Such is the cry of a Park Slope resident who recently showed a crowd of New Yorkers (including yours truly) how to start a green roof garden. Since starting a roof garden is a bit more complicated than planting on the ground, he took us step by step through the process, including how to set it up, what to grow, and how to maintain it.
A green roof generally means a carpeting of plants on a roof, which improves the energy performance of buildings, and reduces storm water runoff. Though many urban dwellers have flowerpots or container gardens on their roofs, these aren’t providing the energy savings that green roofs do.
So Jeff Hens set out to create a vegetable garden that would provide some of those benefits. While his garden far from carpets his roof, it does sit right against the roof membrane, helping to insulate his house, while providing fresh food for his family…”
“Jonathan Bates is better known for the food forest him and his colleague Eric Toensmeier planted on their 1/10th of an acre urban lot in Holyoke, Massachusetts. When I visited him in February, most of the lot and its 200 plant species were still covered with snow, but Jonathan showed me around their eco-shelter. Thanks to good insulation and thermal mass, the passive greenhouse maintains above freezing temperatures all winter, and allows them to grow food throughout the year.”
Yes folks, Sustainable House Day 2009 is nearly on our – hopefully ecofriendly – doorsteps [*tah-boom-tish!*]. The day where you can meander round your neighbourhood and get all creepily ecologically stalkerish visit those special greener-than-green dwellings is approaching, so make sure to mark it down on your recycled paper calenders:
“Almost 10 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions come from households. But every Australian can make a big difference to the environment and their wallets through simple, cost-effective, everyday actions. Visit an open home on Sustainable House Day…to find out the practical and often easy steps you can take to reduce your impact on the environment as well as your energy and water bills.”
As a rule, the human race aint so spiffy at greening up surfaces of vertical buildings. Green bits + looming walls just don’t seem that ecologically compatible. One green-thumber who is a mind numbing expert at this very “art” is Patrick Blanc, who is:
One lovely example of his handiwork can be found at The Athenaeum in London [see the above link]. More examples can be ferreted out of his Flash site here.
One day in the not too distant future the Eat the Suburbs website will be a community hub for co ordinating the research and ideas for what will become a brilliant Energy Descent Action Plan for certain parts of the Melbourne suburbs. This site also hosts a wiki (under development) – a place where we can structure and develop these ideas, and work towards a coherent plan.
The name Eat The Suburbs was suggested by Asha B – and it captures one of the central themes of dealing with energy descent™: edible landscapes!
Get Involved: you can post comments on the website and have into into how it will develop, get involved in networks active in permaculture activities.
