Bringing the Urban Mini-Farm to a Balcony Near You

When Hala Al Amine moved to Canada last May, she was surprised by the emphasis placed on innovation and entrepreneurship in her new country. As a person who continually generated business and product ideas while working professionally, raising a family, and attending university in Lebanon, one of Hala’s life goals was to commercialize a product she had in mind.

“I had a lot of landscape design experience, but I didn’t know about the business side of things. Then, my master’s degree in Landscape Architecture introduced me to environmental ethics and sustainability. That became a catalyst for transforming one of my ideas into a viable business.”

Hala found what she needed in the MEIE program, where she is working on Garden Box, an urban agricultural solution for small spaces. Garden Boxes are modular and can be easily stacked and snapped together to create mini-farms of various sizes. The kit also includes soil, a water tank if needed, temperature and moisture sensors, seeds or seedlings, and a mobile application to monitor the system.

“People care about the quality of their food. They want healthy, organic options. Garden Box gives them that, plus all the tools to be a successful urban farmer.”

Hala credits the MEIE program for helping her to focus intently on the problem she is trying to solve (“I kept skipping ahead to solutions”) and on what target customers think and want.

“My dream to run my own business and offer a sustainable option for organic food is getting closer.”