Luca Gramberini has been scuba diving since he was a kid. His family owns a scuba company. For the past three summers, Luca has added gardening to his underwater activities. He helps run Nemo's Garden, a project to grow plants in the sea.
From May through September, Luca and other divers are working on Nemo's Garden in the Mediterranean Sea, 150 feet from the coast of Noli, Italy. Five large balloon-like objects, called biospheres（生物圈）, hold plants such as beans and strawberries. The biospheres are filled with air and placed 20 feet below the surface. “My father came up with the idea because he loves gardening very much,” Luca said.
According to Luca, the sea is a good place to grow plants because underwater temperatures remain stable, changing little from day to night. The biospheres act like greenhouses. Inside the air-filled biospheres, fresh water keeps evaporating（蒸发）, providing the plants with a good environment to grow in. “We have already seen the plants, grow faster and better,” Luca says. “And there are fewer storms that can knock down the biospheres during the summer.”
Luca hopes Nemo's Garden will provide a new way of growing crops. “There is not enough land on the Earth,” he says. “And in many developing countries, bad conditions make it difficult for crops to grow.”
Though the project has just started, Nemo's Garden has achieved success and is moving to different areas. “We're going to try growing other plants.” Luca says. “We hope to set up biospheres in other countries. There are many possibilities.”
