Simply speaking, a green roof is a living roof. While green roof design has its roots in ancient civilizations (think hanging gardens of Babylon), as American cities have become more concerned about managing quantities of stormwater runoff, air quality, and building heat transfer, large modern green roofs have been appearing on commercial properties across the country. Now, FLOWER ot the PEOPLE, Inc. has green roof solutions specifically designed for Southern California private residences. Here the Beverly Hills green roof at Greystone Manor Estate is still growing strong more than two years after its installation. Succulent-covered roofs, like the one at Greystone and the green roofs pictured here, even provide a fire-retarding alternative to traditional shake or stone roofs.

A living roof provides superior energy efficiency for any building (saving on energy costs), extends the life of the roof membrane, is beautiful to look at, provides the local environment with beneficial air-cleaning, cooling and storm water reduction, and promotes greater biodiversity.

Green Roof Section View

1 roof flashing

2 EPDM waterproof membrane

3 root barrier

4 drainage mat

5 "L" sheet metal edge

6 1/2" pea gravel

7 nonwoven separation fabric

8 planting media

9 plants

10 gutter (optional)

It's delightful to discover a thriving treasure-- whether it is a garden or a business!  Flower to the People is such a treasure right in my own community!  Visit their website for a delightful array of garden designs that bring nature and sustainable gardening solutions to the urban landscape.  Their "Exterior Design Portfolio" in particular is expansive and a bloomin' delight!

Flower to the People is located in West Los Angeles, CA at:

11409 Charnock Rd., Los Angeles, CA 90066

FLOWER to the PEOPLE is a sustainable exterior design and outdoor lifestyle firm. Their residential and commercial clients rely on them to create unique environmentally-friendly exterior spaces that suit their contemporary lifestyles.

Containers are...and aren't... natural growing mediums for plants.  That's a puzzling way to look at containers, but in nature, you find small containers such as a tree growing in a little pouch of soil on the side of a cliff, and you find watersheds which are really huge containers snuggled into the subsurface rocks of the earth's very infrastructure.

So...let's talk containers on a human scale.

Pots on a porch are the simplest form of container gardening.  Then come larger potted trees indoors.  And porch boxes to decorate Mediterranean windows and railings.  And even larger concrete pots that are lavish planters for corporate entryways and shopping centers.  And indoor gardens infused with water gardens and even waterfalls.

Containers are practical ways to bring living plants up and close to where we spend our time.  And I'm assuming you've already heard that Americans spend as much as 95% of their time indoors...

Customized Container Gardens

A new trend in landscaping is to plant customized containers in their final location.  Add professional skills to create professional results -- and reduce the amount of transportation and injury to plants as they are moved from distant growers to retailers to final destination landscapes.

Just plant them in place.  What a novel idea! 

The novelty is really that local nurseries can grow these pre-designed pots in their well-tended facilities and then move them in one piece, with specialized lifting equipment, of course, to their home without any transplanting, trimming or damage from poor care.

Container Gardening for Scale

A hanging basked just doesn't provide the scale necessary for today's larger buildings.  Whether the third story loft apartment or the three story office building...or towering entryway to a MacMansion, larger plantings fit better. 

Environmental Impact of Container Gardens

LARGER CONTAINTERS:  A potential benefit of larger plantings is that larger, more mature plants also provide more greenhouse gas and clim ate change benefits.  Mature trees provide more air filtration than saplings, so the larger the container and the longer-lived the trees and shrubs, the "greener" they can be.

Larger containers also hold moisture better than small containers.  Less exposure to air reduces evaporation.  Mulching containers with decorative rocks, bark or other natural materials can also reduce water use. 

SPECIES SELECTION:  Some species of plants provide more air filtation and less water use than others. And desert plants such as cacti also require less water use.

RECYCLED MATERIAL:  The containers  themselves can be manufactured with recycled  content:  crushed concrete, rubber tires, recycled glass, etc. can be mixed into the container materials to use some of the landfill materials that cause problems in the wider community.

 Waste is the largest contributor to climate change -- be it wasted construction debris (C&D), used tires, wasted green materials that are put into landfills instead of composted back into the soil...or wasted water.

