This is hilarious. Last night I happened to glance at my son Colin Cudmore’s gardentowerproject website and came across the above title’s exciting announcement.
“What?” I thought. “And he didn’t tell me?”
This morning I called to congratulate him. He responded, “What? I didn’t tell you?”
We decided to go out for lunch. Over Indian buffet food he told me the story.
One morning, he happened to be doing his daily check of the zerohedge site (he and I are alike that way) and noticed an ad announcing the 8th Annual International Design Awards. Impulsively, as a lark, he decided to submit the Garden Tower 2 for an award. And guess what? A few days ago, he discovered that that Garden Tower 2 had won the bronze medal with over 1000 entries!
Now here’s where the story gets really funny. Last week he and Amy, one of the women he works with, were filling new towers with potting soil and starter plants. They filled eight of them before turning on the water. And guess what? The water just ran through that soil like rain. What? Just last year, this particular brand of potting soil worked fine. What did that company do to wreck it? $800 worth of soil and plants down the drain.
That messy fiasco took most of the day. Then he and Amy went back to the Bloomington Co-op, where they had purchased the potting soil, to ask for their money back and for another brand of top soil. While sitting there waiting to speak to the manager, Colin turned to Amy and said, “I wonder why this is happening. There must be some message in it.”
Just then, he happened to glance at a manual lawn mower that they had for sale. He recognized it as the same one I bought there a few years ago. He looked closer. And wouldn’t you know, on the side of the mower is an advertisement saying this mower was a medal winner in the International Design Awards. Aha!
Colin realized right then that the expensive soil fiasco had to do with him having to go back to the Co-op, sit there, and while waiting for the manager, glance at that notice on that mower. Wow, the same award! Suddenly he realized that he could use the fact of having won the award to rebrand the promotion of the Garden Tower from the current “highest performance urban gardening system ever” to — I’m not sure what, but it will probably incorporate the words “world’s best” — or some such.
“Yeah, so $800 wasn’t all that expensive after all,” I remarked, while savoring Indian tea at the Bombay House.
“Yeah, and we got most of the money back,” he grinned.
How’s that for a great story? BTW: Colin never took a “design” course in his life. His deceased father, Patrick Cudmore, also an inventor who, however, trained as an architect, would be proud.
Plus, obviously, as this story shows, Colin is attuned to synchronicity — which makes me, his mom, proud. YES! Go Colin!
Garden Tower Project Receives International Design Award for Garden Tower 2
April 18, 2015
by Rhonda Baird
Design Awards held in Los Angeles, earlier this month. The newly released, Garden Tower 2 earned third place in the Sustainable Living/Environmental Preservation Category.
Garden Tower Project’s newest creation was selected for its achievements in design, creativity, usability and innovation in a competition that examined over 1,000 entries from designers from 52 countries. This annual competition recognizes, honors and promotes legendary design visionaries and uncovers emerging talents in architecture, interior, product, graphic and fashion design.
“It’s been a wonderful honor to be recognized by the international community for creating something that is meant to improve people’s lives” said Colin Cudmore, the inventor/founder of the Garden Tower Project.
What is the International Design Award?
A handful of designers, thinkers and entrepreneurs created the International Design Awards in 2007 as a response to the lack of recognition and celebration for smart and sustainable multidisciplinary design. The International Design Awards (IDA) exists to recognize, celebrate and promote legendary design visionaries and to uncover emerging talent in Architecture, Interior, Product, Graphic, and Fashion Design. IDA aspires to draw attention to the iconoclasm of design world wide, conceptualizing and producing great work.
What’s so special about our design?
The Garden Tower 2 helps you grow food in places that were challenging, or impossible, before—flat rooftops, concrete slabs, and ordinary decks. Fertile soils, a way to compost kitchen scraps, efficient use of water, and nutrient-dense foods are among the benefits of using the Garden Towers.
Garden Tower 2, is a patented, space-saving planter and vermicomposter that enables gardeners to grow up to 50 plants (and maybe more) vertically and compactly inside a footprint of just 4 square feet. The new design easily rotates 360 degrees for optimal lighting and convenient watering. This means healthier plants and more growth over the long run, with less fuss for you.
In combining gardening with vermicomposting, the Garden Tower returns nutrients to the closed system, making it self-fertilizing. Vegetables thrive as the potting blend grows richer naturally over time. A nutrient collection drawer also allows the gardener to harvest compost “tea”, finished compost and worm castings, for easy recycling to the top of the Garden Tower to increase soil fertility. The Garden Tower can also support a much wider variety of large vegetables that cannot be grown in any other container type garden, including cabbages, broccoli, squash, zucchini, cucumber and melons. With supplemental lighting, the Garden Tower 2 can be used indoors.
When it comes to water, everyone is pleased to see how well the design is performing. Early users report water savings of 90 percent compared to traditional garden plots, because the exceedingly efficient design minimizes evaporation. This helps wherever you live, but is particularly critical in high-altitude and desert environments.
“Garden Tower 2 was created to make growing fresh, organic produce accessible to everyone in the most innovative, efficient and effective way possible,” said Joel Grant, Garden Tower Development & Technology manager. “We are honored to be recognized by the IDA for our design.”
Click here to see the Garden Tower 2 on the IDA award winners’ page or view our press release.
Reblogged this on Aussiedlerbetreuung und Behinderten – Fragen and commented:
Glück, Auf, meine Heimat!
Excellelant Colin, I hope one day it can be made with organic plastic made from hemp. Keep up the good work! Chas Heald, Olympia, WA
Oh wow, does hemp plastic now exist?