Herbicides and Stormwater Ponds, Urban Greening or Urban Poison?

With a number of comments, emails and questions submitted about stormwater ponds and toxins, I thought a few clarifying comments would be appropriate.

Aquatic Herbicides

The discussion over Roundup's safety and use is a no-winner for either side.  You have one side who is going to continue spraying a poison into surface waters because they feel the herbicide is safe.  Then you have the other view, one that a poison is a poison and that all herbicides should be avoided.

Science can be argued and research pointed to that supports both sides.  My personal belief, after suffering from so many health issues is that any man made chemical that is not necessary to live with should be avoided, especially those used for convenience sake, such as herbicides or pesticides.  Remember the whole Agent Orange fiasco?

However the interesting questions about last blog post were more focused on the questions of whether plants remove pollutants and toxins from stormwater or do nutirents such as phosphorous and nitrogen, and heavy metals participate out into the pond soils?

Other issues raised included topics such as the logistics of plants growing in ponds and relative littoral zone availability for root contact and full plant growth.

I thought I'd post some interesting links about these topics and let the readers decide as to how they want to view the issues.  Letting others decide for themselves is so much easier than trying to convince people to believe one way or another way.

It's like the Roundup salesman who used to visit the tree farm where I worked while attending law school.  He'd swear that the glyphosate based herbicide was so safe for humans that people could drink the undilluted concentrate straight and it'd never hurt anyone.  But no mater how hard he argued, I'd never drink the herbicide.  Today my cardiologist tells me to avoid all foods or substances that have a 'phos' term in the ingredients because of potential liver and kidney damage.  Once you damage those organs your life is pretty well tied to dialysis or transplant surgery.

Yes I personally think applying herbicides in stormwater ponds is a terrible action to take when considering long term health, safety and welfare of the urban core's inhabitants.

But with respect to plants and their ability to clean water, below are a couple interesting links and thoughts to consider.

Consideration One - no room on the pond's edge (too steep a slope) to plant plants.  True.  But this argument is quite old and there has been so much research completed on extending littoral zone areas with the use of floating wetlands or managed aquatic plant systems that the 'lack of space' argument is pretty much a non-issue.  One can scratch their head about how to add more plants to a pond or one can create floating islands of aquatic plants.  

Consideration Two - do the soils or do the plants that clean stormwater?  Again there is considerable research published showing both soils and plants remove nitrogen and phosphorous from stormwater and surface water.  The decades of research and work about cleaning Lake Apopka conducted by UF's Dr. Reddy using constructed wetlands shows both soils and plants are important in removing pollutants.

Other research specifically points to the use of aquatic plants for removing pollutants from water.

Even several of the universities here in Florida have conducted research into plants and their ability to clean stormwater, including removing nutrients and pollutants.  Dr. Mark Clark of the University of Florida has completed a floating wetland and nutrient removal study as well as researchers with the University of Central Florida, including Dr. Chopra and others. 

In fact, many studies point to the successful ability to employ floating plant systems in efforts to clean stormwater. 

NASA uses aquatic plants to clean sewage!

Studies have also been conducted showing the capabilities of plants to not only remove nutrients but to also remove metals and other toxins from surface waters.

Aquatic vegetation is used across the world to clean sewage, removing nutrients, bacteria and metals.

Another interesting plant-based stormwater cleansing project is the Egret Marsh Algae Scrubber here in Florida, where algae is grown in stormwater then harvested, removing both nitrogen and phosphorous from effluent and runoff before entering the intracoastal waterway.

But not only here in Florida, there are other states - such as Michigan - where aquatic plants are considered important for cleaning stormwater.

Since both soils and plants have been shown to be effective in cleaning stormwater the question the becomes, 'why not employ both?'

You can make your own decision.  You can decide what technical arguments you wish to use to defend your present practice - whatever it may be.

For me it is easy.  Use lots of plants to clean storm runoff before the pollutants reach aquatic life and begin the bio-accumulation process, like in the example of mercury we are so familiar with. 

But really the BIG question is not about whether to use plants to clean water or not.

The real question is what to do with the plants in the pond, regardless of what they are there for, once they have reached maturity.  Do you kill the plants with a herbicide and leave them in the pond or do you remove the biomass from the water system through mechanical harvesting?  This is the real question - the one many maintenance managers want to avoid discussing.

I am strongly biased against aquatic herbicide use.

When the aquatic plants absorb pollutants, be they nutrients or metals, then once the plants reach maturity they should be harvested and removed from the pond as done in some of the research projects referred to here.

Killing mature aquatic plants that have sequestered toxins and allowing the pollutants to re-enter the water column just doesn't make sense to me.

