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!

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.

International Permaculture Convergence - 2015

If you missed out on the opening of the International Permaculture Convergence in London last week, here's a live stream (10 hours) of action!

Horticultural therapy - helping veterans transition back to health and civilian life

Horticultural therapy program and projects have benefited many people and groups over the years. It seems programs focused on veterans are sprouting up everywhere. In the last six months I've seen stories from Chicago, London, Grand Rapids, and Fort Wayne. Heck, three of those are from the last WEEK! There's even a book which came out in the spring and an ongoing study in Virginia.
Let's keep our eyes peeled to see if this is a (mid-western) trend...or phenomenon!

Trend alert? Rooftop vegetable gardens on residential condos

I'll let you be the judge. Two articles in the last month have touted the additions of rooftop gardens, sometimes edible, sometimes not, to pricey developments in Miami, London, Singapore and beyond.

Philly official wants a green roof tax credit

Although the New York City green roof tax abatement deadline for 2014 ,just passed on March 15, beginning July 1, 2014 the per project allotment has doubled from $100,000 to $200,000 and one can receive $5.23 per square foot, up from the already generous $4.50.

-State Rep. Brian Sims, D-Philadelphia introduced several bills designed to stimulate green job growth. Of particular note is his proposed Green Roof Tax Credit, available to all sectors with at least four layers (waterproof membrane, drainage, medium and plants). The tax credit would be up to 25% of total cost incurred. The tax credit will not exceed $10 million per year.

-In Australia horticultural researchers from the University of Melbourne have released a new study in the Journal of Plant and Soil detailing some fantastic native green roof plants. The lead researcher, Dr. Claire Farrell, is a true superstar. You can see some of the other papers she has published over the last couple of years.
Speaking of Melbourne, I forgot to throw up a link to Melbourne and Victoria new green roof, wall and fascades guide released last month.

-I'll wind up with some green (living) wall information. London is hosting a green walls forum in mid-April. Mayor Boris Johnson has a target of 5% coverage (in central London) by 2030 and this conference (one of the first in the world) confirms his support. It seems like a collegial gathering, focused on information sharing the latest academic research, systems and life cycle analysis.

GILA word of the week: Urban Rooftop Vineyard

A new startup in Brooklyn wants to grow hop vines on rooftops for craft beer. Incredible idea but here's the question...what do we call it? Right now articles are calling it a green roof, but whenever vines are involved we usually call it a vineyard, right? I've never heard the term "grape farm" before.
What about calling it a "urban rooftop vineyard"? URV?

-25 hectares of green roofs. Yes, that's right folks. 2.5 million square feet of rooftop greenery slated for a London development! Grand total? 10 years of development at $6.6 billion dollars USD!!!

-Slated to be the biggest in the midwest, a new aquaponics facility hopes to push the industry envelope by raising lobsters in addition to bass, bluegill and tilapia and perch.
I'm amazed on a daily basis how aquaponics is inspiring people around the world to build their own systems. Here's one at a resort (!) in Borneo!

-There are still a few spots left at one of the premier permaculture design courses in the Northeastern USA in Rochester, NY. Classes start March 9.

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!

Urban agriculture + green infrastructure = a new term...Edible Infrastructure!

The urban agriculture movement has taken a strong hold in Hong Kong, so much so we have globe trotting videographers stopping in to check out what's going on.


A Tale of Two Rooftops from The Perennial Plate on Vimeo.


California's first public orchard opened last week in Los Angeles. Fallen Fruit was heavily involved in bringing the project together. The article lists New York, Boston and Madrid as other cities experimenting with edible landscaping. Don't forget Seattle (where they call it a "public food forest"), Toronto and London!!!

Hmm...I think I am ready to coin a new term. How about Edible Infrastructure or Edible Architecture to describe using edible plants specifically to meet all of your green infrastructure needs?

Despite what the creative grant writers of the Los Angeles public orchard say, I am not sure how the orchard is edible art...but it is definitely a place ripe for an ecopsychological experiment. Do public orchards or fruit trees in general make people feel differently about their municipality and life?

Making forgotten land useful

From government officials in London to citizens in Los Angeles there are concerted efforts being made to use every last bit of space for urban gardening. We can even see the push in posh sections of Toronto, biking on a really quiet street last week I spied this corn, higher than an elephants eye.

GILA (green infrastructure, living architecture) word of the week: dry farming

Normally around this time of year things slow down but we’re deep in summer and the news keeps on coming. 

-First the GILA word of the week, thanks to Grist and the unfortunate drought now being experienced across 1/2 of the USA: dry farming.

-Add Matanuska-Susitna to the list of municipalities offering green roof incentives. North of Anchorage, Alaska the Borough of Matanuska-Susitna offers up to $500 reimbursement for the installation of a green roof. Obviously this is helps mitigate the cost when applying a green roof to smaller shelters, like a garage or shed roof. Hopefully this does well and the program expands. 

-I love this idea, what's not to love about an edible garden at every bus stop?!

-And in another first, here’s the first article I can recall referencing permaculture in Pakistan. 

London's green walls

It seems natural to do some more posts related to green infrastructure and the Olympics, after all, it is the Olympics! How about taking a look at some of the green walls in London that you could see if you're there right now. Let's start with the most recent addition:

-The one above can be viewed close to the Eurostar Terminal. The creators of the wall, Biotecture, are one of the go to firms in England.  

-The Athenaeum Hotel's green wall, eight stories tall, is a Patrick Blanc project. There were more dramatic pictures to choose from and you can have a look at the hotel's website, but this one I was drawn to from a technical point of view, as you can see the wall looks somewhat sparse up close. Most green walls have the plants really packed in, there is no "dead space" to play with. But as you can see having plant upon plant is not necessary to create something absolutely beautiful.

-This one is for the people. Near the Westfield Shopping Centre, this 2010 green wall is still going strong. Of note, check out the irrigation requirements. 3 Liters of water per square meter every two days, for comparison the top picture requires about 2 liters per square meter per day. 

-The London Westminster hotel, formerly the Mint Hotel, had their green wall installed in 2011. It's currently the tallest in London, snatching the title from the Athenaeum. And a lot bigger too, more than 10 times the size.

-No list would be complete without London's National Gallery living interpretation of Van Gogh's "A Wheatfield, with Cypresses".

There are plenty more around London, when you're not taking in the Games or sights (if you are there post Games), see how many you can find.