November 2009 Archives

Toxins in coal-tar-based sealcoats in parking lots may be the culprit in contaminated house dust, according to a USGS study.

PAHs - or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

PAHs are large molecules found in oil, coal and tar deposits, and can have toxic effects. It's long been known that PAHs are often found in house dust; however, the specific sources of these PAHs are largely undetermined.

Researchers found that dust from indoor areas near parking lots with coal-tar-based sealcoat had substantially elevated concentrations of PAHs.

SOURCE:  USGS at the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry

Spiders that live near water may be an effective warning system for contaminants in aquatic ecosystems, according to a new USGS and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study.

Scientists examined PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) levels in shoreline-living spiders at Lake Hartwell, a Superfund site in South Carolina, and used this information to map contaminant concentrations in lake sediment.

Spiders are indicators of ecosystem recovery from PCB contamination

Future monitoring studies will use the spiders as indicators of ecosystem recovery from PCB contamination. Researchers also made risk maps for a spider-eating bird, the Carolina wren, which could be exposed to PCBs through eating spiders.

Food Chain Transfers Contaminants

These spiders rely heavily on adult aquatic insects for food and play a key ecological role in the transfer of contaminants between water and land ecosystems. In spite of this, they are underused as a sentinel species at contaminated sediment sites.

SOURCE:  USGS

Lowes makes a Landscape & Garden Planner available online to give avid gardeners and landscape enthusiasts a helping hand with ideas and information.

After a long registration process in which you can subscribe to Lowes newsletters, you finally get to the interactive Landscape and Garden Planner....Tutorial or Planner give you some choices to match your skill level and desire for adventure!

Size, zone map, design of your hardscapes are the basic choices, with objects such as patio, flower beds, furniture, as well as planters, ponds and pool round out your design. The Lowes Landscape & Garden Planner seems to work better on a PC than on a Mac... :-(

This online version of landscape planner software gives you a good introduction to landscape design.  You might want to move up to a personal computer software product to get more detailed...but some like to spend that amount of time wiggling their toes in the dirt :-) 

Search the Internet for an ever-growing world of gardening resources, including landscape design software. Internet providers offer everything you need, from expert advice to garden planning options, and of course, products to help you with general vegetable or flower gardening, or specialized urban farming.

It's easy to order plants and products for delivery to your doorstep, or find the information you need at the click of a button or a few squiggles of the mouse.  Landscape design software can help you design simple landscapes, container gardens, or robust gardens.  

Better Homes and Gardens Online offers a free internet-based design program that lets visitors design flower beds and landscape plans. Plan-a-Garden includes a library of trees, shrubs, and structures and can be arranged on a computer screen, then saved for future reference or printed out.

The Community Beautification Grant of the City of Los Angeles, Board of Public Works, Office of Community Beautification has been awarding grants since 1998. The staff has a special knowledge of the people, organizations and neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

Grants for Urban Farming Gardens

Urban Farming has a well-known sponsor interested in paying the costs to develop five (5) 20' x 20' (400 square ft) produce-bearing gardens in Los Angeles that can be secured for at least two years, with a goal toward becoming sustainable through initial and ongoing community members and group involvement.

Find the general criteria at CBGrant.blogspot.com

Suggested Garden Locations: Community center grounds; Parks; City lots; University/College campus; Faith-based organization sites that accept other community member involvement and also those that are non-denominational. (this is for community sites, rather than elementary/middle/high school locations)

Please contact: Meg Glasser for further information.
meg.glasser@gmail.com; 646.726.1563; http://www.urbanfarming.org/

This video give new meaning to "sustainable landscaping." This is one of the better tent cities in America...there are more. This is an eye-opener. Sustainable community is about more than green...it's also about practical heart and survival during tough times. How can you help the homeless in your community?

Another year is "falling" into the slumber of winter. Mammals of all shapes and sizes are snuggling together to provide comfort and security for family and tribal members.

How are you snuggling...and huddling...and reconnecting? 

The holidays are a celebration of this harvest and huddling season. It starts a little earlier than we assume -- it really starts with Veterans Day in early November.  We gather our protectors of our tribe, our nation, together.  We then celebrate family and community at Thanksgiving.  And our spiritual communities at Christmas and Chanukah.  And the final snuggle is under the influence of the waning year and the rebirth of the new year. 

Blankets of crystal frost and snow snuggle the earth in a coverlet of precious moisture and skin care through the harsh temperatures of winter.  Snuggles. Repose.  Hybernation in dens and living rooms.  Ahhh, the solitude of close family and a mug of steaming brew on a crisp morning with streaming sunshine and sparkles that outclass any diamond.
 
Seasons are a sustainability system for our earth.  Rest and regeneration begins during these hugging times -- the days and nights of snuggles and cuddles that bond families together.
Observe carefully the birds and beasts of the field...they toil not.  They huddle together and forage together
.
Together they quietly bow to the king of seasons. The most powerful winds and snow drifts cannot bring the kingdom to its knees, and cannot dampen the hearts of life.
 
Tribal living is the extreme sport of extreme seasons -- winter in the heartland and summer in the lowlands.  Mountains and deserts are nature's extreme playgrounds that test the endurance and smarts of its citizens.  Together, plants, animals, minerals and the seasonal heavens throb in sync to sustain their cycle of life on a pulsating terra firma.

