A verticiel green roof - 4 years later

This is Year #4 blogging about one of our earliest installations. It's a rarity in the green roof world that folks keep track of how things develop over time. As always, the older pictures for those new to the blog:

Upon completion (2009), Day 1!!!

End of year one (2010):

End of year two (2011):

End of year three (2012):

End of year four (2013):

A few notes from this year:

-I would pay a million dollars for an animal that ate only dandelions!

-The seeds on the tips of sedum floriferum kind of hurt! Also, it seems to do well in lots of sun (10+ hours), but does even better in about 6 hours of sun. The plant can also be a bit difficult to control. Some have readily headed into the no growth zone and need to be cut back in the spring and the fall, with special care taken to make sure no pieces land otherwise you have new plants in no time.

-Hairy cap moss grows really well between stones even with intense sunlight.

-There is some data to support that green roofs raise the price of a home, but I would bet green roofs also raise the price of surrounding homes. One afternoon a real estate agent and prospective home buyers gawked for hours, perhaps a neighbor's green roof can increase the price of yours?

-These carex festuca grasses are good, but just seem to look more vibrant at grade.
-A long drought this summer seems to have affected the coloring of the plants, for instance the yellow you see over the last two years (of the sedum angelina) was not evident this year.

-Sedum blue spruce is a plant that needs some shade and seems to be doing quite well in between the towering chives. By itself it suffered and barely held on, but now with the chives spreading it looks like a green roof champ.

Is Boston's urban agriculture movement about to take off...or implode?

A few weeks ago we learned that Boston was changing its zoning guidelines to allow more urban agriculture. And wouldn’t you know it, last week Higher Ground announced their rooftop farm is in the planning stages and there seem to be a bunch of other interested parties (including Lufa Farms who just opened their second farm in Montreal) at the table! In 2013 Boston may have gone from middle of the pack in the rooftop farming world to first place by late 2014.
Or will it be only be highly commercial ventures which survive. A San Franciscan seems to think their struggle to keep community urban agriculture alive will be experienced by Boston.

We did a little world urban agriculture news crawl in the last post, but didn't stopover in Asia. Let's rectify that...

-We'll start in Japan where there's a 9 story high (like Higher Ground’s farm) urban farm which is up and running. Seems they are employing a wide array of technologies inside and outside the building.

-There have been a billion articles about a really eclectic rooftop in China, but no video. Until now, thanks to the Brisbane Times.



-A 350 square meter (3760 square foot) living wall in London has been just as well covered as the amazing roof in China. If you haven’t heard (or read), feast your eyes. Let’s add it to last year’s list!!!

-There are others in the urban agriculture world who are thinking big. One particular fellow wants to build 100 aquaponics farms (2/3 in Charlotte, 1/3 in Haiti) and another just signed on to stake Alberta’s claim in the aquaponics game.
In Fiji the national university and Joe’s Farm (love that name) are pioneering research and development into an aquaponic system and mushrooms production.

Still more from the last couple of weeks! Two studies document urban agriculture in Seoul and Los Angeles.

Phew! That's it for now!

Two urban agriculture firsts for new york city + Urban horticulture around the world

It's been a while since we did a global urban agriculture crawl...First up is Morocco.

Future Megacities - Urban Agriculture in Casablanca, Morocco from crossdocs on Vimeo.


Next is Lima, Peru where city officials are betting on urban agriculture to help stem malnourition and poverty.

Last up is Bangalore, India. This article has two amazing things going for it: It briefly details urban agriculture in Bangalore and introduces us (or at least me) to a much richer way to describe "urban agriculture". I'll have to start using terms like "urban horticulture" and "terrace gardening" more often. Secondly, look at that picture!

-I am always on the look out for the project which can be crowned the biggest, best or first green roof or biggest green wall. The title of first rooftop farm on a housing project goes to New York City.
How about the oldest rooftop farm? For now the title stay in New York City as well!

Permaculture in Afghanistan

In late June I shared some living architecture projects from around the world. For eons I've had this video bookmarked, but have never shared it. Independence day seems to be the perfect day to share.