But that is my strong opinion.  I will never be convinced aquatic poisons are safe.

Even though the Roundup salesman man have convinced himself to drink the glyphosate containing concentrate, I never would.  Come on!  Drink a poison?  I have trouble keeping my body alive consuming healthy foods and lots of clean water!

And though there are many standard policy manuals (mostly written by herbicide companies for end users use) that recommend the safety of herbicide use in the urban core, I never would condone application of aquatic herbicides into urban stormwater systems.

Yet I also know I will never convince those in charge of pond maintenance to stop using herbicides to kill cattails.

But when I see the dead plants I can't help but think of the herbicide use decision maker sitting in his swivel chairs at his desk in an air conditioned office, happy they don't have to deal with the probably more difficult chore of figuring out how to harvest cattail biomass, removing sequestered nutrients and toxins from the stormwater.

It is so much easier to just kill the cattails and let them fall back into the pond.

And statistically, chances are the diluted poisons will never affect anyone in their family or anyone they know in their lifetime.

But somewhere, sometime the herbicide or a derivative of the herbicide, or a once sequestered toxin will be re-released into the water supply.  And an innocent child coming in contact with the water will develop a cancer and die.  Though we will never know what caused our nine month old granddaughter, Heidi's brain tumor and death, Tallahassee's water supply had received critical reports of certain toxins.

And I suspect that somewhere in the life cycle of stormwater and herbicide use, another child will come in contact with a once sequestered toxin and suffer unnecessarily.  All while the maintenance manager issues another purchase order for Roundup.

I think life's meaning is really found somewhere in our purposed intent of how we treat and care for the earth.  Please don't tell me herbicides are safe to use.

Healthy Cities Need Healthy Stormwater Ponds - Urban Green, Habitat and Herbicides

Feels like I am stuck in the movie, Groundhog Day starring Bill Murry.  You know, the one where he wakes up in the same room to the same song and everything repeats itself!

Same way with our local governments spraying herbicides into those otherwise healthy stormwater ponds.

Stormwater habitat destroyed with aquatic herbicides

For years we've discussed the concept of 'nutrients in, nutrients out' here in this blog and in other forums.  Simply put, once plants take up and sequester nitrogen, phosphorous and heavy metals they should be harvested out of the stormwater pond and composted, rather than conveniently killed with herbicides and left to decompose in the pond, releasing all the once removed nutrients and toxins right back into the water once more.

Native plant species, Typha sp. killed and left to return sequestered nutrients and toxins back into the water

The concept is so simple I really do not understand why most of our local governments still want to apply herbicides to stormwater ponds instead of simply taking a gas powered hedge trimmer and removing the upper biomass, then composting the collected vegetation.

Well, I can probably guess that the herbicide industry has spent untold dollars in lobby money, lunches out, small gifts, sponsorships of conventions, parties and the like.  After all the good-old-boy network is still alive and well and smoothly functioning!

I am really disappointed in the baby-boomer generation.  Though my hope has always been that the non-conformist ideas of the 60's would change the world, in reality there was little if any change and never will be much change.  As baby-boomers got older and fatter we fell prey to the corporate ideal of 'falling in line' and listening to not having enough energy to do anything that was out of the ordinary. 

So today I am hoping, younger generations, those in their twenties and thirties will actually implement change for the better across our world.

Local governmental decision makers are obviously still taking the easy way out with respect to urban green and habitat.  Poisoning stormwater ponds with mechanized spray is so much easier than harvesting and recomposting.  With spraying herbicides the bureaucratic bunch does not really even have to think!  All they have to do is buy the Roundup or other similar herbicide.  The more herbicide purchased the bigger the holiday parties the regional poison distributor throws, right?

Does anyone in your local public works depart even care that studies may exist showing a correlation between Monsanto's Roundup and Cancer, specifically non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

So in the meantime, while all the migratory birds and other local wildlife are drinking and otherwise using stormwater ponds for habitat (well they once were - until all the vegetation was killed), foraging and communal. local city and county officials are still jumping on the 25,000,000 pounds per year purchasing program of the poison.

No wonder our once healthy cities are becoming unhealthy.

No wonder wildlife, migratory birds, insects and pollinators are fleeing the urban core.

What is  it going to take to get it?

Are we finally ever going to vote into office those who want to be good land stewards instead of good corporate supporters?

Hello young folk!  What are you going to do to fix the mess we baby boomers have created?

Heart Healthy Urban Green Walls

I had my regular CT scan conducted by Flagler Hospital in St. Augustine, Florida last week.  The hospital was established along the tidal marshes of the Intracoastal Waterway south of St. Augustine.

Flagler Hospital, St. Augustine's Living Walls

 The hospital has had the wisdom to create flowering plant sanctuaries throughout the facility.  Using living walls the designers achieved both a security function and a very important therapeutic result with plants that offer evergreen privacy and flowering beauty.

As I was standing adjacent Flagler Hospital's living walls a number of wheelchair bound patients were rolling their chairs around the garden's interior.  To me the obvious patient impact was one of consolance, peace and  serenity.

Flagler Hospital, St. Augustine's Living Walls

For those patients living in hospice, dealing with traumatic injuries, or those with either acute and chronic illnesses, plants can impart much needed healing.

Thank you, Flagler Hospital for the foresight to make a hospital trip a little better with nature's beauty.

Urban Green for Cardiovascular Health

Unfortunately I am having a very difficult time writing anymore, as you can see from the frequency of my posts.

Florida Urban Permaculture Garden by Judy - compost, plant a seed & grow food

Many of you are aware, but for those that are not, I 'encountered' an Type A aortic dissection that started with an aneurysm in my aortic root and split the aorta down through my chest, into my abdomen, into my kidney and down through my leg into my foot.

I am really supposed to be gone.  However there is more work to do first.  There are lots of opportunity for the world to plant Urban Green and benefit greatly with respect to cardiovascular health, and overall health in general.  On those days I can get out of bed, I am here to encourage you to plant!

Florida Urban Permaculture Garden by Judy -Mix flowers and veggies for pollinator attraction

Urban Green can translate into excellent quality of life and strong longevity for a city's general population.  Thank God I have a wife who's passion is plants, for I cannot anymore garden with my health as it is.

And you can do it!  There is no real secret to good permaculture practices.

All it takes is the time to plant a flower or vegetable or fruit tree or other plant - anywhere!  On a patio, balcony, windowsill, in your gutters or on a rooftop!!!

Florida Urban Permaculture Garden by Judy -sandy soil works too - with LOTS of leaves and compost!

You don't need a big farm or a big yard to bring Urban Green back to the Urban Core. 

Over the next couple months, as I can type, my thoughts on why Urban Green is so important to cardiovascular health are going to be the topic.  We'll be sharing all of what we learned on why it is so easy to create Urban Green & why it is so important cardiovascular-wise!

Florida Urban Permaculture Garden by Judy -cooking herbs, rosemary & garlic chives growing close to front door

Hope you join us on this journey into health for the body and health for the entire world!

P.S.  I am looking to the garden for my healthy diet that will help heal what most say is non-healable.  But we shall see..........

Meadow Line - What A Great Urban Greening Project!

Check out this awesome idea about the blending/integration of wildflowers into transportation corridors!  I can see it here in Jacksonville!

Florida Green Roofs and Insulation Value

Do Florida Green Roofs provide insulation or not?  Good question.  There are several different perspectives on the topic.

One current belief is that green roofs may moderate roof temperature fluctuations, leveling out daily swings with respect to heat and cold.

Some of the data we have accumulated points to green roof soil media acting as a heat sink unless the soil is completely covered with shade from plants.


We've compiled data over the last year on how an Extensive Vegetated Roof absorbed and released solar energy (heat) over a twenty four hour cycle.

The roof under study is not insulated.  It has a tongue and groove pine deck with asphalt roll paper and asphalt shingles.  The interior was non-temperature (no heat or HVAC) controlled during the study periods.

The temperature measuring points were the exposed roof tongue and groove decking surfaces and consisted of multiple point averages.  Readings were taken with an EXTECH IR AN200 Unit.

The following illustrations depict a trend we've seen over and over.

The extensive vegetated roof systems absorb solar heat slower than asphalt roofing.  The extensive vegetated roof systems also retain the heat longer and then release the absorbed solar heat slower than asphalt roofing.

The linear trendlines for the temperature curves tell an important story also.  The ambient air temperature and the decking under the non-insulated asphalt shingle roof temperature possess more significant vertical trendline movements.

The temperature swings of the decking under the green roof are much more linear - showing a narrower range in temperature swings.

The data shown here is representative of spring, summer, autumn and winter with summer and winter having the more pronounced curves.

Importantly, we believe extensive green roofs, such as the one we are studying in this case, moderate temperature swings.

The data also points to the fact that green roofs serve as a heat sink, slowly absorbing solar heat during the daylight hours then slowly releasing the heat during the evening dark periods.

During the winter, green roofs may help by moderating cold temperatures at night by releasing heat back into the structure.  However if insulation separated the green roof from the structure then little or no heat would be recaptured unless a heat capture coil or other mechanism existed.