Many green solutions provide multiple benefits in this complex, interwoven world of ours.  Recycled content is one of those multi-benefit solutions...and large container gardens are a perfect application to not only use recycled materials in a beautiful way, but use them to grow environmentally hard-working plants! 



 

A recent discussion about composters on the GreenYes news group brought the following recommendations about composters.

In my experience, tumblers do not work as well as the manufacturer would like you to think they do !

A couple of reasons, for composting to really happen you need 4 basic needs; Brown (carbon), Green (nitrogen), Water (40%- 60%) & Air. But you also need a strong back a microorganisims. The tumblers is suspended in the air, with air flow all around the bin - this tends to dry the compost out, you will need to monitor and add water more often. I like the fact that a compost pile directly on the ground is in contact with soil micro & macro organisims, which play a huge role in the process of decomposition.

For composting to speed up or excellorate, you need enough material in the mix (critical mass) to get the pile or microbs going (heat up -131 F- 150 F optimum). At those temperatures the organic material is broke down very quickly, also plant pathogens and weed seed are distroyed in the center of the pile. This heat is generated by the microbs (thermophilic) that when comsume or break down a carbon molecule, it releases that energy stored in that molecule. Along with heat they respire water, which then dries the pile out further.

The other problem that will be incountered is the dead weight. When you have 60 gallons of material in a drum, most of the weight will settle, this tends to squeeze out air and all the weight is at the bottom. In order to mix & aereate the pile or the bin, you have to tumble or get that weight at the bottom of that pile, up to the top, several times to mix thoroughly. This can weigh quite a bit and can be hard work. Not to say turning a pile on the ground with a pitch fork is not hard, I just find it difficult and more time consuming to monitor, maintain and a rotate a tumbler.

...and opinion two:

Several years ago, when I worked for the County Extension Office, we established a compost demonstration area with several types of home built and manufactured composting devices. This included a tumbler.

As a general rule, the home built bins worked better and were easier to use than the manufactured ones. We had more problems with the tumbler than any others.

Composting can be as simple as green manure in which you bury food scraps in the soil of a flower or veggie garden, or it can be a large, scientifically designed operation to handle leaves, hay and food scraps gathered from restaurants, etc.

Either way, a little experimenting helps. And asking questions at your local County Extension center can be enlightening. Many of these Department of Agriculture offices also offer instruction sheets and classes to help you get started. Just look up "agricultural extension agent" and your county on search engines to find your local office. They are located in every state (US), and in most counties. Large cities also have offices.

Very helpful information centers!

Southern California Edison will install 250 megawatts of solar panels on 65 million square feet of roofs - that’s two square miles - of Southern California commercial buildings at a cost of $875 million. That project will be the nation’s largest solar cell installation.

Enough solar to power 162,000 homes.

In the initial phase of the program, SoCal Edison will lease 607,000 square feet of roof space at ProLogis’ Kaiser Distribution Park in Fontana, California. The area will be used to install and maintain solar panels with the potential to generate enough electricity to power 1,426 households for one year.

At the conclusion of the start-up phase, which will include five to 10 additional installations and is expected to be completed by the end of 2008, the utility will launch its full renewable energy project, aiming to complete 50 megawatts of solar panel installations each year for a total of 250 MW. Each individual installation is expected to comprise one to two megawatts.

“I urge others to follow in their footsteps,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “If commercial buildings statewide partnered with utilities to put this solar technology on their rooftops, it would set off a huge wave of renewable energy growth.”

SCE hopes to have the first solar rooftops in service by August. The company says it will install at the rate of one megawatt a week.

The program would give a big boost to California’s Million Solar Roofs program and help SCE meet a state requirement to get 20 percent of its energy from renewables by 2010.

Financing Solar Installations

Yesterday, Environmental Leader reported that solar companies are becoming financial intermediaries, leading companies to install solar power that wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford it.

Using a “power-purchase agreement” model, many solar power companies take on the cost of installing solar panels on customers’ roofs. In return, customers pay the solar power company for the panels’ output, generally at a lower rate than they would otherwise pay.

The power purchase model is also attracting bankers - Morgan Stanley, G.E. Energy Financial Services, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and MMA Renewable Ventures have all arranged financing for recent solar energy projects.

Besides the financing, state incentives and a federal investment tax credit (worth up to 30 cents on the dollar) are also driving adoption.

