Inhabit - A Permaculture Perspective now on youtube

About a year ago this fantastic permaculture primer was released. It got rave reviews...set aside a little time, it's worth it!

Biophilic Design: The Architecture of Life screening in New York, Aug. 4

Take out your calendars, all of those in the New York tri-state area, August 4, Sustainable Long Island is having a film screening of the one hour documentary Biophilic Design: The Architecture of Life. If you're in the area, check it out. Screenings are rare events and it's a fundraiser too!

A rare orchid sprouts on a green roof

The biggest news of the last couple of weeks has to be the ReGen development in Almere, outside Amsterdam. The five pillars of the community are:

+Energy positive homes;
+Door-step high-yield organic food production;
+Mixed renewable energy and storage;
+Water and waste recycling;
+Empowerment of local communities.

Once completed this pilot project will be one of the most resilient and sustainable in the world.

-Here’s an update on Virginia State University’s Urban Agriculture Centre a year after receiving their $1.5 million dollar grant. Food production, both indoors (aquaponic systems) and outdoors (micro farms, orchards and vineyards), is in full swing and the aims to have classes and training for local residents as well.

-A delightful visitor has landed on a green roof in the UK. The very rare orchid, pictured above, is the only one to grow on a green roof.

-Last week Saskatoon (!) became the latest city to offer tax breaks for residents to grow food on vacant lots.

-Pittsburgh is doing something very unique, foodies are turning invasive species, like Japanese knotweed, into beer, paper, kimchi, tinctures, ice pops and honey. They figure with so much out there, why not consume it! Hopefully this becomes a trend worldwide!

-If you needed more reasons to grow your own food, here’s one: people who garden at home, eat more veggies which means they'll be healthier!

Singapore's biophilic design

Looking back through my draft box I re-discovered this fantastic film on the biophilic movement in Singapore.

Update on green roof collapse in Hong Kong

The rooftop collapse, apparently from the application of a green roof which much heavier than the roof could hold, has struck a nerve throughout Hong Kong. Anyone involved with the project, even at arms length, is looking to distance themselves and the government has taken the event very seriously.
The university is removing several other green roofs, built on tin roofs, as a precautionary measures.

America's parks, not sponsored by Starbucks

America's national parks will not be "sponsored by Starbucks", to the fear of many, but they will recognize donors and need to adapt even further due to global warming.


It's refreshing to see articles on outlets like Vox are now expanding the urban farming debate, there's been a shift from the mantra that "urban farming can feed cities" to "urban farming won't solely feed cities, but that doesn't matter".
If you need ways to figure out how to acquire land for your Urban Agriculture program your prayers have been answered.

Here's a little eye candy to wrap up your week, the United Arab Emirates' best green walls. For a review of weekly green infrastructure news from Latin America, head over to NRDC.org.

Next generation green roof systems

In London there are already over 1200 green roof projects (covering more than 500,000 square meters) and the market is exploding. New modular systems, for both green roofs and roofs incorporating green roofs and solar panels, have hit the market. Even speciality butterfly attracting plug and play plant blankets are available! All of this without major government incentives or legislation!
Also profiled in the article are next generation green roof systems, ones designed to hold large quantities of water, intensify the phytoremediation process or utilizing bioresponsive materials.
If you read one piece about green roofs this year, this may be the one.

-Can anyone guess where Canada's largest urban farm is located? If you guessed Calgary, I tip my hat to you!

-Sacramento will host the year two of the Cultivating Change Summit from June 8-11. It's the first summit for LGBTQ+ agriculturalists and allies. Register here!

-Big things are happening in Toronto. An alley behind a public library has been bought and is being converted into a community garden and a vacant plot of land in the east(ish) end will become a temporary home to a 1500 crate mobile urban garden.

Green roof collapse at Hong Kong City University

Luckily only two people were hurt. Preliminary reports indicate the weight of the green roof was 5 times the structural limit!

Build your own Moss Wall

Yes, green walls have hit the big time. Here's an article in Vogue (!) about how to build your own moss wall. 

