Mike and I recently hopped on a bus to take a “Sustainable Landscapes Tour” in a neighboring county. Over an 8 hour period, we made 6 stops at a variety of sites including parks, offices, a community garden, and a farm. It was encouraging to see that even in the middle of a shopping center district, individuals and organizations are taking the time to build and landscape in a way that reduces energy use, and conserves and cleans water. Here are a few highlights of our day.
This rain garden captures water from the parking area. Note that the parking area is gravel, which also allows water to penetrate the ground.
We saw a number of rain gardens throughout the day, which are designed to treat runoff from buildings, streets, parking lots, and other impervious surfaces. These gardens are specially designed and look like a sunken garden. The size and shape can vary. When rainwater hits impervious surfaces, it picks up pollutants such as car exhaust, pet waste or lawn chemicals. The rainwater which drains off of these surfaces is often so high in contaminants that fish would die if this water were used in an aquarium.
A rain garden in front of a veterinarian office.
But if rain gardens are placed to catch this rainwater, the water is cleaned and filtered naturally before draining into nearby lakes and streams. Flooding is also a major concern in this county, and rain gardens help to slow the flow of water after a heavy rainfall. They allow 30 percent more water to soak into the ground than a conventional lawn.
A fairly new rain garden at a farm.
The two office building we toured were designed in ways to maximize natural lighting, so that lighting in the buildings is often not needed at all.
Inner offices in this building are lit by windows from the outer offices. Even the inner offices were bright without artificial lighting.
These are not lights in the ceiling, but sun tubes which provide the benefits of sky lights without the drawbacks such as overheating in the summer, and heat loss in the winter.
The most unusual site of the day was a building – a Wellness Center – with a green roof. By green, I mean covered in plants. 6000 of them. The plants help to slow runoff and provide insulation. Most of the plants are different types of sedum, and rainwater is enough to keep the plants alive – no irrigation is needed.
The entire roof is covered in plants, which are starting to bloom.
The green roof provides energy conservation and noise reduction.
Inside the Wellness Center. Note the brightness of the room – no artificial lighting is needed on most days.
One of our stops was a non-profit, educational dairy farm. The cows are mostly grass-fed and are frequently moved to new pasture. Most of the herd are Jersey cows, well-known for high quality milk. I asked the director of the farm if they ever plan to offer raw milk products and his answer saddened me. He said, “No, I’m too afraid.” I mulled this over all day, wondering how it came to be that raw dairy has been more vilified than any other food. People have been sickened and have died from virtually every type of food that is available. When spinach, or cantaloupe, or even beef causes illness, no one suggests that these foods be declared illegal. No one stops selling them, except for short periods of time when they are taken off the market after a scare. All of these illnesses are caused by improper handling of the food, or unsanitary conditions, the same causes of any illness from raw milk. Why is raw dairy treated differently? Why are people afraid? While people have been sickened from raw milk, more have been sickened by pasteurized milk (see this chart). Ok, I digress, but I think that this little statement made more of an impact on me than anything else that day.
At the farm, we also saw:
This beautiful greenhouse was restored a few years ago.
This one is waiting for restoration.
Inside the greenhouse is an aquaponics setup (not to be confused with hydroponics). With aquaponics, fish are feeding the plants, while plants are feeding the fish.
Although the photo below is nothing exciting to look at, it is an important feature at many of the sites we visited – green parking. A parcel of land is leveled, a durable plastic grid is placed down and filled in with gravel. This is covered with soil and seeded with grass. This provides mud-free parking in a grassy area that also provides good water drainage and is cooler and more attractive than conventional parking lots.
Green parking area – this particular lot is fairly new, so it’s not yet being used so that the grass has time to mature.
We also made a stop at a community garden that day. What was unique about this garden was that many educational opportunities are provided here to teach gardening to both children and adults. There are a number of demonstration gardens, and an orchard to teach pruning and other tree care. The garden also has a flock of chickens. Participants take turns caring for the hens, and in return, they keep the eggs which are collected each day. I’ll leave you with a few photos taken at the garden. Thanks for joining me!
A medicinal herb garden.
The president of the community garden association by a low tunnel.
And last, but not least, some of the garden chickens.
Thank you for visiting Learning And Yearning. May "the LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace." Num 6:24-26
Pamela @ TraditionalFNH says
Great post, thank you for the tour Susan!!!
Susan says
Glad you enjoyed it, Pamela!
Donna says
What county were you in?
Susan says
This was Luzerne County.
Rosalyn says
I’d love to go on a tour like that! The wellness centre is amazing!
Susan says
I had seen photos of it before the tour, but still, my jaw dropped when we pulled into the driveway.
Holly @ Backyard Chicken Lady says
What a cool tour. I love the live roof. I would like to try that someday. May I can do it on the chicken coop…start small and work our the kinks before trying it on a larger roof. It looks so beautiful. I bet it really keeps the inside cool in th summer and warm in the winter.
Susan says
I like your thinking, Holly – start small!
tessa says
This was an interesting read and I’m glad you shared it. We’re sharing it with our readers at homesteadlady.com – there are always little things we can do around the house to be more self sufficient and use our resources more effectively. I need to be a more out-of-the-box thinker!
Susan says
Thanks, Tessa!
Kathy @ Mind Body and Sole says
Very interesting article, it gave me a lot to think about. Thank you for sharing it on Wildcrafting Wednesday. 🙂
Kathy Shea Mormino, The Chicken Chick says
I just love the living roof! (and the chickens, of course. lol) Thank you for sharing with the Clever Chicks Blog Hop this week!
Cheers,
Kathy Shea Mormino
The Chicken Chick
http://www.The-Chicken-Chick.com
Lisa Lynn says
It’s so encouraging to read posts like this! Thanks so much for sharing this on The HomeAcre Hop! I hope to see you again this week at:
http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2013/06/the-homeacre-hop-23.html
Robert Nelson says
I love the green roof! Reminds me of the thatched roofs near my mother’s town in Iceland!
Thanks for posting to Green Living Thursdays! at http://www.dudesustainable.com.
swimming pool stove parts fort worth texas says
I’m really impressed witrh your writing skills
as well as with the layout on your weblog. Is this a paid theme orr did
you customize it yourself? Anyway keep up the nice quality
writing, it’s rare to see a nice blog like this one nowadays.
TR Jewel says
Yay, looks like your trip was awesome. Thanks for sharing your memories with us.