The inverse holds true for the summer.  During the day the green roof would moderate the solar heat gain to the structure by intercepting the solar radiation and absorbing it.  However at night, the green roof would radiate heat back into the structure, slowing the cooling process.

Again, if the roofs are insulated from the green roofs then there is no real benefit from a linear trendline perspective of sink and release.

We believe maybe this data points to the need for a method of harvesting the solar heat captured in the green roof during the day.  Potential capture processes could include water or silicon filled coils or tubes interwoven into the vegetated roof or other similar mechanical systems.

Harvesting the absorbed heat would allow for a more managed use of the solar heat resource.

We do believe that the notion of green roofs working to cool buildings should be more appropriately described as a moderating effect of absorption and slow release of solar heat.

Check out the range bars on the temperature curve chart to the left.

The green roof decking temperature has a much narrower temperature range.

Data points to the fact that green roofs absorb heat and quite a bit of it.

We always welcome your comments - feel free to email us anytime here.

Green roofs offer the potential to collect and harvest solar energy.  They may not be the cooling system we sometimes represent them to be.

Green Roofs Fight Cancer

Green roofs and living walls can help clean the air and allow us to breath easier.

Many geographic locations acros the globe have air contaminated with Volatile Organice Compounds also known as VOCs.

Green Roof plants remove cancer causing VOCs from the air

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are chemicals created by industrial pollution and automobile engines among other processes.  VOCs are the primary cause of Urban Smog.  

They are also responsible for the formation of cancers, respiratory problems and other serious health issues.

According to the US EPA, the Health Effects of VOCs include:

Eye, nose, and throat irritation; headaches, loss of coordination, nausea; damage to liver, kidney, and central nervous system. Some organics can cause cancer in animals; some are suspected or known to cause cancer in humans. Key signs or symptoms associated with exposure to VOCs include conjunctival irritation, nose and throat discomfort, headache, allergic skin reaction, dyspnea, declines in serum cholinesterase levels, nausea, emesis, epistaxis, fatigue, dizziness.

The ability of organic chemicals to cause health effects varies greatly from those that are highly toxic, to those with no known health effect. As with other pollutants, the extent and nature of the health effect will depend on many factors including level of exposure and length of time exposed. Eye and respiratory tract irritation, headaches, dizziness, visual disorders, and memory impairment are among the immediate symptoms that some people have experienced soon after exposure to some organics. At present, not much is known about what health effects occur from the levels of organics usually found in homes. Many organic compounds are known to cause cancer in animals; some are suspected of causing, or are known to cause, cancer in humans.

For more health information on VOCs from the EPA click here. 

According to a new study - one confirming what we already know - plants -  - clean these harmful VOCs out of the air.   Read about the study in a National Science Foundation Article here.

This study makes it clear that it is especially important to have as many plants inside your building or home as the levels of VOCs inside a structure can be up to ten times the ambient levels outside.

Plants act as filters for air and rainfall, actually removing and utilizing harmful nitrogen.  They also remove carbon from the atmosphere by using CO2 to produce much needed energy compounds and then plants pump oxygen back into the atmosphere.

As we are bombarded with pollutants each day, in our water and in the air - installing interior living walls, exterior vertical green - green roofs and living walls, Urban Permaculture - City Gardens, wildflowers and trees - can pay off with significant benefits.

Ultimately, we may live longer.  Ultimately, we may beat the odds with cancer or respiratory diseases.

Restoring Volumetric Green to the Urban Core is critical.  Today, go out and plant a seed or a grown plant.  Bring another inside.  Hang plants from your patio walls and your kitchen window.  Keep plants in your home.  Install a green roof.

Green roofs and living walls - cleaning stormwater, creating habitat, providing a sense of place and beauty and - importantly - fighting disease by removing pollutants!

Surround yourself with plants today.  You may breath better and live longer. 

Remember, the benefits of adding volumetric green to the Urban Core include;

• Cleaning Rainfall runoff and stormwater
• Providing wildlife habitat
• Supporting biodiversity
• Creating habitat for endangered plants
• Integrated pest management - supporting pest consuming invertebrates and amphibians
• Noise insulation
• Reducing Heat Island effect
• Creating a Sense of Place and Landscape Beauty
• and more

Easy Florida Living Wall

Yesterday we posted a note about a struggling living wall.  Yet living walls, if planned properly, can be easy too.

Ficus punila, living wall Tallahassee

Florida Living Wall, Low maintenance 

Living walls such as those pictured here provide many benefits, including; stormwater attenuation, urban heat island effect mitigation, carbon sequestration, air purification, beauty and wildlife habitat.

