Here is the national picture of the projected weather in the coming months. The version I saw in April for our area showed us slipping into a drought condition. I didn’t believe it – we were in the middle of a very wet spring. And, when May came, it was like the spigot was turned off. The temperatures went into the 90’s and things dried out. So I’m a pretty firm believer that there is good science behind their predictions. Hopefully, this will be helpful to you and your plans.
The Sustainable Sites Initiative is a credit/rating system similar to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) only Sustainable Sites are all about landscapes. Currently the system is conducting a pilot program to evaluate the credits and how it works on real projects. The projects vary from parks to gardens or arboretums to streetscape projects. More on the Sustainable Sites Initiative can be found at: http://www.sustainablesites.org
I just read The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton to my daughter. Though the author doesn’t claim that the story is about urban sprawl, it does tell the story of a little house in the country that eventually finds itself surrounded by the buildings of the city. And it is based on a true story of a house lived in by the author. What stories will we tell of our changing world, but still hold a sense of place?
Kentucky Governor’s Conference on the Environment to take place this fall
[From a email PR announcement:] The 34th Governor’s Conference on the Environment will be held Oct. 20-21 at the Louisville Downtown Marriott. The creation of the Energy and Environment Cabinet developed a convergence of protecting the environment and exploring ways for Kentucky to become energy independent. The focus of this year’s conference is to discuss the link between energy, environment and the economy. Industries, businesses, communities, academia, public servants and individuals will gain valuable knowledge about federal and state legislation that will impact Kentucky’s economy and future. We welcome your input at the conference. For more information, contact Natalie Jensen at 502-564-7192 or at natalieE.jensen@ky.gov.
The photos show the current landscape around this Shelby County home. The proposed images show in a tangible way (rather than a plan or section) what the future landscape can look like. The homeowners can use these images as a guide for future landscape DIY projects. It shows what plants to use, how to organize them and how they will look together as they grow.
This is a short slideshow of recent landscape architecture work. The projects vary from the small to large, residential to commercial properties.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Jpac1#p/u/1/0PkYNVr-npI
John Pacyga
The Guardian (UK) reports that many U.S. homeowners are removing their ”chemically-treated” manicured lawns and adding organic vegetable and fruit gardens, native plants, and other natural landscapes in their place. The movement is growing because “eco-conscious” consumers are learning more about the negative environmental impacts of conventional lawns. “Groups as diverse as urban garden clubs, environmental groups and wildlife protection groups are spreading the word that a big, lush lawn harms biodiversity and is an eco- disaster.”U.S. lawns are grown from non-native grasses that use lots of water, pesticides and fertilizers. That even dark green color prized by so many actually requires the use of lots of chemicals. The use of these fossil-fuel-based derivatives are unhealthy for lots of reasons, but their production also creates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Steven Saffer, Audubon Society’s At Home program, said: “Lawns contribute to climate change. The fossil fuels used in fertiliser and pesticide production add CO2 to the environment.”
As has been noted by the Sustainable Sites Initiative, the first rating system for sustainable landscapes, the total surface area of U.S. lawns is larger than any other irrigated crop. The Lawn Institute, which represents the $35 billion turf industry, estimates that there are now some 25 million acres of lawn, which have replaced ecosystems that once provided a range of local ecosystem services. Saffier said: “The nutrient, hydrology and nitrogen cycles that happen naturally in biodiverse ecosystems are completely absent in lawns.” Additionally, wildlife like birds and many insects don’t get much out of lawns — there is no natural habitat there.
According to The Guardian, almost all birds rely on insects for their food source. These insects rely on just two-to-three types of native plants. Audubon says one fourth of all U.S. bird species are in decline. “Populations of meadow larks and other grassland species in the mid-western U.S. have plummeted 60 percent, while interior forest birds, like scarlet tanagers, have also seen a precipitous decline.”
Birds may be declining because they can’t find insects to eat, but they are also negatively impacted by all the 90 million pounds of chemicals used to treat lawns each year. “Of the 30 most common pesticides used on lawns, more than half are toxic to birds and fish, and linked to cancer and birth defects in humans, according to the environmental group, Beyond Pesticides. Eleven of the 30 are endocrine disrupters, chemicals that interfere with reproductive and other hormones in humans and animals.” All those chemicals also filter off lawns into groundwater.
While lawns remain a status symbol in many places, some communities are helping to end the long reign of turf. Food Not Lawns, one organization, encourages homeowners to rip out lawns and add “fruit and nut trees, like pecans, walnuts and almonds, as well as vegetables.” Fritz Lang’s Edible Estates has also helped popularize the yard as farm movement (see earlier post). In fact, in many urban areas, small-plot lawns have already been turned into productive garden landscapes despite the many obstacles. For instance, in many local counties, zoning rules ban front-yard vegetable gardens out of fear that they will attract rodents or be visually unappealing and decrease property values (see an earlier post for a full discussion on urban agriculture).
Also, check out an example of one restrictive lawn-related zoning call that makes sense. A few wayward homeowners have been ripping out lawns and replacing them with fake plastic versions in an attempt to create the appearance of lush, verdant dark green lawns. The Press-Telegram in Long Beach, California reports that “today’s fake grass is made from polyethylene, a popular plastic, which is cut into ribbons. The ribbons can be custom trimmed into a variety of shapes and colors.” Local planning commissions in California are now limiting the use of synthetic turf.