Water sustains every community... from the most basic needs of its citizens to the very lifeblood of the community's economic growth. In both urban and rural areas across the U.S., water rights, allocation, treatment, delivery, and supply issues are increasingly subject to legislation and regulation. Frequently, measures are passed in reaction to a crisis and without a comprehensive plan. As the focus on our water resources increases, so does the need for equitable policy and progressive water management practices.

The Irrigation Association® has developed Turf and Landscape Irrigation Best Management Practices (BMPs) for policymakers and professionals who must save and extend our water supply while protecting water quality.

Irrigation Best Practices

The five Turf and Landscape Irrigation Best Management Practices include:

1. Assure Overall Quality of the Irrigation System;
2. Distribution of Water;
3. Install the Irrigation System to Meet the Design Criteria;
4. Maintain the Irrigation System for Optimum Performance; and\
5. Manage the Irrigation System to Respond to the Changing

Read more about Irrigation Best Management Practices

More than half of the world's people now live in cities, and in the UK around 90% of of the population are urbanites. People are quickly becoming an urban species.

Urban green spaces become more critical than ever -- both for quality of human life and for the wildlife and habitat that are part of the rich tapestry of nature's support system.

Urban Sprawl

Urban sprawl has created vast expanses of moderately dense "humanized" habitat with a high ratio of concrete and a low diversity of plants. The result of suburbanitis has been a dependence on cars to replace personal locomotion.

High Density City Planning

Proponents of the compact city have captured the attention of community leaders because a vertical city offers practical solutions for tough issues such as pollution inherent to a rapidly growing population that expects the energy-driven amenities to which we have become accustomed.

Benefits of Urban Open Spaces

Loss of green space. Green space is usually the first casualty of high density urban development. Backyard gardens are vital fresh food sources for many low-income and elderly residents...and they provide respite and natural resources education for everyone involved.

Carbon Balance in Urban Landscapes

Clean air and an adequate water table are also affected by the amount of land available to absorb rainfall. Salt water incursion is a growing problem for the highly populated coastal areas. Creeping salt water makes soil impossible to support plant life...and plant life is necessary to replenish and filter our air quality.

Population Control's Role in Urban Planning

Leaders are remiss in focusing on building higher density cities without also focusing on the need for population control.

This editorial was localized and based on a BBC editorial by Dr Richard Fuller, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Sheffield, in "The Green Room", a series of opinion pieces on the BBC News website.

Biological diversity in city parks and green spaces can have psychological benefits for humans, according to a  study from the United Kingdom. Researchers found that visitors to city parks with a greater diversity of birds, butterflies, plants, and other organisms reported feeling better than visitors to less-diverse green spaces. Such findings have important implications for urban planning and policy as the human population becomes increasingly urbanized, the study concludes.

“Public urban greenspaces provide one of the few avenues for direct contact with the natural environment,” the researchers write, adding that, “Such contact has measurable physical and psychological benefits.” Similar studies point to the same conclusion.

A nine-year survey of U.S. gall bladder patients showed that patients recovered faster and required less pain medication if their hospital windows overlooked trees rather than brick walls.

Other research has indicated that inner city residents who had some nearby nature outside their apartments showed significantly lower levels of aggression and violence.

Similarly, workers in buildings that contain plant life have been found to have better concentration and less anxiety on average than those working without plants.

Most of the plants used in landscaping do not invade or harm wildland areas. But a few vigorous species can - and do - escape from cultivation into open landscapes and cause a variety of ecological problems. They crowd out native plants, insects and animals, and can lead to increased flooding, fire and crop losses.

A few simple steps can prevent invasions before they start. We can be an environmentally responsible community - one that supports horticultural businesses and beautiful gardens!

1. Phase out invasive plant species in your business
2. Plant and promote beautiful non-invasive alternatives
3. Share your success stories
4. Follow the national voluntary codes of conduct to prevent horticultural invasion

PlantRight is a voluntary, proactive program for the horticultural community to prevent invasive plant introductions through horticulture. PlantRight was designed by the steering committee of California Horticultural Invasives Prevention (Cal-HIP) partnership to communicate the need to transition away from invasive plants in the gardening and landscaping trade.

CONTACT: