Some Californian cities want to scrap the lawn

National Public Radio says almost half of the country's fruits, vegetables and nuts come from California, a state facing one of its worst droughts in recorded history. Lawns have become luxuries and now incentives and businesses are popping up to do away with them.

Sydney's green infrastructure plan

-Sydney, Australia has been working with some green roof guiding principles and standards for a couple of years. They've released a formalized plan to green new development and private land, streets, add parks and expand their urban forest. Still no rebate or cash incentives, unfortunately.

-A Montreal borough is trying to streamline their evaluation process so that green roofs can go up on buildings in less than 6 months.

-The EPA has given one of its highest honors, the Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Education, to one of the first teachers to incorporate a food producing green roof garden into his curriculum.

- Two years ago came the first warnings about possibly contaminated soil in Boston urban gardens...and perhaps elsewhere. Here's a comprehensive article about the presence and danger of the number one contaminant, lead.

-There's still a lot of research which needs to be done in aquaponics. Hopefully with the explosion in enthusiasts will come some new and cheap ways to solve common problems. Here's an innovative one, use old refrigerators in your outdoor aquaponics system. Speaking of which, did you know the vertical farming industry now has its own trade group?

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.

Book reviews: "The age proof garden" and "1000 designs for the garden"

It's been a while since my last book review. But I have been on a reading kick. More good stuff to share! The first one up is called 1000 designs for the garden. Written by Geraldine and Ian Rudge in 2011, it is a great book for a design professional looking for a specific product for a gardening projects. Or even for a little inspiration. Of course, with products which look this good they must be pricey


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The second book for today is The age-proof garden : 101 practical ideas and projects for stress-free, low-maintenance senior gardening, shown step by step in more than 500 photographs by Patty Cassidy With a title like this I wondered if it would have a horticultural therapy bent. And it does, is a practitioner in the Washington/Oregon areas. This book is for seniors who haven't gardened before. If this description fits you or someone you know, give this book a look. With simple instructions on how to make various gardens (like a lettuce garden) it's a great resource for beginners. The book truly shines with instructions on how to make "gardens that stimulate the sense", in particular a sound garden sounds like a fantastic idea.

Pair the sound garden idea with a product from the 1000 designs book and you've got a garden going on!

Book Reviews: Tomorrow's Garden and High Impact, Low Carbon Gardening

Over the last month I have been catching up on my reading. For a while I hadn't touched a book, as whatever I picked up seemed to be recycled material.

With a renewed sense of optimism I was happy to peruse two books high on the "must read" list. Unfortunately they seem to be pretty much carbon copies of each other. Tomorrow's Garden and High Impact, Low Carbon Gardening are both grab bags of everything new and hot in the gardening world. Both have ample anecdotes and profiles of folks involved in sub-cultures of the industry. Both have a bevy of great pictures and serve as introductions to the broader gardening world. Want to know more about edible gardens or using gravel in gardens, these are your "gateway books".
Admittedly High Impact, Low Carbon Gardening delves a bit more into progressive materials (ex. cob) and systems (aquaponics) than Tomorrow's Garden, but not enough content is there to truly distinguish it.

So after those two I was ready for something to really sink my teeth into. Next up was The vegetable gardener's guide to permaculture : creating an edible ecosystem by Christopher Shein & Julie Thompson.

More of the same. Another book which doesn't cover new ground, this one introduces, summarizes, and presents information which can be found in the landmark texts it references (like Edible Forest Garden by Jacke, Permaculture Principles by Holgren, Edible Landscaping by Creasy and several Mollison books).

So there you go, no standouts this time. As for me I will need a break from books for a while!