A project to use the walls of city buildings to grow edible crops in vertical kitchen gardens is being launched in York today.

The owners of El Piano, a restaurant in the historic city, hope to grow herbs and vegetables on the building's exterior, fulfilling their sustainable aim of using locally grown food.

But new systems developed over the last couple of years allow planting within containers directly fixed to walls, allowing more complex schemes to be considered, including edible crops.

Liz Chadwick, a spokesman for El Piano, said the restaurant plans to make a variety of different dishes with all kinds of vegetables grown from the wall.