Community gardens raise property values

Wisconsin has been at the leading edge of the aquaponics movement for quite some time and their state's resume keeps getting more accomplished. The Aquaponics Innovation Center, is not even a year old, but they've received almost 3/4 of a million dollars to study aquaponic systems. 

-Ohio doesn't have the resume, Canton is hoping to change that. They have a $150 million dollar agri-business energy project design to bring 1,300, some of those in the aquaponics field.

-Over 1 million trees have been planted in New York City, more than any other city in the world. Here's how they did it.

-I haven't seen many articles of this type, but this landscape architect is wondering whether we need to start favoring xeriscapes and the "beauty of drought", or at least less water dependent creations, if landscape architecture is going to reflect the realities of a future, thirsty world.

-A fully automated growing system has just hit the market, on the low end the farm cube takes only 6 weeks to grow 200 pieces of your favorite vegetable.

-The UK has a brand new pop-up cafe, called Stroud Food Surplus Cafe, which sells "surplus food", food from restaurants that's perfectly fine, just past the expiration date.

-Two important studies came out last one. One quantifies how much land would be needed to feed Seattle, a city of about 650,000 people, 58 kilometers. Urban food crops, at the maximum, could fill 4% of the city's food needs.If you've been following the blog you know feelings towards community gardens have been changing, positively, over the last few years. Some towns/cities are still a bit reluctant. That should change with the first report indicating neighboring property values rise by as much as 9.4% points within five years of a garden's opening and the gardens can lead to increases in tax revenues of about half a million dollars per garden over 20 years.

Water Saving Tropical Permaculture Garden Tour

With climate change comes new challenges, particularly drought. Here are some tips for saving water in tropical regions...

A closer look at vertical and rooftop farming leaders

Even if you're new to the vertical and rooftop farming industry you know the major players spend their time heads-down trying to produce food, not on the radio, TV or in the papers touting what they do. That's why it's nice to see, over the last 6 weeks or so, some longer articles and audio on some of the pioneers, Lufa Farms, Alterrus and FarmedHere.

-In general I believe the more green the better. But when it comes to a place like Abu Dhabi, I would love to see this proposed lush 19,000 square foot green roof become something more climate relevant, like a xerogarden. With deck chairs and umbrellas too, perhaps?

-In Uganda one enthusiast is trying the simplest materials possible to make an aquaponics system, included in his list of components are an old fridge, water and perfume bottles.

-Another innovator in Canada, this one 16 years old, has invented his own green wall system and turned it into a educational opportunity for children.

-Kwantlen Polytechnic University has been involved in some inspiring projects over the years, recently they've been involved in developing a curriculum to accompany the farm based at a suburban Vancouver school.

GILA word of the week: Xeriscaping

The two day - 18th Annual Water Conservation Conference kicks off tomorrow, March 28 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Attendance (or following the proceedings online) is a must for those readers from dry regions of the world. In honor of the conference, Xeriscaping is the GILA word of the day!

A few things...

P.S. 41 in Greenwich Village will be getting it's very own Greenroof Environmental Literacy Laboratory. Looks like they got their fair share of bigwigs to chip in, still, donations are welcome.

A couple in California drop their water usage from 299,221 gallons in 2007 to 58,348 gallons in 2009 and get sued by the city for not having enough plants on their lawn. Hmm...

As we mentioned a few months ago, in May the Expo Theme Pavilion in Shanghai will be hosting the 2010 World Green Roof Infrastructure conference. They will also debut the world's largest green wall, 5000 square meters. It's growing slowly, but surely.



If you ever need some info on trees or a handy pocket guide for edibles , you know where to go.