Guelph and Kansas City get food forests

On Saturday temperatures hovering at freezing couldn't keep people away from the first round of planting for Guelph, Ontario's first food forest. It was cold, but worth it...

  
The concept is sweeping North America and it says a lot when cities with 125,000 residents dedicate 27,000 square feet and join the movement.

Congrats to Kansas City as well, a 10,000 square foot food forest is being planted there, the second in the city. One question for the permaculture enthusiasts out there. Any thoughts for how big a permaculture garden has to be in order to be labelled a food forest? Does it matter? An article from February says there are 50, perhaps 100, food forests in North America. I've only heard of about 25, quick, someone make a list!

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/living/home-garden/article76738647.html#storylink=cpy

May songs

May is here and there are so many great songs celebrating it!



  Lusty Month of May - Julie Andrews

 Autumn to May- Peter, Paul and Mary

First of May - The Bee-Gees

One Morning in May - Charlie Byrd Trio

My Girl - Otis Redding

How good is urban agriculture at slowing climate change?

A great question and this literature review, which includes 274 peer- reviewed and grey literature, has your answer.

There are lots of way to raise money for urban agriculture endeavors in your neighborhood, I like this way more than this.

First international conference on Africa's Great Green Wall

 There are still a few more days left in this week's first Great Green Wall conference. Representatives from 20 countries are meeting. As one official said this conference is about more than just greenery, land degradation, which effects as much as 65% of Africa, leads to other destabilizing forces like "climate change, illegal migration (particularly youth), declining agricultural productivity and insufficient job creation for our rural community."And of course experts speaking to Reuters point out, it leads to extremism as well.

It was hard for me to wrap my head around what's at stake, until I read this quote from the UN: "Some 60 million Africans could be forced to leave their homes within five years as their land turns to desert, while two thirds of the continent’s arable land could be lost by 2025 due to growing desertification".

Singapore's supertrees

Last week Philadelphia's city council introduced resolutions calling for the expansion of urban and vertical farming. What that means is still unclear, does anyone know what happens next in this process?

The grand opening of Europe's largest urban farm, capable of churning out 45 tons of vegetables and 19 tons of fish, May 20. The founding company is expanding to the US, they hope to open 10 sites in the New York Tri-State area. 2016 will be an interesting year rooftop farming!

-The USDA announced a urban agriculture toolkit for aspiring urban farmers. Wow!

-A $6.5 million dollar private-public partnership in New Mexico will create 14 permanent jobs and another 35 construction jobs to build an urban aquaponic system capable of feeding 16,000 people. And the micro-algae which grows as well will be supplied to another company to produce omega-3 nutritional supplements!

-Hamilton, Ontario's first legal marijuana production facility is capable of producing 2,700 kilograms per year.  And because it's marijuana, they have bank level security.

-This is really fantastic. Vacant lots in Germany are being turned into public gardens and I mean truly public. Anyone can, even tourists, can pick a tomato or two.

-Did you know in the UK sustainable drainage systems (like water retention ponds, green roofs, permeable paving) for all new developments is now the rule? Perhaps we should look to places like Singapore for the next wave in water usage. Faced with tremendous constraints, they have innovated unlike any other place. Two desaslination plants produce a quarter of the city's needs. And wastewater is being reused in all sorts of fantastic ways. Check out these super trees:

Permaculture refresher

Spring is upon us in the northern hemisphere, pretty much everywhere now. If you want a permaculture refresher as we head into the next planning season, have a peak at this well done video presentation.

The problem with permaculture

 I've never really seen someone elaborate like this, via a major outlet, about the problems with how permaculture is currently taught. The author has a number of valid points. His major complaints center around money and philosophy:

-Because of the base cost, permaculture design courses are usually out of the question but for a select few.
-Throw in the cost of books and even more people are unable to gain a certificate.
-Some in the industry recommend using expensive equipment and machinery, instead of low cost methods, further driving up the price of a typical project.
-Permaculture teachers view sharing their knowledge as money making tools/income generators, which runs counter to the similar, yet still very much different, agroecology movement. 
-Courses "sometimes seem like a publicity campaign for companies that market organic products". In one particular course he mentioned hundreds of plugs for popular products.

