in late April 2026 did not happen at a state banquet, a congressional address, or a meeting with heads of finance at Rockefeller Center. It happened on a city block in Harlem where a boy, wearing a New York Knicks varsity jacket, stood next to the King of England and planted a small lavender seedling, and when a royal aide asked the boy what he wanted to name his plant, he thought about it very seriously and said: 'Steph Curry.' The room, or rather the open sky above the garden, erupted in laughter. That is the magic of Harlem Grown, the nonprofit that Tony Hillery built from an abandoned, rubbish-filled lot in 2011 into a network of fourteen thriving urban farms that today grow nearly six thousand pounds of organic produce every year, all given to the Harlem community completely without charge. Hillery was not a farmer. He was not an activist. He was a businessman who had owned a fleet of limousines, lost everything in the 2008 financial crisis, and found his way back to purpose through a kindergarten class, a neglected garden, and a tiny girl named Nevaeh who told him to plant something. From thirty-eight pounds of produce in that very first season to a full ecosystem of in-school and after-school programs, summer camps, mentorships, cooking demonstrations with a mobile teaching kitchen, free weekly farm stands, and a solar-powered vertical hydroponic garden that uses ninety-eight percent less water than traditional outdoor growing, Harlem Grown has become one of the most extraordinary community organizations in America. Harlem Grown CEO Tony Hillery, standing in the same garden where it all began, watched a reigning monarch kneel in the soil beside his children and said: 'This moment is bigger than Harlem Grown. It speaks to the shared values between communities across the globe.'

02/08/2026

Singapore has installed edible green walls on public buildings, planting herbs, vegetables, and fruit-bearing plants that residents are encouraged to harvest as they walk by.
The initiative supports urban food resilience in a nation that imports most of its food. Vertical gardening maximizes limited space while improving air quality and cooling buildings naturally.
Residents can pick herbs like mint, basil, and pandan, reinforcing community engagement and awareness of food systems. The plants are maintained by local councils and volunteers.
Urban planners say edible architecture blends sustainability, nutrition, and community trust—showing how cities can rethink food production in dense environments.

01/02/2026

We wish you an amazing 2026 full of love, laughter and positivity. During these challenging times, we try to stand strong in our actions and patience and make a difference with small changes every day. We envision a Sri Lanka with enough healthy and nutritious food for all and with small steps we try and make this change. In the photo is the last page of the children’s story and coloring book we created for the primary schools! We’ll be sharing how you can access this for little ones in your life and support the growing of school gardens! We hope for you to realize the changes you wish and be mindful of it every day of this year. With Loving Kindness from everyone at InMetta.