DC Urban Gardeners

How people in other cities are finding more land for urban gardens

Must be a hot topic - finally - coz three stories have popped up recently on this subject. 

• First, in Flint, Michigan

• Next, in Phildelphia, PA

• And in Cincinnatti, OH.

Tabard Inn's Green Roof:A Garden of Edibles and Roses

by Guest Blogger Sarah Murphy of Canopy

For over 25 years the Tabard Inn, near Dupont Circle, has attracted Washingtonians and visitors alike for its garden courtyard, quirky interior and amazing food fare. The menu changes with the season with a majority of the food coming from the Tabard Inn’s nearby farm. Always interested in staying ahead of trends, Irene Mayer, the Inn’s in-house designer, started looking into putting vegetation on their numerous roofs in 2007. She approached Canopy, a company that specializes in restoring the urban canopy through green roofs and city gardens, about incorporating green roofs onto their buildings. 

The Inn had decided to add a small roof over their outdoor serving area, and asked Canopy if it was feasible to put an herb garden green roof on it.  Canopy suggested building the roof to be strong enough to hold the 12-18 inches necessary to support the specialty herbs. They also installed a skylight hatch with a pull-down ladder to simplify the short trip from the kitchen to the rooftop.  A hose bib was also added for water access. 

Once the roof installation was complete, an EPDM membrane was applied. EPDM is a common waterproofing membrane that stands for ethylene propylene diene M-class rubber.  Next, Canopy installed a root barrier made of high-density polyethelene. To create the look of a traditional herb garden, Canopy constructed numerous wooden boxes out of rot-resistant cedar in varying depths to accommodate a variety of herbs and other herbaceous plants.  Each of the wooden boxes was filled with a specially blended growth medium comprised of 60% lightweight aggregate, 10% aggregate fines, and 30% organic matter.

The 150 square foot roof was then planted with Lemon verbena, 2 varieties of bush blueberry, rosemary, chives, thyme, sage, annual basil, and 2 varieties of climbing roses.  The roses were requested by The Tabard’s owner, Jeremiah Cohen, who has an office that overlooks the new roof top herb garden.

Overwhelmingly pleased with the roof top herb garden, the Tabard approached Canopy again in the spring of 2008 to 2 create more green roofs on roofs in need of new waterproofing.  Canopy eagerly accepted the new projects, but there were a few challenges along the way. 

The first challenge with the new roofs was that they both have a 5/12 pitch, meaning each roof is angled nearly 45%.  Erosion and soil slumping become an issue at only a 2/12 pitch, so Canopy had to utilize special materials to prevent any soil slipping off of the deeply pitched roofs.  They decided to employ a technique used by German Manufactures at Optigrun, plastic “bananas” that latch onto a geo-textile mat also installed on the roof. 

The plastic “bananas” are approximately 2 inches deep, so they hold 2 inches of soil in place while they also have spikes emerging from them that hold pre-vegetated mats in place.  The mats, similar to sod, were grown at a nursery in Stevensburg, Virginia with a variety of sedums.

The installation of the soil and pre-vegetated mats was a slow and laborious task exacerbated by the fact that the restaurant wanted to stay open for outdoor dining.  Canopy coordinated the installation between meals.  The roughly 350 square foot installation took about 2 weeks total.

Now the 3 green roofs offer verdant view for guests.  Additionally,  the green roofs are offering insulation benefits, reducing energy bills and helping reduce storm water run off.  The kitchen has also noted a reduced need to by expensive specialty herbs.

SharingYards DC Makes Gardens Happen

First I heard about Landsharing in the U.K. where people with land are pairing up with wannabee  gardeners without land, and I wished the service were available here.  Well, it's here and it's called SharingBackyards.com.  And I recently heard from Alex on behalf of Sharing Yards DC, urging me to "spread the word to friends, neighbors, and other interested parties - it's open to everyone in the DC metro area."   Happy to!

Here's my post about Sharing Backyards on GardenRant, where comments expressed approval.

Posted by Susan Harris

New rain barrel design available

Barry Chenkin, owner/inventor of the AquaBarrel company in Gaithersburg, was showing off his newest rain barrel design at the recent Green Festival in D.C., and they sold like hotcakes.  So we asked Barry, "What's all the fuss?" and got this response.

The Aquabarrel “Abe” (it looks like a hat President Lincoln would wear) holds 45% more water in nearly the same foot print as the original 55 gallon Aquabarrel Rain Barrel.

