Australian children's hospital goes green wall crazy + "rain vortex" in Singapore airport

-Lady Cilento Children's Hopsital in South Brisbane, Australia spared no expense in designing and building their bring new children's hospital. Look at these incredible green walls and rooftop gardens!

-Have a gander at this Singapore airport, which is in the works, the picture below shows their 40 m rain vortex in the middle of the building!

-Soil research is helping us learn more about contamination at individual urban gardens and also giving us clues to look for overall. Here's an important take away: "Urban gardeners should consider Kentucky bluegrass the 'canary in the mine shaft' for foods grown in the city, especially near busy roads and transportation corridors."

-Here’s a new app which helps urban farmers know where they can go and what the rules are. Urb.ag, “hones in on the location of where someone might want to start a farm and then applies the exact codes and what is required of the new law.” This app could save a potential farmer a lot of time and hassle.

-Could San Francisco's New Bay Bridge turn into the next iconic green infrastructure project. Dare I say it...highlinesque?

-Montreal, in two years time will have something iconic of its own down at the Old Port.

-For you green roof geeks, here's an interesting study about the carbon sequesteration potential of using sewage sludge in green roofs in China.

-Most people remark how cities are becoming less and less green, some parts of New York City have become more green over the years and that’s even before their Million Trees NYC campaign. Here are the photographs to prove it.

-Among everyone's favorites, like sweet corn, potatoes and tomatoes and lesser known treats (crambe...cuphea...luffa gourds?), the USDA has now recommended aquaponics as a viable crop for diversification.

You've heard of the Bitcoin, now meet the Beetcoin

A new way to invest in local agriculture!

-San Francisco legislator, David Chiu, is proposing a green roof bylaw for all-new buildings in San Francisco.

-Every once in a while the Ecologist puts together one nice long blog with all sorts of interesting links. Here's one which has a ton of great articles about vertical farming, including a couple of ventures in Japan.

Turn Candlestick Park into a giant aquaponics farm

I know, I know that I made a pledge not to talk about wild renderings. But I couldn't help it this time.
This one is wild, but with a little tweaking perhaps doable?

A couple of weeks ago I saw this urban farming design to retrofit Candlestick Park. (Paul McCartney's concert in mid-August was the last scheduled event.) What will happen with it now?

Who knows what the price tag would be for something like this. Astronomical, I am sure. But something should be done with it soon, did you see how the Silverdome looks after 10 years of disuse?

 

In 1975 the Silverdome cost $55.7 million to build, which is roughly $245 million in today's dollars, according to Deadspin. In 2009, it was purchased at an auction for $583,000.
Such a shame.

Something should be done, and fast. I think the second picture is key. It's going to be expensive to retrofit and the urban farming is a great idea, but what about if we could make it half as expensive? By that, I mean make the stadium a huge aquaponics operation. The floor is a fish farm and then the water can be pumped up into the stands (where the plants grow) and trickle its way back down.

Sound crazy? Not when you consider shopping malls have spontaneously become fish ponds already! Here's one in Thailand where someone introduced a small population of Koi and Catfish.

What do you think?

Urban farming under gun fire

Urban farming for refugees in Syria is a risky, but necessary part of daily life. Two facts from the article really stand out to me, first that farming on rooftops is often done under the threat of snipers (!) and secondly that some refugees picked up farming techniques from youtube.

-Washington State is making people who want to keep small livestock take a certification class, I think they're the first state to do this. Smart. Urban agriculture is likely to cost the city extra money for animal control services (rounding up loose or abandoned animals), so this makes a lot of sense. 

-On the east coast a $1.5 million dollar federal grant awarded to Virginia State University will go to refurbish an old building and turn it into an urban agriculture hub featuring both aquaponic and hydroponic systems. 

-Here's a school aquaponics facility which hopes to add snails to its offerings.

-When Land8 talks about urban agriculture it seems to happen in spurts. Two weeks ago they published a helpful 10 principle article for creating food-producing landscapes and then a follow up article which delves into the challenges of urban agriculture.

-As practitioners know permaculture can mean many things. Here's how one group makes it synonymous with activism.

-A rise in community activism and pressure on governments to scale back and save money in the face of declining revenues has led to more do-it-yourself groups. The trend is taking off in San Francisco and Vancouver as residents help build mini-public parks using their own tools and ultimately time and money.