This particular wall provides a home to a large population of our native Florida Anoles.  Florida Anoles need vertical green above one meter or so to escape the larger, more predatory Cuban Anole and themselves are an important pest control species as their diet includes flies, roaches and other bugs.

Creeping fig, ficus pumila is a drought tolerant vine and although it is not a Floria native it does not exhibit significant invasive characteristics.  More information on the creeping fig vine is available on the UF IFAS website here.

The vine is planted in urban soils amended with organic matter at the base of a concrete wall surrounding the gasoline station.

Soil preparation is crucial when considering a living wall.

Living Wall Update, Whole Foods, Jacksonville

One year ago, during February 2012 we examined in a post dying 'living walls' across the Whole Foods store in Jacksonville, proposing the theory of inadequate soil makeup as the primary reason for the living wall plant's poor performance.

Whole Foods 'living wall', Jacksonville

Briefly examining the site history led us to realize that another concrete block building, including a foundation and concrete floor existed prior to the present building. The site soils were what we would characterize as Urban Soils with abnormally high pH levels.

Whole Foods 'living wall', Jacksonville

Our post recommended removing some of the existing soil and amending the planters with rich organic laden soil.

Urban Soil fill existing planters

The Whole Foods living wall structures are quite expensive, a high-end stainless steel wall system appearing to be a CarlStahl Decorcable design.

Expensive, high-end living wall system

It is a shame these beautiful living wall frames are not covered with brilliant blooming Passiflora, Trumpet Vine, Coral Honeysuckle, Carolina jessamine and other beautiful landscape or native vines.
Instead, today wisteria (a relatively invasive species) is struggling to maintain even a small bit of coverage on the facade of the building. Fertilizers do appear to have been added, providing for a short lived spurt of growth in some areas.

I suspect that a stunning array of flowering vines doing very well on the trellis system would actually increase sales at the store. Paradoxically, the 'puny' vines send a message of 'unhealthyness' across the entire facade of the health foods store.

Our suggestion still stands. Remove as much of the high pH Urban Soils as possible and replace with a higher organic matter content soil. Add soil pH stabilizers. Remove the wisteria and other plants not suited for the site and add those species destined to thrive in the existing planters.

Next year the Whole Foods store could be well on it's way to a vibrant series of living walls, or....... the topic of yet again another post like this one.

Posted with Blogsy

Awesome Stormwater Drainage Filtration (Plants of Course!)

Though native species would have been better than grasses, I am still awarding the designer of the below stormwater collection system an A+ for common sense.

Grass filters stormwater before entering collection system

Grasses planted around the stormwater drain grate will effectively filter out most pollutants, sequestering many in their biomass, before the runoff enters the collection system and heads to our lakes and rivers.

If this application were used worldwide for stormwater then we'd be taking a dramatic step towards clean water.

Kudos to the unknown designer!

Florida Green Roof Plants in Action

Lovely photo of an older green roof in Jacksonville ( 8+ years old ).  Note this roof is nature irrigated only and has survived several Tropical Storms, one with 23 inches ( 58 cm ) rainfall.  The roof has a 5/12 slope.

Lightweight Green Roof over sloped decking and asphalt shingles

Notice that I cut out a square of the Green Roof mat to examine the underlying waterproof barrier.   In doing so I removed the outside perimeter edges.  It is important to note that raw edges should never be left exposed to wind damage potential.

The entire system live loaded weighs less than ten pounds per square foot.

Green Roofs constructed on large commercial or institutional buildings are important, however just as important are those residential applications where existing asphalt shingles and sloped roofs can be incorporated.

Green Roof Plants, Frost Damage to Certain CAM Plants

In earlier posts, we examined the damage frost can do to the mesophyll cells of C3 plants. Mesophyll cells are those cells across the surface of the leaf. C3 plants usually possess lots of stomata and C3 photosynthesis is a quick and rapid process, allowing C3 plants to grow rapidly, filling in a green roof.

In C4 and CAM plants photosynthesis occurs in a different manner with different cells. Today we will briefly examine one aspect of CAM plants and look at damage incurred by freezing temperatures.

Many CAM Plants, such as some sedum may die back to their roots upon experiencing a frost, others die completely.  There are some CAM plants however, in the genus Yucca and similar genus who can survive mild freezes.

CAM stands for Crassulacean acid metabolism. CAM plants generally have stomata adapted to open at night and not during the day, preserving water during hot periods or drought. Many plants living in arid ecosystems are CAM plants and can be recognized by smaller leaves with a higher leaf volume ratio (fat, fleshy leaves where water is stored in vacuoles), waxy leaf surfaces, sunken stomata areas. 

Examples of CAM plants popular in Florida include;

• Pineapple
• Jade Plant
• Euphorbias
• Sansevierias
• Aloes and others

Green Roof CAM Plant, Graptopetalum spp.