Could green infrastructure solve problems...and create some too?

Wow, the last couple of weeks has served up some really tasty articles from the GILA world.
A few of the articles are of the “now that you mention it, that makes sense” variety.

A piece from Grist summarizes some interesting research, the bottom line being those who live in poor neighbourhoods are more likely to experience the phenomenon known as “heat islands”.
And because people of colour are disproportionally poor, there is a racial component as well. Green infrastructure/living architecture could help alleviate this, of course, but if municipalities aren’t investing in GILA, it may be up to individuals to lead the charge of cooling their neighbourhoods, one home at a time.

But we shouldn’t just assume having a ton of trees, green roofs or any green infrastructure will fix the problem...they could actually make more! I had no idea how virulent some soil borne fungal diseases can be. This leads me to think soil scientists should be more involved in designing soil mixes for any urban soil installation!

-If you’ve been watching the web, no doubt you have seen that some cities (spearheaded by individual residents and city officials) are moving forward with and strongly supporting urban agriculture. For instance, Indianapolis (yes, Indianapolis) an urban agriculture store opens soon. And Denver has a developer offering urban gardens when you purchase a unit.  Some cities, like LA, seem to be a bit more inconsistent. What is absolutely clear is that even cities, like New York and Vancouver, with progressive urban agriculture agendas passed by city councils, if money and land are the bottom lines, there will be a tug of war. 

-The last story for sharing today features the San Francisco Giants turning some concrete at the ballpark into an organic vegetable garden. One minor quibble. The article calls the project “ambitious”. I don’t have all the figures, but I tend to think if you have a payroll of over $136 million dollars, you have money to burn and it won’t be that hard to get done.

How to run a profitable permaculture business + a tasty future of farming article

Straight talk from someone who has gone from $0 to over $5 million in sales. A rare treat, since professionals tend not to share the secrets which make them a success!

I love when bloggers go link crazy in their posts. Especially to information relevant to the article, not copious irrelevant pop culture references, mind you. So if you're like me...enjoy this!

Book review - Eating the Landscape + Praying mantis on a green roof

There are lots of books which combine personal musings and food. Enrique Salmon's book, Eating the Landscape, is unique in that he's not just some foodie writer, he's an Indigenous ethnobotanist with a gift for storytelling. With warm, colloquial and riveting writing, he manages to combines timeless myths from the southwest US/northern Mexico and more recent personal history to produce an enjoyable book.

And I just had to post this picture. While doing maintenance on a green roof a few days ago I spotted this praying mantis egg sack.

If you've never seen one hatch, check this out!

Featured green roof project - Woodsworth Co-op

This week we'll be installing a green roof on top of Toronto's Woodsworth Coop. The man behind the name led a very interesting life. If you're in the St. Lawrence Market area and have never seen a green roof installation before, come on down and have a look from the park across the street.  
Here's our canvas:

11 ways to a faster, more accurate green roof or green wall quote!

So you've decided to get a green roof or green wall. And you need a quote. Fast, you want this project done in a couple of weeks. Here are the questions that you need to ask yourself. The answers will go a long way towards helping the prospective designer/installer generate an accurate quote. This is even more important if he/she doesn't have time to view the prospective work site, be it rooftop or wall:

1. What kind of green roof or green wall are you interested in? 
2. Why are you interested in that type of green roof or green wall?
3. What is the height of the roof from the ground or how high will the green wall reach?
4. What is the square footage of the surface to be greened?
5. What is the shape of the surface to be greened? Is it just a flat square or rectangle? If it's a roof how many vents, pipes, odd corners will need to be considered?
6. What type of plants might you be interested in?
7. Is the roof or wall easy to get to? Describe the access.
8. The dead load of the roof is...?
9. Is there a place to put materials when the roof (or wall) is being installed?
10. Do you know what type of water proofing membrane is up there already?
11. Is the roof or wall heavily shaded? Very sunny? Very windy?