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!

Singapore's biophilic design

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

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".

Urban agriculture at airports - part 1

It seems airports are beginning to utilize their space more and more to promote healthy eating and (urban) agriculture. Later in the week I'll preview some other ventures, today is a profile of a collaboration at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport where blue potatoes will be grown to eventually be made into chips for your snacking delight on board JetBlue airplanes.

GILA word of the week: Rooftop Terraculture

Last year I wrote a bit about Terraculture and Terraponics. Here's the next level, I'll call it Rooftop Terraculture.

Native sedums for green roofs - Sedum ternatum

For years I've heard about Sedum ternatum; one of the few native (to North America) sedum species plants which seems to do well with little sun (or even shade) and moisture. In a green roof we completed last June we put some (and a few sedum pachyclados) underneath a couple of river birch. In the height of the summer the plants get perhaps 3 hours of full-sun. I wasn't sure if they would flourish, in the medium after four months in place they had barely grown, but they have really taken off this spring!

Sedum ternatum is the lighter colored one, the darker one is the sedum pachyclados.

Cities Alive - green roofs/green walls conference starts next week

I hope everyone in the USA had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
For those of us who've celebrated an American Thanksgiving, we know indulgence is par for the course, as is leftovers which may or may not be eaten quickly. America's first package free/zero waste grocery store, has a few good tips for what to do with the leftovers so everything goes fast!

-Next week, the big event for the living architecture community is the Cities Alive conference in Philadelphia. It's the 9th annual conference, this year focusing on restoring urban waters.
And more municipalities are waking up to the importance of living infrastructure. For instance, Durban, South Africa has launched a green roof pilot project.

-We're all aware of New York City's work in this area, last week Mark Bittman welcomed guest bloggers to talk more about initiatives in the City.

-Last up for today, those who live in Toronto and part of the food security scene know Anan Lololi and the Afri-Can FoodBasket program. Now, thanks to Canadian Geographic we all are.