 The photo to the left is of a Mexican Ghost plant, many of us call a sedum, however it is really a not really a sedum but a Graptopetalum.

For an informative article with many reference links about CAM and Graptopetalum, see the blog post linked here.

Many succulents such as the Mexican Ghost plant and others can endure a little frost, though some of the more tropical varieties are tender to any type of frost damage.

However unlike C3 and C4 plants, many CAM plants store water in cells called vacuoles.  I call vacuoles 'smart blobs'.  Vacuoles are storage cells used for a number of plant physiological purposes.  In CAM plants vacuoles are used to store water and other photosynthesis related substances like the carbon dioxide.

Green Roof Plant, CAM Type After Hard Dreeze, Graptopetalum spp.

As mentioned, most CAM plants have thicker leaves - because of the presence of the stored water.  We have collected data over the years showing how the Mexican Ghost plant and other similar succulents survive minor frosts yet because of the expansion of water as it freezes, their cells rupture and the plant usually dies during a hard freeze.

Water stored in the vacuoles and other parts of the succulent's leaves expands as the temperature drops into the lower 20'S F (-6 to -8C).  As the stored fluid freezes and expands in size the vacuole wall and other cells rupture, injuring or killing the plants.

Though this phenomena can be observed across the green roof, it is especially prevalent in plants along the edges of the green roof.

CAM type succulents planted along green roof edges are exposed to unbroken cold, dry winds.  However within the interior of the green roof plantings we observe less freezing damage, probably due to stored heat in the planting media and the break from constant winds.

What lessons can we learn from the Mexican Ghost plant and freezing temperatures?  Many, including plant placement on a green roof and inter-relations between C3, C4 and CAM type plants.   We will discuss some of the hardier CAM plants in a future blog.

Green Roof & Living Wall Plants and Wind Exposure

Wind can seriously impact the long term survival of Green Roof and Living Wall plants.

Included here are two photos of the same black-eye pea plants growing on Green Roofs (Rooftop Garden).  

One is on a wind protected green roof, the other is on a wind exposed green roof.  Note the wind burn on the wind exposed roof plants.

Both looked the same prior to the 48 hour wind storm just leaving.

We recorded between 10 and 20 Km/Hr winds on a continual basis for the 48 hours with almost non-existent water vapor or air humidity.  Winds of these speeds will draw most, if not all of the water out of a Green Roof plant. 

Florida Green Roof, Wind Protected Green Roof Plants

Florida Green Roof, Wind Exposed Green Roof Plants

Wind can burn or kill green roof plants quickly, taking an otherwise beautiful planting and turning into a brown mess within a matter of days.  Even with more than adequate irrigation water applied - simply because the vascular system of the plants cannot keep up with the demand for water in the leaves. 

Proper Green Roof and Living Wall plant selection involves knowledge of how a plant physiologically interacts with wind stresses.

In windy areas, CAM plants and those plants with stomata remaining closed or closing under lack of water conditions must be used as perimeter wind break plants on green roofs with out parapets or other wind protection if the green roof is not otherwise sheltered.

Understand the different types of photosynthesis green roof plants have.  For a primer, check out the many articles we have posted before on CAM, C4 and C3 plants.

Other helpful sites are included here;

Great Irish Gardening blog article on wind damage in Ireland to garden plants.

North Carolina State University has another brief yet informative note on wind desiccation of plants.

Very interesting and informative Permaculture Wind Break Site.

Remember, your green roof site may receive plenty or precipitation or irrigation water, but if it is constantly exposed to desiccating winds the plants will experience the effects of wind damage.

Low Cost Greenhouse for Green Roof Plants or Urban Core Permaculture

We are now proud owners of a low cost, easy to build greenhouse in our Urban Core backyard.

Low Cost Seed Starting & Green Roof Plant Greenhouse

Greenhouses are so very useful in starting seeds, rooting cuttings, potting up plants and providing warm weather plants a head start on the growing season.

Greenhouse's interior includes areas for potting plants, storing soil media, supplies and plants

Greenhouses though can be terribly expensive when purchased as kits.

Our greenhouse above is eight feet wide and twenty eight feet in length.  Height in the center is ten feet.  This gives us plenty of room to move around, store supplies and start seeds.

Growing areas are also added under some of the shelves and in a growing extension to the right of the front door.  Plans for this growing area include tomatoes and peppers.  Plastic can be added over the hoops if our Florida nighttime temperatures drop too low.

Cost for the entire structure was less than two hundred dollars.  Much of the material used was recycled from other construction projects or salvaged from neighborhood throwaways.