What do you think?

-A billion dollar project in Florida spent over $700,000 moving mature trees to their latest project!

-Will this ambitious wine loving, Brooklyn based duo be able to pull off the world's first rooftop vineyard? It's been a few years in the making and they are now oh so close.

Jackson, Mississippi plants a food forest

The biggest story of the past two weeks details the world's biggest aerogation project to date. When installed in 2017, this 4 square meter living wall system in London will be able to purifying 2 million liters of air every day!

-If you read nothing else, check out this story on CHIRPS (Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation With Station data). By managing food use and distribution better, we could reduce 14% of emission produced by agriculture in 2050. It blends data from weather stations and satellites, from the past three decades, to hopefully give farmers an idea of how the current growing season might look. An early warning system, so to speak.

-Add Jackson, Mississippi to the list of communities with food forests!

-Another fantastic story, this time from Indiana, about how aquaponics is helping employ those with social needs and give back to the community.

-Tucson, Arizona has been named a City of Gastronomy in the Creative Cities Network by UNESCO. It's the first American or Canadian city to get this award and joins a list of 116 cities in 54 countries. Fun fact, Tucson has had urban agriculture, in some form, for over 4,100 years!!!

-Frustrating news for urban agriculturists from Moscow, because the 150 year old Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, will be moved and the 100 hectares of land used constantly for education and experimentation at the agrarian university will now become residential buildings. Some experiments have been ongoing for over a century!

30 Nutritious indigenous crops

Last week Foodtank released what may be one of the best posts of the year so far. It lists 31 different indigenous crops which are fantastic for health and increasing food security. Have a look at the list and see if you can find some of them and incorporate them into your diet...

Africa:

1. Bambara Bean
2. Cowpea
3. Finger Millet
4. Gemsbok Cucumber
5. Lablab
6. Marama
7. Marula
8. Safou

Europe:

9. Ermelo Orange
10. Formby Asparagus
11. Målselvnepe Turnip
12. Perinaldo Artichokes

Asia

13. Bitter Melon
14. Corchorus olitorius
15. Jackfruit
16. Lemongrass
17. Mungbean
18. Pomelo
19. Rambutan
20. Taro

Australia and Oceania

21. Bunya Nut
22. Kumara
23. Lifou Island Taro
24. Lifou Island Yam
25. Perry Pear

Americas

26. Chayote
27. Coconillo
28. Sapote
29. Sweet Corn Root
30. Woodland Sunflower

The world's first vertical community garden

The Ottawa region will have their first urban agriculture summer camp opening in a few months. Run by Enviro Éduc-Action, which is based across the river in Gatineau, teens will learn gardening theory and get their hands dirty over the 15 day camp.

-The Lahore Development Authority is developing several districts near the city. And we are talking about big time development, over 285,000 acres of land.  For our those familiar with the Big Apple, that's an area the nearly the size of New York City. An environmental impact assessment estimates over 55 percent of this land, suitable for agriculture, will be lost thus increasing food insecurity in the region. Privately owned orchards in this zone could be destroyed too, in addition to a plethora of animals and plants. On the plus side, there will be increased economic activity and livelihood opportunities. To mitigate the loss of vegetation the assessment recommends developing green infrastructure along nearby railroads, river banks and roadsides. The architect for the master plan thinks the assessment harbors "serious misconceptions". How do you think the land should be developed?

-A failed living wall in London is set to be repurposed and become the world's first “vertical allotment” (aka community garden). The gardeners will use rock-climbing gear to access the plots high up in the air. A few kilometers away the City will try out one of it's first green wall filtration systems.

Seoul City Hall

If you haven't seen Seoul City Hall, a magnificent building shrouded in verdant green walls, you should...

-An interesting article posits if recent disasters and new trade deals, could be the death knell for farming in Japan. What do you think?

-How do production rates for those shipping container gardens compare to traditional horizontal farms? One company was kind enough to share some data and an interesting discussion opened up in the comment section.