In the ruins of an old storage building, young urban farmers in Mexico City’s Roma District are experimenting with how to grow efficiently, and easily, in a small space.

In their small urban lab called Huerto Romita, they’re testing out square foot gardening, DIY vertical gardens, permaculture, herb spirals, hydroponics, rainwater catchment, and vermicomposting.

Their DIY vertical garden hack is simply black plastic (garbage bag), rebar, PVC, worm compost and soil. So for about 15 dollars they grow 25 lettuces in the space of just one grown without the vertical lift.

“Growing your own food isn’t new,” says Carolina Lukac. “People have been doing it for hundreds of years. I think we’ve just forgotten.”

* Johnny Sanphillippo (owner of a small, mortgage-free home) filmed this story. He blogs about urbanism on granolashotgun.com