I met with my intro to Greenroofs and Living Walls class last Sunday morning (May 20, 2012) at Queens Plaza North's new Dutch Kills Green.
Check out the google map aerial, it used to be a parking lot! With that in mind here is some music to listen to as background for the rest of this post.
Dutch Kills Green is not a green roof but it was a good place to meet up and an awesome new green space that opened less than a month ago that is a wonderful example of the urban ecology concept I repeatedly talked about throughout the lecture portion of this class at CUNY City Tech.
From there we walked toPackard Square North where I had helped Future Green Studio construct an extensive green roof in the fall of 2011. This is a well polished, high design, professionally installed 3,000 square foot greenroof atop a LEED certified private apartment building that is not accessible to the general public.
Our next stop was a private residence located at near the East River on 30th Drive in Astoria. Rob McGrath, a colleague of mine, is creating an urban oasis and communal living experiment on his property which currently includes a greenroof, veggy garden, sub-irrigated DIY planters (which my spring 2011 greenroof class helped make last year), a bee hive and compost bins among other features. Rob was a very gracious host and showed us the interior of his home where the beams and joists are visible under his DIY greenroof. His property is a very valuable case study and inspirational for any aspiring greenroof DIYer.
We had a brief glimpse of the newly installed Farmacy: Edible Urban Farms at the Socrates Sculpture Park on the way to our final stop at The Noguchi Museum (located at 9-01 33rd Road in Astoria) where a community day was in full swing which highlighted The Ivy Project. The class got there in time for CUP's "Sewer in a Suitcase" presentation, then City Growers presentation on rooftop farming and vermiculture and Lynne Serpe's presentation on gardening in public spaces (including libraries!), unfortunately I had to miss Erik Baard's heritage apple presentation so I could get to work. We did get some English ivy cuttings before we left though.
Last month author Richard Louv spoke at Columbia about "Nature Deficit Disorder, a term he coined in his book Last Child in the Woods. The term has stuck a chord because, without any real explanation, people inherently understand what the issue is, and it is personal.
Richard gave a rare talk about the environment, one that is both forward looking and inspirational. I am glad he feels that the Columbia University Landscape Design Graduate Program is an appropriate audience for this topic and proud of my profession. But there is much that needs to be done in order to realize the optimism he lays out in his presentation.
I was low on battery so didn't get the entire talk but the bulk is here. I'm starting with the summary at the end in which he was challenged to encapsulate how he could possibly see a positive future with all the negativity and fear-mongering that neo-environmentalists so many times resort to in order to persuade people to go along with their movement. While this tact may work for the middle and older age sets who could feel a twinge of guilt and spring into action it instills a sense of foreboding and unsurpassable obstacles in the youth. Let's stop there and take a listen...
...amazing!
and now the rest of the presentation starting with the intro from NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe.
The BioCities panel last Wednesday evening was well worth the effort. I am really glad I made time in my schedule to attend but really wish I could have attended the entire days proceedings. The reception between day and evening was superb and I got to chat with several friends and colleagues. I did a little live Tweeting during the planel discussion as did a few others so here are the high points (plus a lil' event hype). Be sure to catch the links to the videos I uploaded after the jump...
Today I set out with several of my Intro to Greenroofs and Living Walls student to explore some non-traditional green spaces here in NYC. The tour brought us together at the NYC Dept. of Parks & Rec. 5 Boro Administration building on Randalls Island. I brought may class here last year and it was very interesting to see what had changed, what was new and what had pretty much stayed the same.
(Check out last years first and second site visits.)
The oldest demo greenroofs built in 2008 looked very much the same to me, as did the relatively new XeriFlor.
One o the biggest changes was the tour guide. Artie couldn't make it to he sent the very competent Rick Gordon, Resident Urban Rooftop Farmer, to lead us on a tour of the amazing learning environment. Other changes included substantial growth on some bermed up mounds in an area that was newly installed during our visit last year. A troubling change was the green wall (more like the brown wall now-a-days). It is not doing well at all as you can see below. As I understand it though a meeting with Atlantic Irrigation is scheduled for next week to try and address these issues.
The new things where plentiful and interesting indeed. Last year there where pedestals for a hydroponic towers, this year they where there, not growing yet but there all the same. Apparently they had performed well after they where installed last year. There was also a new area that had a couple solar panels installed on the greenroof. They where so new they had not been hooked up to the buildings electrical system yet. There was also an interesting area that contained some decidedly un greenroof-like plants such as rose and holly, among others. A wall mounted hydroponic system that was just getting installed by Boswyck Farms These where in coir tubes that elevated the soil level slightly and had a ring of other ornamental plants around each.
After getting an eyeful under the Triborough we headed over to Manhattan's Lincoln Center for a look at the Illuminated Lawn, which Parks Comish Adrian Benepe has said, "[has] got to be right up there with the most unusual lawns in the world”
We then walked to the Paul Rubenstein Atrium for a peak at the two 20'x20' living walls in there. I took my class to these spots last year and they remain interesting conversation pieces as part of the greenroof and living walls tour.