Sturgeon in aquaponics + horticultural therapy in South Korea

The aquaponics industry is still relatively new, we don't know which plants and animals will prosper. That's why it's encouraging to see new experimentation with new flora and fauna. Last week
Vancouver Island University's Nanaimo campus unveiled a demonstration aquaponics system featuring sturgeon. Will using a cold water fish help drives prices down, as it would take less energy to heat the tanks? Stay tuned.

-If you'll allow me to take a quick detour from the regular proceedings, I just have to highlight Vox's amazing "40 maps which explain America and its relationship to food".

-Last week gave me another first. It's the first time I've seen horticultural therapy mentioned in southeast Asia. I figured that there were programs there, but often trends in North America are given different names and no one knows what's going on until the dots are connected. In Seoul it appears horticultural therapy is called "professional garden therapy".
By the way, the new American horticultural therapy journal is now in print.

-The folks at Falling Fruit are chugging along with their tremendously useful worldwide foraging guide...the database has grown a lot since we last checked in. There are now over 500,000 sites listed!
Milwaukee can add a few trees to the website as Growing Power got a 4,000 fruit tree donation to spread among vacant city lots.

-Santa Fe Community College has become the first institution to offer an accredited rainwater harvesting course.

-San Francisco has a new Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone Ordinance that will allow land owners to take advantage of a property tax break when they allow a parcel of land to be used for agriculture and educational purposes. Wow! This could go a long way to literally changing San Francisco's landscape as program participants must "guarantee the land will stay in agricultural use only (it can’t be on land with a house for example) for at least 10 years".

-This is turning into an epic post! How about a little permaculture news? One of the first Greek permaculture design course is taking place right now. And if you would like to live the permaculture experience a 100 acres Chinese permaculture community is looking for practitioners and community members.

-Last but not least is exciting news that two Johannesburg academics have started a multi-stakeholder engagement project that hopes to create opportunities for urban agriculture. The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Deputy Minister recently said the sector could create 1 million jobs over the next 16 years, perhaps this will be the model for future urban agriculture projects.

HTA members will continue to receive digital versions of the Journal of Therapeutic Horticulture at no cost as a member benefit; however, those who prefer to read JTH as a printed document now have the ability to purchase a print version of the publication. The current edition is already available. This change in publishing policy is the direct result of feedback received during 2013's Membership Satisfaction survey.
AHTA members, as well as non-members, may now purchase a printed version of JTH through Amazon or Createspace, which is a publishing arm of Amazon. AHTA members may order the printed Journal at a significant discount (up to 90%) when they use Createspace.com through use of a promotional code. The promotional code can be found on the AHTA Members' Welcome page.
At present, AHTA is only able to offer the latest edition of the Journal through Createspace; however print editions of JTH are still available through AHTA for most years between 1996 and 2010. These Journals are also still available via the online ordering system found on the Publications page on the AHTA website.
The cost for purchasing a print edition of  JTH is $25.00 per issue for non-members. Members are able to purchase printed editions at cost, which will fluctuate based on the number of pages per issue but is expected to be approximately $5.00 (plus shipping) per edition.
To order a printed copy of the current issue of the Journal of Therapeutic Horticulture, visit the AHTA Members' Welcome page to access the Member Discount Code. Log on to www.createspace.com; click the Site dropdown and select Store. Enter 'AHTA' in the Search field and the current issue will be available. The AHTA discounted price will not appear until you checkout using the Members Only code. Once the purchase is completed, the issue will be mailed to you within 8-10 days. While the Journal is also available on Amazon.com, the “Members Only” discount cannot be used on that site. The discount is only available on the CreateSpace.com site.
For more inform
- See more at: http://ahta.org/news/journal-therapeutic-horticulture-now-available-print#sthash.Izaf0Xlc.dpuf

t is among the oldest living species on the planet, but researchers say sturgeon may be a key to future food security.
International Centre for Sturgeon Studies staff members unveiled a demonstration aquaponics system at Vancouver Island University's Nanaimo campus Friday.
It's a variation of hydroponic, or water-borne, growing that replaces chemical fertilizers with fish waste to nourish plants.
At VIU healthy chives, Swiss chard, lettuce, basil, cress and even quinoa grow on waste water from tanks containing the 250-million-year-old, living dinosaurs.
Visitors dined on a lunch of salads from the vegetables, served alongside grilled sturgeon steaks - all grown from the same system.
"This is the first time anybody has combined sturgeon, a coolwater fish, with aquaponics on this scale," said Don Tillapaugh, centre director.
The system provides a more immediate return on investment after someone pours money into a commercial fish farming (aquaculture) operation, boosting an investor's cash flow.
Tiny microbes release nutrients for plants to easily absorb.
"Studies have shown plants can grow up to 30 per cent faster, as compared to hydroponics."
"In aquaculture, it takes two to three years. .. where you don't have any cash flow. With aquaponics, you can get a head of lettuce in three weeks."
The goal now is to move toward commercial food production.
The VIU program, in existence since 1979, is reaching out to its extensive network of industry contacts.
"The project is to develop scientific information to allow entrepreneurs to decide whether sturgeon farming or aquaponics is a business for them," Tillapaugh said. "It's about food production, not fish production."
DBellaart@nanaimodailyn
- See more at: http://www.nanaimodailynews.com/news/viu-researchers-say-sturgeon-could-hold-the-key-to-future-food-security-in-the-world-1.1129681#sthash.t9PIxH3V.dpuf