Installation is less complicated. With a single cut of the downspout and the attachment of the inlet and outlet hose you are ready to start collecting rain water.

Built – in fill/divert tube.  No additional parts to buy as the winter/summer fill/divert tube in built into the barrel. Collect during the summer, rotate the tube for the winter and water no longer enters the barrel.

Made from 100% recycled materials.

Aquabarrel has a “balanced” system. Common sense will prevail when you compare all the other rain barrels to an Aquabarrel. If you only check one thing for comparison, ask "Is the inlet for rain water the same size as the outlet?"  If not, then it will overflow in place during a heavy downpour. The “Abe” has a 4” inlet and a 4” outlet.

End of free advertisement. (But why?  Because we support environmentally responsible local businesses, and Barry was very helpful when we were researching the whole rain barrel subject for our website.)  Posted by Susan Harris

Patti Moreno, Cheerleader for Sustainable Urban Living

Readers, meet Patti Moreno.  You can visit her site for videos about urban sustainable living, with titles like "How to Create a Sustainable Urban Garden" and "How to Have an Eco-Friendly Christmas" and lots more coming soon.  Okay, now heeeere's Patti!

Patti's big news recently is about being chosen as the new host of Farmer's Almanac TV, a 30-minute show on 90 percent of PBS stations nationwide (but sadly, not in DC or Baltimore).  Her episodes will start to appear next April (and maybe someday on their website?) but I already know that hiring Patti is a smart move by the folks at Farmer's Almanac because the name screams old-fashioned and everything about Patti is young and hip.  So she's just what they need, and a far better choice than the spokesmodel types favored by HGTV.  There's more about Patti on their site, though for the really interesting stuff about her, keep reading right here.

The road to stardom
Patti kindly submitted to a phone interview for this profile, probably assuming I wanted to talk about urban sustainability and any number of serious subjects.  Nope, I wanted to know how she got to be TV Garden Girl.  So I pried and learned that she left NYC to study broadcasting and film at Boston University, which led (somehow) to establishing FilmShack, a "mom and pop film production company," with her husband Robert Patton-Spruill.  Company offices are in the renovated former home of filmmaker Henry Hampton, which is right on the grounds of their Roxbury (downtown Boston) home.  How cool is that?

Oh, but it gets cooler.  One of their recent productions, Public Enemy: Welcome to the Terrordome, was previewed recently at the American Film Institute and won a rave review from Variety.  Googling their names unearthed more envy-inducing mentions than I really cared to read.

Next I honed in on the question: How did she get that gig with Farmer's Almanac?  Answer: She made a 5-minute demo tape, circulated it among her contacts, and the folks at Farmer's Almanac stumbled upon it in their search for a new host.  (Not surprisingly, since that demo's now been viewed 58,000 times, but how the heck did that happen?  I bet only insiders know the answer to that one.) 

What she's passionate about
When I wasn't cross-examining Patti about her career she kept returning to what she really wanted to talk about - her apple orchard, her raised veggie beds, the joys of raising livestock (like the goat shown here), her heroes Elliot Coleman and Andy Lee (author of Chicken Tractor), and assuring me that she's NOT preaching eco-perfection.  Oh, and she's no fan of lawns and has a video coming out soon about replacing them with edible landscapes, which we'll be sure to post right here because it's one of my favorite topics, too.

Posted by Susan Harris

Readers, meet Patti Moreno.  You can visit her site for videos about urban sustainable living, with titles like "How to Create a Sustainable Urban Garden" and "How to Have an Eco-Friendly Christmas" and lots more coming soon.  Okay, now heeeere's Patti!

Patti's big news recently is about being chosen as the new host of Farmer's Almanac TV, a 30-minute show on 90 percent of PBS stations nationwide (but sadly, not in DC or Baltimore).  Her episodes will start to appear next April (and maybe someday on their website?) but I already know that hiring Patti is a smart move by the folks at Farmer's Almanac because the name screams old-fashioned and everything about Patti is young and hip.  So she's just what they need, and a far better choice than the spokesmodel types favored by HGTV.  There's more about Patti on their site, though for the really interesting stuff about her, keep reading right here.

