More on EuropaCity and Post-Oil City

Last week I profiled a story about an entire city being covered in green roofs. The development seems to be more cultural and commercial development outside of Paris, as opposed to an actual "new" city, but here's an artist's rendering of what it may look like:

-In Toronto this week the Evergreen Brickworks, an amazing repurposed environmental center, opens the Post-Oil City, an exhibition, film, and talk concerning shrinking footprints.
Presented will be innovative projects from Africa, America and Asia that address a number of questions, for instance "How will the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy affect the process of urban planning and the city?"

-Simon Fraser University's Burnaby campus will get British Columbia's first modular, community gardening/student education space. Featured are easily removable sheds, rain barrels, composting units and 60 planting beds all atop shipping pallets.

-Interested in more moveable gardens? Check out the Nomad Gardens.

-New York City is accepting new applications for community gardens.

Arbor Day Songs

Arbor Day is upon us again, go out and celebrate your trees. And after you've done that, listen to a few good tunes...

Johann Strauss II - Tales from the Vienna Woods Waltz
Gene McDaniels - Tall Oak Tree
Count Basie - Tree Frog
Joan Baez - The Trees They Do Grow High
Elvis Presley -  Singing Tree

If you'd like more tree themed songs, check out previous years' selection!

Green roof to extend over entire European city

Lots of little stories, that fit neither here nor there. But I can't forget to mention...

-A great aquaponics news item from the last week. I've talked a bit about aquaponics being used in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. More programs are underway, including this one which boasts an aquaponics co-op.

-ICLEI and RUAF have teamed up to improve food and nutrition security of urban populations through training and technical assistance.

-City planners in Sudbury are entertaining the idea of asking residents to grow more of their food, while government officials in the Montreal suburb of Côte-St-Luc are easily the most excited elected officials I have ever seen. Talk about support!

-An entire city is slated to receive green roofs! EuropaCity is an entirely new city to be constructed on 200 acres of land in a suburb of Paris.

-For those outside Chicago who can't see the tranformation of the Plant this article helps keep us up to date.

Horticultural therapy: History, Theory and Applications video

Want to know more about horticultural therapy? Of course you do! So here's a fantastic video from Atlanta area Horticultural Therapist, Kirk W. Hines, which explains its history, theory and applications.

Enjoy!

Urban agriculture + horticultural therapy summer internships

A couple of GILA stories which have fallen through the cracks, but first it's that time of year again. If you're looking for summer work, here are a few of opportunities to whet your appetite:

-The Chicago Botanic Garden has a horticultural therapy internship and in Toronto there are multiple opportunities to work with kids and to garden.

-Switching to peak oil, it looks like Sweden wants to be oil free in 7 years and Europe's biggest living wall now resides in ?

Live Green Awards - vote aquaponics, vote urban agriculture, vote Justin!

It's time for The Live Green Awards again.This year there are some great submissions, but my favorite is the Inventionator's, Justin Nadeau. Check out what he has done and what he is doing. Voting closes this Friday, make your vote count and give him your support!!!

Vertical farming- soon a reality in China and the Netherlands

Vertical farming becomes more and more of a reality each day.

Here are a couple of buildings in the works. The first is under construction in the Netherlands.

The second is a "farmscaper" to be built in China:

















Yes, it's just a concept for now. But if there's one thing I have learned, when the Chinese government sets out to build something...they get it done.

Paolo Soleri + storm water management in LA + Maryland

-Stormwater mangement put LA and Maryland in the news last week. LA has new rules with incentives for cities to spur projects that filter and/or capture rainwater. This makes a LOT of sense, as LA has been starved for water for decades...and their situation is only bound to get worse.How they will pay for this great idea is a whole 'nother question.

Maryland property owners will be getting a stormwater discharge fee, might we see some green roof incentives, like in Minnesota, to green the roofs and alleviate fees?

Lastly, Paolo Soleri died last week. Most known for his Arcosanti project, you could very well call his blend of lean architecture and ecology, which he called "arcology", a close permaculture relative.

GILA word of the week: Food Production Amnesia + Spontaneous green roof in Toronto

Here's a new word to add to your GILA (green infrastructure, living architecture) vocabulary: Food Production Amnesia. Researchers in Sweden have studied ancient Mayan food systems and those of Constantinople as well and conclude there is much to learn about how to grow our food locally.
A study to definitely check out.

While walking around I sometimes stumble on something interesting. Doesn't everyone? Last weekend I spotted this spontaneous green roof. The structure is an old parking attendant shelter. And judging from the amount of moss, the roof hasn't been touched in at least five years. Haven't identified the type of moss yet, but it is thick and will be around for a while!

Book Reviews: Tomorrow's Garden and High Impact, Low Carbon Gardening

Over the last month I have been catching up on my reading. For a while I hadn't touched a book, as whatever I picked up seemed to be recycled material.

With a renewed sense of optimism I was happy to peruse two books high on the "must read" list. Unfortunately they seem to be pretty much carbon copies of each other. Tomorrow's Garden and High Impact, Low Carbon Gardening are both grab bags of everything new and hot in the gardening world. Both have ample anecdotes and profiles of folks involved in sub-cultures of the industry. Both have a bevy of great pictures and serve as introductions to the broader gardening world. Want to know more about edible gardens or using gravel in gardens, these are your "gateway books".
Admittedly High Impact, Low Carbon Gardening delves a bit more into progressive materials (ex. cob) and systems (aquaponics) than Tomorrow's Garden, but not enough content is there to truly distinguish it.

So after those two I was ready for something to really sink my teeth into. Next up was The vegetable gardener's guide to permaculture : creating an edible ecosystem by Christopher Shein & Julie Thompson.

More of the same. Another book which doesn't cover new ground, this one introduces, summarizes, and presents information which can be found in the landmark texts it references (like Edible Forest Garden by Jacke, Permaculture Principles by Holgren, Edible Landscaping by Creasy and several Mollison books).

So there you go, no standouts this time. As for me I will need a break from books for a while!

28 activities and 18 benefits to urban agriculture

Do your friends want to know why they should support urban agriculture? Here's a fantastic metrics framework from the Design Trust for Public Space detailing 18 benefits and 28 activities. 

-Stat of the day: according to one calculation Beijing has 93 million square metres (23,000 acres) of green roof ready rooftops. Particle pollution could be reduced by as much as 880,000 kilograms every year, (equal to removing 730,000 cars from the road) and a reduction of 3.5 million cubic metres of stormwater.

-Back in July I first talked about the Bayview Compass' coverage of Sweet Water Organics, the Milwaukee based aquaponics organization. That article was perhaps the best one of the year, in the living architecture world. This follow-up one is not that bad either, SWO defaulted on a loan which could be renegotiated. For the life of me I don't know why SWO has such a spotlight on them, it seems organizations run into trouble all the time. Perhaps when you garner as much positive attention as they have, when something goes wrong, you get as much negative attention.

-Coming soon to Vancouver, a 1,000 tree urban agriculture orchard.