t is among the oldest living species on the planet, but researchers say sturgeon may be a key to future food security.
International Centre for Sturgeon Studies staff members unveiled a demonstration aquaponics system at Vancouver Island University's Nanaimo campus Friday.
It's a variation of hydroponic, or water-borne, growing that replaces chemical fertilizers with fish waste to nourish plants.
At VIU healthy chives, Swiss chard, lettuce, basil, cress and even quinoa grow on waste water from tanks containing the 250-million-year-old, living dinosaurs.
Visitors dined on a lunch of salads from the vegetables, served alongside grilled sturgeon steaks - all grown from the same system.
"This is the first time anybody has combined sturgeon, a coolwater fish, with aquaponics on this scale," said Don Tillapaugh, centre director.
The system provides a more immediate return on investment after someone pours money into a commercial fish farming (aquaculture) operation, boosting an investor's cash flow.
Tiny microbes release nutrients for plants to easily absorb.
"Studies have shown plants can grow up to 30 per cent faster, as compared to hydroponics."
"In aquaculture, it takes two to three years. .. where you don't have any cash flow. With aquaponics, you can get a head of lettuce in three weeks."
The goal now is to move toward commercial food production.
The VIU program, in existence since 1979, is reaching out to its extensive network of industry contacts.
"The project is to develop scientific information to allow entrepreneurs to decide whether sturgeon farming or aquaponics is a business for them," Tillapaugh said. "It's about food production, not fish production."
DBellaart@nanaimodailyn
- See more at: http://www.nanaimodailynews.com/news/viu-researchers-say-sturgeon-could-hold-the-key-to-future-food-security-in-the-world-1.1129681#sthash.t9PIxH3V.dpuf

t is among the oldest living species on the planet, but researchers say sturgeon may be a key to future food security.
International Centre for Sturgeon Studies staff members unveiled a demonstration aquaponics system at Vancouver Island University's Nanaimo campus Friday.
It's a variation of hydroponic, or water-borne, growing that replaces chemical fertilizers with fish waste to nourish plants.
At VIU healthy chives, Swiss chard, lettuce, basil, cress and even quinoa grow on waste water from tanks containing the 250-million-year-old, living dinosaurs.
Visitors dined on a lunch of salads from the vegetables, served alongside grilled sturgeon steaks - all grown from the same system.
"This is the first time anybody has combined sturgeon, a coolwater fish, with aquaponics on this scale," said Don Tillapaugh, centre director.
The system provides a more immediate return on investment after someone pours money into a commercial fish farming (aquaculture) operation, boosting an investor's cash flow.
Tiny microbes release nutrients for plants to easily absorb.
"Studies have shown plants can grow up to 30 per cent faster, as compared to hydroponics."
"In aquaculture, it takes two to three years. .. where you don't have any cash flow. With aquaponics, you can get a head of lettuce in three weeks."
The goal now is to move toward commercial food production.
The VIU program, in existence since 1979, is reaching out to its extensive network of industry contacts.
"The project is to develop scientific information to allow entrepreneurs to decide whether sturgeon farming or aquaponics is a business for them," Tillapaugh said. "It's about food production, not fish production."
DBellaart@nanaimodailyn
- See more at: http://www.nanaimodailynews.com/news/viu-researchers-say-sturgeon-could-hold-the-key-to-future-food-security-in-the-world-1.1129681#sthash.t9PIxH3V.dpuf

An Indianapolis hospital gets a rooftop farm

Hmm..it seems like just yesterday we were talking about how hard it is to find long term employment in the urban agriculture field. Actually, it was two days ago.  The International Labour Office of the United Nations has a handy guide for getting and keeping a job in the urban agriculture field, globally, and the Resource Centre of Urban Agriculture and Food (RUAF) provides further advice.