Our final destination was Fordham University, also in the Lincoln Center. This is a new discovery for me from last year and I must admit I could find little by way of history, design or construction information online. It was nevertheless a good spot as it typifies a true intensive greenroof much better than the Illumination lawn. Fordham has full size trees along with a sculpture garden, lighting and irrigation.
This is how it happens, a couple times a season Gotham Orchards receives a delivery of apple trees from Cummins Nursery. The following week is pretty crazy/fun. Many saplings are dropped off to their recipients, via Erik's bike trailer. Having been given planting instructions, the new apple tree stewards determine where to plant their trees and do the planting themselves. In other cases special attention is required, as was the case with the fifty we planted at Queens College on Arbor Day. Such is the case again with the five trees being planted at the Quaker Friends Meeting House in Flushing, Queens. It is a special privilege to work on the grounds of the oldest place of worship in New York, built in 1694. James Cleary was a gracious host and gave me a full tour of the building, steeped in history, before we set out to plant. Special care must be take not to drastically change the setting these trees are being placed in, after all the Meeting House has been a National Historic Landmark since 1967. That said, it would be hard to change things any more than the recent removal of three mature trees, each the better part of a century old, due to an Asian Longhorn Beetle infestation. This has opened up some sunny areas and now the time has come to replant some trees on site. The Friends Meeting House itself was an orchard in the distant past and the area where we planted the apple trees used to be a horse stable, which explained why it contained some of the darkest, richest soil I have seen since moving to NYC. Eastern Queens was the historic nursery grounds for early colonial New York. Erik Baard and Gotham Orchards is striving to restore that heritage by focusing his apple tree planting efforts in this area and moving to expand his project to include various other species of fruit, nut and berry bearing trees and shrubs. Two Newtown Pippin saplings, a Swaar, a Sansa, and a Spigold where planted. My gratitude to Erik for involving me in his tireless work is deep. Not only is he teaching me more than I could have ever imagined about this great city, he is pulling me in and including me in its rich and fruitful narrative.
I have planted trees on Arbor Day for the last few years but this year was something amazing. I was lucky enough to be part of a project that placed fifty heritage apple trees on the sunny Rathaus Lawn on the Queens College campus.
This is another one of my friend Erik Baard's amazing feats which he files under the Newtown Pippin Restoration and Celebration Project (soon to be re-dubbed Gotham Orchards!). I was pulled in to create a landscape plan for the orchard itself. The project had a compressed timeline, which is good because it is often easy to overthink these sorts of things when faced with deep time horizon.
I cranked out a few options a couple nights before install and had approval the day before from Staci Cohen, Project & Energy Manager with Queens College Buildings and Grounds.
The grounds crew did an amazing job prepping the holes before the volunteers arrived at noon (despite a flat tire on the Bobcat) The auger was definitely a good call by crew leader Gus.
Big ups to Grace Magee who organized the volunteer effort and currently attends Queens College and is a part of the QC Environmental Club.
Some notes from Mr. Baard:
The Newtown Pippin Restoration and Celebration project was founded in 2008 to plant NYC's historic apple tree (the Newtown Pippin) and other heirloom varieties in public spaces, such as schools, hospitals, community gardens, historic houses, and houses of worship. We aim to have City Council designate the Newtown Pippin, first grown nearly 300 years ago in what's today known as Elmhurst, Queens, as the official apple of the Big Apple. While retaining the Newtown Pippin objective, we are expanding to become known as Gotham Orchards, to reflect our work with preserving and replanting the ancestral Kazakh apple forest, and our growing and planting beach plums, elderberry, and other fruit species. We will soon pioneer NYC's first open air, in ground citrus orchard! By the close of 2012, we will have planted over 1,000 fruit trees. Sponsors are New York Restoration Project (to which donations for new orchards may be made), Green Apple Cleaners, an anonymous donor, and Nadine Chandy. Brooklyn Botanical Gardens kindly received and stored this season's sapling delivery (we will pick up your trees Thursday afternoon). Long Island City Bicycles has provided in-kind donations of services and bike rentals this season, to help our work. Our heirloom and gourmet saplings are provided at discount by Cummins Nursery, which also often provides technical help. Our initial planting will include: (10) Newtown Pippin, of course, and (5 each) Burgundy, Chenango Strawberry, Florina Querina, Buckeye Gala, Honeycrisp, Hudson's Golden Gem, King of Tomkins County, "Bonkers" (NY 35), Pomme Gris, Sansa, Spigold, and the Dutch colonial Swaar.