The greenhouse beginning, a frame from recycled fence components

The greenhouse project was begun by hammering used fence posts into the ground and adding horizontal shelf framing, all fastened together with plastic wire ties.

DIY Greenhouse Frame detail

Grey plastic electrical conduit (one could use bamboo) was inserted into the top opening of the fence posts, 'looped' over to the opposite side of the greenhouse and inserted into the post on the far side wall.  The grey electrical conduit costs less than two dollars for a ten foot section and lasts for many years in outdoor service.

Greenhouse frame ready for plastic covering

Finally, four or six mil plastic was added over the hoop rafters, shadecloth added to one end and lattice around the bottom edge.

The entire structure is held together with electrical zip ties.  Our other greenhouses we've built similar to the above have easily survived numerous tropical storms.

Grapes are now planted to several areas around the base of the structure.  Grapes will help cool the greenhouse in the summer and when their leaves drop, allow for solar heat to fill the growing area during winter.

Greenhouses don't have to be expensive to be functional.  Once the coral honeysuckle, grapes and other vines weave their tendrils into the lattice work, pollinators should come in droves.

Hoop architecture with inexpensive conduit has proven itself year in and year out.

DIY greenhouses can add wonderful opportunities to any urban core permaculture efforts!

Harvesting Fog and Dew for Drinking Water and Vegetable Garden Irrigation

With natural water supplies drying up and disappearing and areas affected by drought increasing in acreage every day, learning how to harvest all available atomized water from the air is important.

Alternative forms of irrigation for green roofs and living walls can sometimes be the primary irrigation source for rooftop plants.  We use air conditioning condensate and dew catchers on many of the green roofs we design.

This morning our lanai screen was covered in water droplets though there was not a cloud anywhere to be seen in the sky, a reminder of the available irrigation potential.

Dew available for Green Roof Irrigation

Additionally, a quick early morning walk through the garden offered up the opportunity to see dew droplets all across the vegetable leaves and other plants.

Dew available for irrigation in the garden

Dew can be an important source of 'free' irrigation.  Learning how to harvest the condensed water vapor is easy, as humans have been tapping this resource for ages.

Check out the TreeHugger article here for an informative look at how dew catchers provide drinking and irrigation water to some of Peru's underdeveloped areas.

Then check out an amazing YouTube video showing the construction of a DIY dew catcher!

Always consider dew as an irrigation source when designing vertical green in the Urban Core.

Extreme Rooftop and Roadside Micro-Biodiversity

Sometimes we can't see the forest for the trees.

US1 Highway, Flagler County

 

Sometimes we can't see the forest for the rooftops

 

Breaking Ground Rooftop

Nature can teach us so many things about biodiversity. With a little bit of wild seed source, always available from bird droppings and wind currents, Her wildflowers thrive even where most don't notice.

The Green Roof shown above has over fifty different plant families represented, well as hundreds of genus and species. Native plants, food plants and wildflowers flourish, providing habitat for insects and wildlife.

Mother Nature knows how to care for her own, even along roadsides and above rooftops.

Take a look at the very first photo in the post here. First glance portrays a lonely FDOT rights of way with grass and a few skinny looking pine trees. But in reality the biodiversity here is exponentially greater than the Breaking Ground Contracting Green Roof with hundreds of plant genus occurring across the plantings.

When I see a wet swale such as the remnant pine flatwoods alongside a highway, adrenalin surges through my veins, working against the beta-blockers I take to protect the smooth muscles of my heart from Marfan Syndrome damage. Even in the dead of winter I know this place will be a living jungle, a damp, rainforest-like wilderness zoo of exotic plants and wildlife.

Advanced Biodiversity May Not Always Be Visible

Take another look at the photo. How many species are visible?

Clearly there are pines and mowed grass. Yet the open canopy, sandy nutrient poor soil and high water table come together to provide another, barely visible micro-world full of amazing plants and wildlife.

And I knew that as sure as driving by the other day, I'd be back with cane and camera. One of these days I really am going to invent a more friendly swamp hiking cane or walker for hobblers like myself.

So camera in hand I came back and sat down with the tape measure to find out what was really growing on a one square meter of otherwise barren looking roadside. The richness in biodiversity was mind boggling, for growing under the mower's blade height were tiny wildflowers, unusual native grasses and a host of carnivorous plants.

Nature abhors monocultures of anything. As soon as we try to straighten and organize the landscape, She is at work dropping seed source and encouraging complex communities exhibiting intense interactivity and preforming endless important functions. Tidy gardens, neatly planted green roofs and organized landscapes such as the mowed roadside have little significance in Her quest to create fields of biodiversity. Plant a neat row of flowers and in one month she will have planted and sprouted ten times the varieties of plants in the same row.