-An MIT researcher has his second installment in the exploration of how different kinds of urban agriculture can affect communities. Here's the first, if you want to start from the beginning.

-And the big news of the week is the new (almost $800 million dollars new!) Indianapolis hospital releasing details of its full scale rooftop farm which will provide its cafeteria and occupants with plenty to eat.

-Almost nearly as exciting is the Biophilic Cities project launch. Devoted to "understanding how cities can become more biophilic", the efforts of 13 cities is currently profiled.

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.

More green infrastructure legislation in San Fran and Milwaukee

Fantastic news from San Francisco with new urban farming legislation in the works. A community gardening czar will be hired to, among other things, develop incentives for backyard or spin farming, help start up two new urban farms and audit city owned property (on the ground and rooftop) to figure out where more gardens can go.

-Milwaukee is switching from encouraging green incentives for stormwater management to requiring them. The city will work with everyone to add 1 million gallons of storage capacity each year via swales, porous pavement and of course, green roofs. 

-Back in April I talked about the rise in municipalities thwarting the attempts of home owners to turn their lawns to food producing gardens. Grist picks up the baton and profiles a few more recent front lawn battles. The article is a little doom and gloom, I left a comment to let others know about bright spots, like Somerville, Massachusetts as we talked about two weeks ago. 

The Green Roof news just keeps coming

Who knew I would have to update Wednesday’s post this quickly?

I was made aware that last week Mayor Vincent C. Gray, of Washington DC announced Sustainable DC.

The Mayor wants DC to be the  “healthiest, greenest, and most livable city in the United States”, which would include installing over 1.5 million square feet of green roofs on buildings in the city within a few years. He's psyched about urban farms too. Is it too late to give them another star?

According to Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, DC is 2011’s green roofing champ. Overall GRHC reports a 115% leap in green roof installations. Wow!

-You have my summary on Toronto’s recent green roof battle, if you want another perspective check out NOW Magazine.  

And lastly is an interesting report on San Francisco’s urban agriculture movement. In my view the most interesting tidbit is that Seattle spends almost twice as much per plot!

Urban agriculture bonanza

Urban agriculture is many things to many people. Frequently food is about social justice. From NY to San Francisco to Washington DC we have examples all within the last week, big and small, up high and low, demonstrating how food implores urbanites to act. 

More news:

-The City of Vancouver has joined a chorus of other cities changing their bylaws to allow more urban agriculture. Question to anyone out there, is it common for municipalities to have legislation caused by one plant (marijuana) prohibiting the sale of others (everything else)?

-Colorado has it’s first urban agriculture extension agent. Looks like he is the only urban agriculture extension agent  in North America so far!

-Remember this title: The State Of Urban Farming In The United States: Enhancing The Viability Of Small And Medium-Sized Commercial Urban Farms. A recently awarded $453,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture will allow researchers at Penn State to study urban agriculture in fifteen cities. Can’t wait for the  findings. 

-Lastly, Rick Foster and Michigan State University are totally with me. I love this quote “Detroit ‘could be the research and innovation engine’ for urban agriculture around the world”. They are certainly dreaming big.

Atlanta's low flying giant urban agriculture farm

-In the last two months I would say “the most ignored urban ag project” goes to an urban agriculture farm in southwest Atlanta. Why? Maybe because it has over 10 corporate and civic partners, so it's not a David vs Goliath story? But I think this Atlanta BeltLine Farm project is one to watch. You be the judge.

-Nearly 30% of the land within the Detroit city limits is vacant. Gardens are popping up and people are doing all sorts of creative things with the land without the city’s permission. With so many things in Detroit happening all at once, I think managing urban agriculture is low on their list of concerns. But I truly hope everyone in Detroit embraces this unfortunate opportunity, urban agriculture could lead to Detroit’s resurgence, be a massive source of pride and become what it is known for around the world.

-In San Francisco one particular group is involved in urban agriculture without city permission. NPR did a short story last week on the Guerilla grafters; I wrote about them earlier in the year. At the time I thought they were assertive, perhaps a little sneaky by grafting onto city trees. It looks like it’s actually a form of city disobedience and could be an offense worthy of a fine.

-Speaking of last week, as you know I was totally bummed to read some of the climate change news. Mother Jones heard my call for solutions to the despair. Of note, a scientist claims the sacrifice to establish a true cap and trade system, as one possible part of the solution, could be minimal, only the cost of a stamp for each family per day.