Image credit: American Consumer News
Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
There are many landscape features that make Kentucky what it is: limestone rock outcrops, durable plantings that take dry summers with infrequent downpours, and undulating hills of grasses. The rocks found on the site during construction were used to build mini retaining walls to add interest to the required berms to shield the parking lots from the street. The rocks formed backdrops for the plantings at the entrances and for the street trees. Grasses, easily maintained shrubs, and perennials form a multi-season landscape that work well in the Kentucky climate.
<a href=”http://www.verdantky.com/projects/2701-eastpoint-parkway/”>More on 2701 Eastpoint Parkway</a>
The Smith Residence shows how a very steeply sloped back yard can become its greatest asset. The slope of the yard meant water cascaded down the slope and would erode the soil in the shady part of their yard. Most of the time the area is dry (as many creeks in Kentucky behave) but while it rains, it controls the water. The dry creek swale, or shallow depression, slows the water down and allows it to soak in. The created swale is a point of interest in the yard and is low maintenance. Click here to learn more about the Smith landscape. Detailed design and installation was done by Boone Gardiner Nursery.
This is an attempt to show the best process for creating tree components from photos. I also tried using Adobe’s new Photoshop CS5 tool, Refine edge, in the process. In terms of rendering a the photo’s edge, the traditional methods using Select by Color Range proved superior. SketchUp seemed to show Refine Edge’s marks in the .png of the tree.
The new technique that seemed to speed up the component process was using Photoshop to find the tree’s edge using the Magnetic Lasso tool, then converting that selection edge into a Work Path. The Work Path was exported to Illustrator, then exported as a .dwg. In SketchUp, the image is brought in as a texture and the .dwg is imported for the outline. With some scaling and rotating they are put on the same plane. The square surrounding the image is erased, the new .dwg outline is hidden and the component is made.
The largest benefit is the speed by which the outline can be created and the reduction in edges needed (999 in the dwg process compared to 2592, in this example).
Try the process and let me know if you have similar results.
John Pacyga
If you live/work along Frankfort Avenue, Downtown, or the Highlands, you need to try Soup By Cycle. Ian Ritchie delivers by bicycle fresh, homemade soup using local, organic ingredients. For us, it is terribly convenient: he drops the soup off frozen at the house and we pay him for the soup. He can even do a monthly soup subscription. Ian was featured in a C-J article where you can read more about him and his business.
WASHINGTON, DC — Landscape architects and experts have launched a sweeping test of a sustainability rating and assessment system for greenspaces in the built environment with a pilot that involves more than 150 sites in 34 states, Canada, Iceland and Spain.
The pilot is being conducted by the Sustainable Sites Initiative, abbreviated as SITES, which led the development of the voluntary rating program that its creators hope will be used like the LEED system -- but one focused on landscapes and greenspaces.
The system created by the partner organizations behind SITES -- the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin and the United States Botanic Garden -- is intended for use on sites of all types to gauge and certify their sustainability.
The standards, which were released last fall, can be applied to landscaping at commercial and public buildings, transportation corridors and parks. It's not necessary for buildings to be present, but the sites must be designed landscapes or greenspaces.
SITES opened applications for the pilot in November and expected to receive perhaps 75 strong contenders, according to Steve Windhager, director of the Landscape Restoration & Sustainable Sites Initiative at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas at Austin. The organization received more than four times that many.
"We were overwhelmed, but in a good way," Windhager told GreenerBuildings.com. "We received 354 applications."
The pilot includes projects at corporate headquarters, industrial complexes and educational centers as well as high-profile efforts for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture, the New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward Sustainable Infrastructure Project and the Indianapolis Super Bowl Village. They range from less than an acre to hundreds in size and involve relatively modest to multimillion-dollar budgets.
In addition to providing visual and physical respite from the built environment, the sites in the pilot are designed to reduce environmental impacts not only of the location itself, but also the lands around it in many cases. For example, sites in the pilot may restore habitats, rehabilitate landfills, clean and store stormwater in addition to lowering the urban heat island effect or fostering outdoor education.
“It’s exciting that many of these pilot projects -- eight in every 10 -- will revitalize previously built landscapes,” Susan Rieff, executive director of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center said in a statement this week. “We can address the serious environmental challenges the world faces in its existing communities by consciously redeveloping these spaces for ecological health as well as beauty.”Under the SITES system, locations are rated on a 250-point scale for possible certification at four levels. Points are awarded for elements such as site selection, water, soil, vegetation, materials, human health and well-being, construction and maintenance. Sites attaining 40, 50, 60 or 80 percent of possible points are awarded one-, two-, three- or four-star certification, respectively.
Projects participating in the pilot are in various stages of development; some are still in the design phase, others are near completion. They all have until June 2012 to provide feedback about the benchmarking program to SITES. The data will be used in the certification process for the projects and to revise the assessment system. SITES has a goal of releasing a final version of its rating system and reference guide in 2013.
Details about the projects selected for the pilot are available at www.sustainablesites.org/pilot. More information about the Sustainable Sites Initiative and its rating system is available from "The Sustainable Sites Initiative: Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks 2009." (pdf) and "The Case for Sustainable Landscapes" (pdf).
Images of the Center Street greenspace and rain garden at the University of Texas, Arlington, courtesy of the Sustainable Sites Initiative.
I’ve updated the landscape master plan video for Highland Baptist Church. This version contains the latest changes including the memorial garden that was dedicated on Sunday. Plus the video is smaller and loads faster!
http://www.verdantky.com/2010/04/13/highland-baptist-church-master-plan-2/