The road to stardom
Patti kindly submitted to a phone interview for this profile, probably assuming I wanted to talk about urban sustainability and any number of serious subjects.  Nope, I wanted to know how she got to be TV Garden Girl.  So I pried and learned that she left NYC to study broadcasting and film at Boston University, which led (somehow) to establishing FilmShack, a "mom and pop film production company," with her husband Robert Patton-Spruill.  Company offices are in the renovated former home of filmmaker Henry Hampton, which is right on the grounds of their Roxbury (downtown Boston) home.  How cool is that?

Oh, but it gets cooler.  One of their recent productions, Public Enemy: Welcome to the Terrordome, was previewed recently at the American Film Institute and won a rave review from Variety.  Googling their names unearthed more envy-inducing mentions than I really cared to read.

Next I honed in on the question: How did she get that gig with Farmer's Almanac?  Answer: She made a 5-minute demo tape, circulated it among her contacts, and the folks at Farmer's Almanac stumbled upon it in their search for a new host.  (Not surprisingly, since that demo's now been viewed 58,000 times, but how the heck did that happen?  I bet only insiders know the answer to that one.) 

What she's passionate about
When I wasn't cross-examining Patti about her career she kept returning to what she really wanted to talk about - her apple orchard, her raised veggie beds, the joys of raising livestock (like the goat shown here), her heroes Elliot Coleman and Andy Lee (author of Chicken Tractor), and assuring me that she's NOT preaching eco-perfection.  Oh, and she's no fan of lawns and has a video coming out soon about replacing them with edible landscapes, which we'll be sure to post right here because it's one of my favorite topics, too.

Posted by Susan Harris

Readers, meet Patti Moreno.  You can visit her site for videos about urban sustainable living, with titles like "How to Create a Sustainable Urban Garden" and "How to Have an Eco-Friendly Christmas" and lots more coming soon.  Okay, now heeeere's Patti!

Patti's big news recently is about being chosen as the new host of Farmer's Almanac TV, a 30-minute show on 90 percent of PBS stations nationwide (but sadly, not in DC or Baltimore).  Her episodes will start to appear next April (and maybe someday on their website?) but I already know that hiring Patti is a smart move by the folks at Farmer's Almanac because the name screams old-fashioned and everything about Patti is young and hip.  So she's just what they need, and a far better choice than the spokesmodel types favored by HGTV.  There's more about Patti on their site, though for the really interesting stuff about her, keep reading right here.

The road to stardom
Patti kindly submitted to a phone interview for this profile, probably assuming I wanted to talk about urban sustainability and any number of serious subjects.  Nope, I wanted to know how she got to be TV Garden Girl.  So I pried and learned that she left NYC to study broadcasting and film at Boston University, which led (somehow) to establishing FilmShack, a "mom and pop film production company," with her husband Robert Patton-Spruill.  Company offices are in the renovated former home of filmmaker Henry Hampton, which is right on the grounds of their Roxbury (downtown Boston) home.  How cool is that?

Oh, but it gets cooler.  One of their recent productions, Public Enemy: Welcome to the Terrordome, was previewed recently at the American Film Institute and won a rave review from Variety.  Googling their names unearthed more envy-inducing mentions than I really cared to read.

Next I honed in on the question: How did she get that gig with Farmer's Almanac?  Answer: She made a 5-minute demo tape, circulated it among her contacts, and the folks at Farmer's Almanac stumbled upon it in their search for a new host.  (Not surprisingly, since that demo's now been viewed 58,000 times, but how the heck did that happen?  I bet only insiders know the answer to that one.) 

What she's passionate about
When I wasn't cross-examining Patti about her career she kept returning to what she really wanted to talk about - her apple orchard, her raised veggie beds, the joys of raising livestock (like the goat shown here), her heroes Elliot Coleman and Andy Lee (author of Chicken Tractor), and assuring me that she's NOT preaching eco-perfection.  Oh, and she's no fan of lawns and has a video coming out soon about replacing them with edible landscapes, which we'll be sure to post right here because it's one of my favorite topics, too.

Posted by Susan Harris

Should D.C.'s Public Rose Gardens Showcase Toxic Perfection?

Let's pay a visit to the Folger Rose Garden, the visual centerpiece at the front of the Smithsonian Institution's Arts and Industries Building.  I decided to check it out because a friend who works nearby had told me "It's sprayed so much, it glows at night." 

It's a Victorian-style garden comprised mainly of hybrid tea roses, which, particularly in this hot and humid climate, require the regular spraying of fungicides and pesticides to perform as required. After all, they're here to do a job - to enhance the aesthetics of this wonderful building using historically compatible plants and style.  But a mere 9 years after it was created, to my eyes the garden is already an anachronism because we've turned a corner (finally) in the U.S., and toxic landscaping practices are no longer acceptable.