-The pretty much inaccessible green roof at Cincinnati City Hall is in need of someone to provide maintenance...for free. Any green roofers in Cincinnati looking to perform some valuable community service while getting valuable experience call City Hall!

-Lastly Edmonton’s first food and agriculture conference is scheduled to take place May 25 and 26, 2012. According to a local city councillor it’s “an opportunity for Edmontonians to participate in the conversation, so that we can capture and integrate diverse ideas into a consensus around a new strategy.” You’ve got lots to choose from, including focus groups, citizen panels and online questionnaires. Might "the Big E" be in line for a food policy council as well? We’ll see.

Year 2 of Austin's green roof implementation plan wraps up

-Foodshed planning in California is being taken to a whole new level. San Diego is the latest to give it a go, but San Francisco and Los Angeles were the pioneers.

-It's February and the fiscal year will wrap up in a few short weeks. Austin, Texas is finishing up year 2 of it's 5 year implementation plan. With 26 green roofs documented in the city so far, it looks like they are doing pretty well.

I'm working on a big post for later in the week, so that's it for now!

Mushrooms galore!

Since the last post spring has sprung and things are getting busy. Looking back at the blog last year, this is around the time when the blog production started to decrease. Hopefully not this year. It's weird how the news cycle goes, I don't know if you can even call it a cycle. 10 days ago, there wasn't that much (seemingly) happening in the living architecture world and then an explosion of activity.

-We'll start off with some news from Africa,first in Ghana Greg Knibbs from Australia drops in to run the first Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course in the country. Great article. Then a little bit from Tanzania and some great permaculture ideas for the urban environment.



-Speaking of mushrooms, there's a weekend mushroom workshop in late May at the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute. The 5th annual!!!

-Here's a novel idea in LA. How about instead of just serving customers, have restaurant goers become part of the process?
Why not have them source ingredients? Which is what happens at Forage.
If the restaurant wants something specific they turn to urban foragers, not distributors, to get what they want. Communal, local, provocative...and radical.
Oh and there's only one month left in San Francisco to see an exhibit by Exit Art called "Vertical Gardens". I think some Patrick Blanc work should be profiled as well.

Looks like Austin, Texas is trying to make some headway with a green roof advisory panel, hoping, by August 2010, to recommend policies and priorities about where green roofs will make the most impact, what kind of incentive programs to implement, and how city codes should encourage practices consistent with the goals of conservation, and discourage those that are not. And a lot more.

The latest on legislation+ more

-Pittsburgh is looking to adpot legislation that would define a green roof and establish zoning height, meanwhile Detroit which is in every third urban agriculture article you read these days because of the "right sizing" looks to create a zoning code for urban farming. Hmm..after hearing Richard Heinberg talk on Monday, I think Detroit's fate, which was a source of embarrassment to many, I think, may be a true blessing in disguise.
Speaking of which, if you're in Philadelphia and you want to start farming there, an RFP just hit the interwebs.
Meanwhile San Francisco is full-steam ahead with their urban food gardens on and around public facilities. Even more inspiring is San Fran's highway turned garden.



-In honor of World Water Week, here's a great new invention
that offers a basic sanitation service, thereby protecting drinking water and providing fertilizer in nutrient-poor soil. It's called the Peepoo. Better than the name is the cost, 2-3 cents per bag! More info about composting toilets can be found further down the page.

-A roundup of the latest New York City rooftop farms, present and future. I'd like to know more about the large commercial farm that successfully raised and sold vegetables on a Bronx rooftop in the 1980s referenced in the article.

verticiel on the air + west coast living architecture crawl

I should probably have a weekly post featuring all the cool things cities have planned. But first tune in to the Green Majority radio show (CIUT 89.5 FM) Friday, February 12 at 10:30 am as verticiel Inc. drops by to talk about green roofs and Toronto's new Green Roof Bylaw.

On to the west coast, last week the City of Seattle proclaimed 2010 "Year of Urban Agriculture". Looks like they have a slew of activities planned so far.

On to Portland, where we get a primer on where to get urban agriculture and permaculture supplies.

Further south in San Fran, in two weeks the American Institute of Architects, San Francisco chapter (AIA San Francisco) will present an exhibition highlighting vertical gardens in all their splendor.

There's a call for papersfrom the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development (JAFSCD) focusing on best practices in urban and peri-urban agriculture. Up to 2,500 words so don't get verbose!

And last but not least, we'll head to the mountains to spotlight Green Roofs Utah. I'll have to introduce myself, like a good neighbor should!