Happy cuddling!
Carolyn
Editor 

Farmscaping is the management of vegetation on and around the farm, to include plantings on roadways, field margins, waterways, natural areas and generally non-cropped areas. The term "farmscaping" can cover a wide range of practices, such as grassed waterways, buffers, filter strips and cover crops, as well as hedgerows and windbreaks.

Hedgerows are defined as lines or groups of trees, shrubs, perennial forbs, and grasses that are planted along roadways, fences, field edges or other non-cropped areas. The word "hedge," from the Old English word "hegg," referred to an enclosure or boundary formed by closely growing bushes or by dead plant material.

Windbreaks are barriers usually consisting of trees or shrubs that are used to reduce and redirect wind, resulting in microclimate changes in the sheltered zone.

Filter strips are planted areas that use vegetation to control soil erosion, slow water runoff, and capture and prevent sediments and nutrients from entering waterways.

Hedgerows can have multiple functions 

• They can serve as habitat for beneficial insects, pollinators and other wildlife;
• provide erosion protection and weed control;
• serve as windbreaks;
• stabilize waterways;
• reduce non-point source water pollution and groundwater pollution;
• increase surface water infiltration;
• buffer pesticide drift, noise, odors and dust;
• act as living fences and boundary lines;
• increase biodiversity;
• and provide an aesthetic resource.

Diversity in hedgerow species, especially when using natives, assures a range of attributes, such as multiple kinds of insects and wildlife attracted, positive effects to soil and water resources, and success of individual plants under site-specific climatic and other environmental conditions.

Find more info about farmsacping at the Community Alliance with Family Farmers

This site deserves its "7" page rank! Check out the clear design, comprehensive information and quality links. Who says that Internet data has to be less reliable than print?

The Art's Butterfly World website describes over 34 years of data collected by Dr. Arthur Shapiro, professor of Evolution and Ecology at the University of California, Davis, in his continuing effort to regularly monitor butterfly population trends on a transect across central California. Ranging from the Sacramento River delta, through the Sacramento Valley and Sierra Nevada mountains, to the high desert of the western Great Basin, fixed routes at ten sites have been surveyed at approximately two-week intervals since as early as 1972.

The sites represent the great biological, geological, and climatological diversity of central California. As of the end of 2006, Dr. Shapiro has logged 5476 site-visits and tallied approximately 83,000 individual records of 159 butterfly species and subspecies.

This major effort is continuing and represents the world's largest dataset of intensive site-specific data on butterfly populations collected by one person under a strict protocol. We have also collated monthly climate records for the entire study period from weather stations along the transect.

This website was built as a portal for Dr. Shapiro's data and observations, supported by National Science Foundation.

It helps to have significant funding and partnering arrangements!

There are several reasons why urban gardens using containers are effective:

1. They enable us to practice "intensive" gardening method through maximum utilization of limited space.

2. It is easy to practice "intercropping" (planting a variety of plants in one container) which ensures the health of plants due to diversity.

3. It is possible to "conserve" both soil and water as containers prevent run offs of soil and excessive watering.

4. Urban gardens "make use of urban wasteland" (vacant lots, brown fields, unused parking lots, and roof tops)

5. Urban gardening provides "meaningful employment" for persons with limited skills and formal education.

6. Establishing and maintaining an urban garden are very "inexpensive".

7. Urban gardens provide creative ways to "recycle" old tires and other containers that otherwise would be thrown into landfills.

8. Churches and social service organizations can use urban gardening to "rehabilitate, create income generation projects, and provide therapy."

Technology for the Poor publishes a wonderful website that describes effective, low cost ways of developing container gardens that are highly productive. Using wading pools and tires, among other repurposed "technologies" urban residents can sink their toes into the soil in parking lots, on rooftops, in vacant lots and in their tiny urban backyards.  And the productivity isn't just in food -- as delicious as it might be -- it has far ranging quality of life and skill building results.

The purpose of an intensively grown garden is to harvest the most produce possible from a given space.

The Arizona Master Gardener Manual on Intensive Gardening methods examines several ways to grow in small areas.

The practice of intensive gardening is not just for those with limited garden space; rather, an intensive garden concentrates work efforts to create an ideal plant environment, giving better yields with less labor.

A good intensive garden requires early, thorough planning to make the best use of time and space in the garden. Interrelationships of plants must be considered before planting, including nutrient needs, shade tolerance, above- and below-ground growth patterns, and preferred growing season.

Using the techniques described in The Arizona Master Gardener Manual on Intensive Gardening , anyone can develop a high-yielding intensive garden.

Community gardening is a "natural arts" workshop, gallery and experiential spa! This community garden shares a wealth of ideas for revitalizing soul as well as body with fresh air, fresh food and new friendships.

For the Greener Good "Vertical Farming" from National Building Museum on Vimeo.

Urban food security is a rising concern with climate change affecting traditional agriculture with droughts, floods and migratory changes for pollinators. Local regional food production is also a solution for access to fresh foods to reduce obesity and childhood onset diabetes. A major overhaul of our food system is bursting from its seeds.