Here's a terrific photo showing a larger view.

Next, I spoke with Shelley Gaskins, the horticultural curator in charge of making those gardens perform their job duties.  Very nice person. She confirmed the regular schedule of spraying for these roses, even the 'Knockouts' now included in the collection, and the reason for it: in such a high-traffic area, it's not acceptable to let the plants defoliate (lose their leaves and look crappy).

So of course I asked the obvious question: Has any thought been given at the Smithsonian to switching to plants that don't need such a toxic diet, like the new easy-care roses?  The answer: People don't have the same emotional reaction to shrub roses as they do to hybrid teas, which we associate with our grandmothers.  In other words, the Smithsonian believes or maybe even knows that this is what tourists want.  I have to say I think that's probably true, but should tourists get what they want in this case?  How about transitioning to a garden that would showcase a different kind of beauty, one that not only looks more natural, but IS more natural.  Not to mention toxin-free.

I didn't say all that, I just asked the final question:  What would it take to get the decision-makers to plant something different? Lobbying.  I should have guessed, this being Washington.

THE NATIONAL GARDEN'S TOXIN-FREE ROSES
Now just 3 blocks away is a very different kind of rose garden - an organic one.  It's a feature in the new National Garden, next door to the U.S. Botanic Garden.  Because most of the space is devoted to the sparse, ultra-native Regional Garden, which we hope will fill out and lose its sparseness in due time, the very formally-styled First Ladies Water Garden and  Rose Garden look a bit out of place here.  And the weird mix of styles probably reflects the various funding sources but hey, at least the roses don't get sprayed.  Margaret Atwell, the rosarian for this garden, tells me that unsuccessful plants ARE being ripped out.  That's the kind of tough love I give almost all of my plants. 

Both gardens - the National Garden's organic rose garden and the Smithsonian's stinky chemical garden - have plant labels, which is a good thing.  But if the chemically addicted roses are going to stay there, how about adding a sign telling the public the kind of care required for them to look so good?  At least educate.

GRANDMOTHER'S ROSES
Now can we please revisit the notion that our grandmothers grew hybrid teas?  I remember the Iowa garden of my own grandmother as a riotous mix of colorful plants that included roses of some kind, but what impressed me no end was the swarming mass of pollinators it attracted, especially hummingbirds. And the childhood memory that I DO have of hybrid tea roses is of a neighbor's large rose garden, which was always infested with Japanese beetles.  We kids loved grabbing them and dunking them in the many nearby insect traps. Helping to protect this man's plants from insects was a mission we totally bought into.  So, is that the kind of old-fashioned gardening we still want to teach?

Posted by Susan Harris. Credit for top photo. Others are mine.

 

More Urban Greening

From Treehugger, a Tale of 3 Cities:

• Non-profit Buffalo ReUse takes apart some of the 10,000 abandoned houses in Buffalo, saving 4 million pounds from landfill each year.
• As part of our ongoing 'Tell Us About Your City' series, we look at Sydney ranked as the world's most favourite city amongst the top 15 Green Cities.
•  Chicago showed 'bare knuckle politics' with a decree that city vehicles would no longer use BP fuel cards if the company polluted Lake Michigan.

Yes, City Gardeners CAN Have Wildlife Habitat Gardens

Here's a terrific article in the Washington Post about a wildlife habitat garden in Adams Morgan, coincidentally gardened by my friend Iris Rothman.  I've spent time in this garden and believe me, it's an experience of being in nature. (Go, Iris!)

Posted by Susan Harris

Urban Greening News

Hot off the presses is an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about urban gardenwalks as engines for community revitalization - in Buffalo, Chicago and Seattle.  The story's by my GardenRant partner Amy Stewart, and I was there in Buffalo with her for their hugely successful GardenWalk Buffalo last month.   I think of it as people's gardening and can't help but wonder:  Is DC ready for its garden walk?

Here's another great story by Marty Hair in the Detroit Free Press, this one about the greening of yet another Rust Belt city.  Notice there are four agencies involved in making vacant lots available and helping residents grow produce and then sell it.  (Maybe it takes more than a village but a whole city to make it happen.)

"Beat" the heat and drought? Accommodate is more like it

Here's an excellent summary of drought-beating gardening practices by Joel Lerner for the Washington Post.

Posted by Susan Harris