Newtown Pippins are the historic apples of NYC, first grown in what is now Elmhurt Queens nearly 300 years ago. They were a favorite of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington and brought to England by Benjamin Franklin. They remain a much-sought gourmet variety. They are picked in early autumn but best eaten in the holiday season after at least a month of cold storage. This autumn we will add saplings grafted from the ancestral apple forest of Kazakhstan, where the species evolved. The USDA and Cornell University are our partners in this, with Cummins Nursery again growing and providing at a discount. The public growth of these trees (as opposed to keeping them inside research facilities) was my suggestion. This autumn we might plant a proof of principle temperate zone citrus orchard at Queens College. With success, I will plant a citrus orchard in NYC in cooperation with the NY State Department of Agriculture and Markets and other partners. Flushing, Queens is the traditional nursery for fruit trees in NYC. This orchard, plus others nearby to which we donated saplings (Bowne High School, Quaker Meeting House, etc.) restores that distinction. Gotham Orchards has also planted an orchard on Randalls Island and fruit trees in locations in all five boroughs. It is the hope that Queens College will become a vital brain trust for fruit trees growing throughout the city, as students learn horticulture each year.
For everyone elses live-tweet steam comments and links to many pictures click on one of the #UAC12 links above.
I really enjoyed myself and got to speak to several really interesting chagemakers in the urban ag. movement here in NYC I wish I had more time to reflect here and now but I gotta run off to work... Here are some pics!
Last year, on this day, me and about a nine other Queens residents got together and broke ground on the guerrilla garden in Long Island City, now affectionately known as Smiling Hogshead Ranch. Our goal was to add some beauty tot he area, grow some food and not get arrested or kicked off the land. I'm glad to report we were successful on all three fronts! I have not posted too much on the internet about this project because of the various "informal" arraignments but I wanted to take a moment and offer a brief retrospective of our first year...
We had picked up trash in late February 2011 (and found a pig skull, hence the name;) but Sunday, March 6, 2010 was the first big workday that really kicked things off as a group. We rented a tiller three weekends in a row and tilled up just over 1,500 square feet. Which is about 1/10 of an acre. We had a blast.
In early April 2011 we received the seeds and starts we had ordered from GrowNYC's annual plant sale and began planting.
On September 10th I invited several professional colleagues out to the farm for a little tour. Among the guests where Philip Botwinick and his partner Tom, Shan Jayakumar, Brandon Cappilliari and Gordon Douglas.
On October 18, 2011 (my birthday) the Environmental Club atBard HS (about 20 students) came out to the garden for a field trip, they where accompanied by their group advisers Christine Carouso and one of her colleagues.
Of the many delicious veggies harvested and eaten, I think I got the most joy out of cooking the swiss chard and onions together for vegetarian empanada filling. The corn, cabbage and radishes made a nice medley when roasted together with a drizzle of olive oil and S&P as well. So many cucumbers where eaten raw after a bit of chill time in the fridge. Mmm Mm Memories...
Many of us met most recently last weekend after a bit of a break over the winter, including several new faces which bring new blood, enthusiasm and skills to the group. We have some ambitious projects planned for 2012 and I for one look forward to publicizing the project a little more widely now that we have been around (and not been kicked off the land or persecuted for trespassing) for a while.
For some more pictures visit the folder I've dedicated to Smiling Hogshead Ranch in my Photobucket account:
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
Last summer I attended most of the spurse LiveFeeds during the BMW Guggenheim Lab in The Bowery and beyond. It was an amazing experience and I met a whole lot of interesting folks with exciting ideas and projects. I had the chance to write a few blogs for the Guggenheim Lab|Log and although they are taking a while to go live, I'm happy to present my work on their site. My first post went up in early January while I was on holiday visiting family in LA. Although it was awesome showing my Grandma Paula, who doesn't regularly frequent the internet, my writing, I didn't really get a chance to blog about it here. So, without further adue, may I present "Spurse at the Lab: Adventures in the Interspecies Commons" I expect my next post will go live next month so keep an eye out...
Nourishing Cities, is screening the documentary film, "The Take" by Naomi Klein (author of No Logo) and her husband Avi Lewis. The movie, "tells the story of workers in Buenos Aires, Argentina who reclaim control of a closed Forja auto plant where they once worked and turn it into a worker cooperative"
The film will be followed by a panel discussion about worker cooperatives and urban agriculture in NYC which will feature a practicing urban farmer, a veteran worker coop participant and myself, Gil Lopez, budding urban ag. worker coop entreprenour.I look forward to sharing more about what exactly Nourishing Cities is and how we plan on operating. As well as drawing inspiration from the trailblazers leading the way.
The event is the first one organized by our group but it will definitely not be the last. I am excited about what Nourishing Cities will be doing in a business capacity as well as the social aspects of the coop, like this educational community event.
We are raising these funds both to pay the tuition for, and as the first team building assignment in, a 16 week intensive Coop Academy offered by Green Worker Cooperatives and WIBO (Workshop in Business Opportunities). I hope that you can come enjoy the film learn more about what Nourishing Cities will be creating in the future and participate in community building around our new enterprise.
fertile ground usa 
Solar One 
Urban Green Council 
Except USA 
@NewYorkOyster 
Amy Verel 
Irving Farm Coffee 
Sara Cornish 
Mercedes Kraus 
Gil Lopez 
bomee 
Melissa MarkViverito 