As I sat on the damp sandy soil looking across the extreme micro biodiversity I noticed my shorts were wicking up some of the plentiful surface moisture, creating a damp cooling effect, calming my excitement generated adrenalin flashes. But with the winter sun quickly fleeing towards the western horizon I knew my task of identifying all the plant species in a one meter square would be impossible in one afternoon's brief time. In fact, it'd probably take an eternity to just begin to understand the living complexity of the habitat lying before me.

Though a few of the photos are included showing all the wonderful plants, I've saved a surprise for the last.

The meter square bit of sandy soil provided a habitat for many plants.

Florida Native Wildflower, Bantam Buttons, Syngonanthus flavidulus, Flagler County, January 2012

Though not blooming, the beautiful rosette of Bantam Button's leaves covered the ground as far as I could see.

Vanilla Plant, Carphephorus odoratissimus, Florida Native Wildflower, Flagler County, January 2013

Beautiful and fragrant vanilla plant, Carphephorus odoratissimus bloomed profusely even though cut and stunted by maintenance mower's blade, growing side by side with mosses and sundew.

Vanilla Plant, Carphephorus odoratissimus, Florida Native Wildflower, Flagler County, January 2013

Coinwort, Centella erecta added interesting colors and textures while cleaning the water and providing nutritious forage.

Florida Native Carnivorous Wildflower Butterwort

Florida Native Carnivorous Wildflower Butterwort

The carnivorous plant genus, Butterwort, Pinguicula contributed to the one meter biodiversity as well as different species of Florida's native grass, Panicum.

Though at first I thought I'd discovered a great surprise in the small, unusual shaped flower above the tiny little sundew, further examination revealed what I'd expected. The yellow flower belonged to another Florida carnivorous plant genus commonly known as Bladderworts. This particular bladderwort, Utricularia juncea, also known as Southern Bladderwort, present a single thin thread-like stem growing upwards through a stunningly brilliant pink sundew, Drosera capillaris. Two intertwined carnivorous plants, thriving in a seemingly visual desert.

Florida Native Carnivorous plants, sundew and bladderwort

Nature' complexity is mind-boggling. But then She gave me my real surprise. Reviewing and enlarging the photos on my Canon LCD I noted what I thought was a speck of trash, and there was that annoying feeling of 'must clean the lens and reshoot'. It is hard enough for me to position myself to take the photo the first time. But this was no speck of trash. For on the tiny, barely visible bladderwort stem were even smaller, newborn green tree frogs. I was speechless.

The barren stretch of rights of way was really a jungle of rich biodiversity.

Think you can create a nice little, orderly singular row of flowers or parch of grass? Think again. Nature plays by Her own rules.

Newly hatched green tree frogs take refuge on a bladderwort stem

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Florida Living Walls for the Urban Core - Stormwater, Ethnobotany, Habitat & Heat Island Cooling

Florida Living Wall using Native Plants

Living walls are a popular method of adding vertical green to the Urban Core.  Living walls contribute important environmental benefits to the city.  Habitat is created, stormwater attenuated and purified, heat island effect calmed, air cleaned and oxygen produced.  There are numerous reasons to install a living wall anywhere downtown.

Florida Native Plant, Horsetail, Equisetum hyemale

Unfortunately though, when considering living walls many people think only in terms of very expensive vertical planting systems and trays.

There are many ways to create an Urban Core Living Wall.

One of the most simplest living walls here in Florida is the type where vines, such as Virginia Creeper, Coral Honeysuckle or Carolina Jessamine grow vertically across walls.

Rows of trees are an alternative example of living walls.

Even tall plants, such as those pictured above, can create stunning living walls.  The Florida native plant, Horsetail, Equisetum hyemale is used here to create a living wall against a concrete block wall.  The plants are thriving in heavily urbanized, high pH construction soils, surrounded with concrete foundations and concrete driveways.

I like using horsetail because the plant is evergreen, has a low leaf-litter habit, adds structural interest, grows well in low organic substrates and provides immense habitat.  Additionally, Horsetail acts like a living grate, filtering out most all trash from stormwater runoff.

Combined with vines planted in a living roof container and draping over a roof's edge, an entire facade can be covered with plants without having to install expensive and hard to maintain planting systems.

Finally, installing vertical green in the Urban Core has many benefits, a few being;

• cleaning and attenuating stormwater
• providing wildlife habitat
• cleaning air, removal of CO2
• fresh oxygen production
• heat island effect mitigation
• landscape beauty & plant art
• noise insulation
• integrated pest management

and so much more.  Think creativity when exploring living wall options.