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. 

A quick aquaponics round up

With the amount of aquaponics information coming out these days, I could probably have a blog just devoted to aquaponics.

-For those looking to start their own large scale aquaponics system, a Cape Cod operation has some tips. Much I have read about aquaponics stresses starting small and scaling up, these owners have different advice.
-A 2 hour drive north a Lynn (Greater Boston) elementary school is getting their own system. I think this may be the first school system in Massachusetts, need to double check that.
-From Minnesota we learn of two new aquaponics ventures, the 55,000 square foot one featured and another 38,000 square foot, a few years old.

If plants can talk, what does that mean for green roofs and the Colbert Report?

Last week I saw the Colbert Report reference the summary of a research study which begins with the headline “Plants can talk”. Naturally, I had to find out more. If true, what would this mean for anyone working in the horticulture field (like me)? Or anyone or anything that eats vegetables for that matter!

The first line of the article proclaims “plants feel pain”, but as you see, the rest of the summary doesn't exactly say that. Time to head to the source. According to Colbert that's the journal “Trends in Plant Science”. Didn’t find anything there, so I cruised around the net. It took a while but I found more information about this researcher and his work. It seems this particular “study” pops up every few years as new news. Weird!

Finally I hit the jackpot, it looks like the contents of this research study can be found under the title “A Breath test for plants: Photoacoustic trace gas detection and its application in plant biology.” It was presented at the International Conference Breath Gas Analysis for Medical Diagnostics in Dornbirn, Austria on September 2004. That is if this website is to be believed. 

Haven’t put my hands on the article yet and I can’t wait to get to the bottom of this research; if plants respond to stimuli with higher pitched noises, what does that really mean? Can you really equate that with pain or talking?

And wait till I tell Stephen Colbert that he’s been duped by this “new” study!

The great bee caper

-What do you get when bee hives worth about $100,000 are stolen? Tons of bad bee puns. I wonder if the hives were collectively owned if the crime would be viewed in a different light?

-On a few sites I have seen this Oregon man receiving a jail sentence framed as a permaculture issue, personally it seems a clear cut water-rights issue. When you are constructing dams 10 feet high on your property, your municipality will probably step in. 

-Forgot to mention that the European Permaculture Convergence is now underway. If you are in Germany you still have two days to attend the biggest permaculture conference in Europe. Hopefully there are some urban farming go getters there ready to collaborate, Germany has been waaaaay ahead of the green roof curve, but is definitely behind the urban agriculture one.

-Lastly, a US based researcher pursuing a Ph.D. in permaculture wants to compile a list of all the permaculture inspired farming operations in the continental US.  Add yours to the list!

Summer songs

At the beginning of the month I would usually do a list of songs for that month and hopefully about plants as well. But, I have never done a list of songs just about the seasons. Let's break that streak today.

Summer Nights - Marianna Faithfull 

That Sunday, That Summer - Nat King Cole  

Summertime Rolls - Jane’s Addiction

Summer's Cauldron/Grass - XTC

Summertime - Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong