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Showing posts from May, 2010

Design for the birds

On this blog you've seen Joe Papendick's eclectic bird houses , courtesy of Lisa Boone of the Los Angeles Times L.A. at Home blog.  Today we bring you the Garden Maker: Bird Habitat by Branch.  Like its butterfly counterpart , the kit contains marking stakes and pencil, instructions, and eight types of seeds.  The latter are Amaranthus, Buckwheat, Calendula, Larkspur, Liatris, Mexican Hat, Salvia, and Sunflower, all "known to attract song birds." Garden Maker: Bird Habitat image courtesy of Branch Sunflower is recommended as a good source of seeds by the Celebrating Urban Birds project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. To attract songbirds and hummingbirds, it is important to provide "a steady supply of food year round" such as berries, seeds, and nectar. Be sure to read Celebrating Urban Bird's Urban Gardening for Birds and Urban Greening web pages to learn more about creating "little green places" for birds in the city. If yo

Monarch butterfly on the wall

Update: Thanks to Gail and Bob Morris for correcting our butterfly i.d. The butterfly pictured below is a Painted Lady ( Vanessa cardui ), not a monarch as previously stated. This post has been edited accordingly. The butterfly in your photo is a painted lady, not a monarch. But please do plant milkweeds to encourage monarchs! They need our help right now. (Gail and Bob Morris) This advice still stands: If you are trying to attract Monarch, be sure to plant milkweeds,* the monarch's larval host plants. (Check the Monarch Watch Butterfly Gardening page for larval host plants by butterfly and by plant.) This Painted Lady on the wall only caught my attention because my gaze was at stroller height.  Sunning itself on the western side of Greenwich Street at Horatio, I am sure it has seen and heard the neighborhood's goings-on. There are few places to create significant butterfly habitat on Greenwich. There are no front yard setbacks but there are street tree beds. If en

Time on the High Line

I visited High Line Park for the fourth time last weekend.  Follow me. Smells like High Line at Bleecker's Bond Street No. 9 Approaching the Gansevoort entrance Parents watching their kids at the pop-up playground by KaBOOM! Grove and benches at 10th Avenue Square Railroad ties serve as bed dividers Walking through Gansevoort Woodland SkyscraperPage.com has a great set of photos of the park.

Shovel-ready greenhouses

Last week I commented on Landscape+Urbanism's post about modest proposals for vertical agriculture . I wonder if institutions with lawns would lease these them to be used for cold frame agriculture (see http://localecologist.blogspot.com/2009/09/what-happened-to-grow-cook-eat-learn.html). My comment was inspired by the Grow, Cook, Eat, Learn (GCEL) project of the NYU Graduate Program in Food Studies and the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.  The GCEL greenhouses or wooden cold frame boxes are located on one of two unused, university-owned lots between the Washington Square Village apartments. (Why not install greenhouses on both lawn areas?) This spring the greenhouses are full of leafy greens. I could imagine shovel-ready greenhouses (pushcart style and/or hitchable to a bicycle) being installed in other underused spaces throughout the city -- for food, for wildlife habitat, for viewing. Interested in a collaboration? Email us at info(at)loc

Branding with the linden tree

On air travel and climate change from the Christian Science Monitor : "Efficiency is only set to improve at 1 or 2 percent per year at best, while the number of passenger kilometers is growing at 5 or 6 percent," says Peter Lockley, head of policy development at the Aviation Environment Federation, a British think tank. "So emissions are going up steadily in the gap between the two." On a recent Delta Airlines flight we saw the above advertisement. You'll notice that the leaves in the ad are those of a linden. We wondered why the ad agency selected linden leaves. Aren't maple and oak leaves more recognizable? Hoping to find out more, we searched the internet but did not find any information about this ad campaign.  However, we did learn that Carl (Carolus) Linnaeus, the father of botany, was named for the linden tree! Here's a version of the story from Wikipedia: Linnaeus was born in the countryside of SmÃ¥land, in southern Sweden. His father was t

Tree Walk: Arboreal pyramids

The dawn redwood ( Metasequoia glyptostroboides ), a deciduous conifer, "grows in a perfect pyramid 70 to 90 feet tall" according to its US Forest Service fact sheet . The Arbor Day Foundation describes the species as fast growing which means it can grow 25" or more per year.  This particular dawn redwood is located on E. Houston Street in Manhattan adjacent to a nine-story building. The dawn redwood is a NYC Parks Department approved street tree species.  Two were planted in the sidewalk front of a new residential development at 3-7 Wooster Street. Will they attain the same height as the one in the garden on Houston Street? Another pyramidal tree approved for sidewalk planting in NYC is the bald cypress ( Taxodium distichum ) but we have not seen one growing in the sidewalk, yet. If you live in New York, have you seen this tree ?

Biking up a tree

Continental walker Matt Green of I'm Just Walkin' graciously provided us with the content of this post: the photograph above and observations below about the trees seen along his walk across the U.S. Thank you Matt. The only big thing I've noticed in terms of numbers of trees is that there tend to be more trees where it's hillier, but that's because the flatter areas tend to be farmed, and where there are fields, there's not much room for trees. So Pennsylvania had a lot more trees than Ohio and Indiana along my route. I saw a lot of flowering trees in western PA and Ohio. Fewer here in Indiana, but there are some nice dogwoods blooming now. I don't have any particular recollections of trees in people's yards. I think there's a whole mix of tree types and sizes. I've seen a few good treehouses, but other than that there haven't been many visible signs of tree use by people. I noticed more birds in farm land, but I think that's

Trains of sunflower yellow and apple green

Source : NYC Subway Map The Beatles sung about a man who lived on a yellow submarine but New Yorkers can ride the "sunflower yellow" R train from Forest Hills in Queens to Bay Ridge in Brooklyn.  Sunflower yellow is the (not-so) secret name for the N, R, Q, and Q lines; "tomato red" for the Nos. 1, 2, 3;  "raspberry" for the No. 7; "vivid blue" for the A, C, and E; "apple green" for the No. 4; "slate gray" for the L; and "terra cotta brown" for the J and Z lines.  I like that some of the lines are named for edibles but wonder who decided on apple green vs. green (was R. Raleigh D'Adamo eating a Granny Smith apple on the day he devised the color scheme ?).  We welcome your thoughts!

Flora Mirabilis

Jamaica dogwood A few months ago Susan Tyler Hitchcock of the National Geographic Society * kindly provided us with a copy of Flora Mirabilis by Catherine Herbert Howell.  Whoever said you cannot judge a book by its cover had obviously not seen this book .  The stories of the 27 plants that "shaped world knowledge, health, wealth, and beauty" are told convincingly with narrative and illustration . The latter is the best feature of the book and the focus of our review.  By the way, the 27 plants are date palm, wheat, rice, olive; black pepper, sugarcane, maize, citrus, tulip; tobacco, tea, coffee, peppers, cinchona; tomato rose, grape, cotton, apple; cannabis, rubber, potato, opium poppy, orchids; and bamboo, yam, cacao.) The first illustrations that greet the eyes are the ones on the book's jacket. The cover features the Jamaica dogwood ( Piscidia erythrina or P. piscipula ) and the spine, the Tiger lily ( Lilium spp.) both from the collections of the Missour

Acorn to seedling

In honor of Mother's Day. Somewhere in Boston

Collegiate green spaces

This post about NYU’s Native Woodland Garden is courtesy of Jason Hollander, editor-in-chief of the NYU Alumni Magazine . The original essay ("Green Streets") can be read in Issue #14 of the magazine. Photographs here are courtesy of local ecologist.  A list of the plants used in the garden was compiled by head gardener George P. Reis. It’s a fair bet that the Manhates Indians—the original Village “locals”—would be awestruck if they walked along West Fourth Street in 2010. They’d find tall edifices, honking cars, and a stream of people inexplicably consumed with their BlackBerries and iPhones. But at the corner of West Fourth and Washington Square East, they’d also find a garden that just might offer a little sense of home and comfort amidst the chaos of the modern world. Situated between Bobst Library and Shimkin Hall, NYU’s Native Woodland Garden boasts 39 species of native plants, including assorted ferns, sedge, wild ginger, and sarsaparilla. The 2,200-square-

Log-in to save the urban forest

Source : Urban Forest Map Press Kit Log-in a tree to save it. Sounds like an oxymoron, right? But look carefully at the spelling: it's log-in not logging. The Urban Forest Map project is asking San Franciscans to add information about specific trees to the Urban Forest Map, such as their location, species, size, and health. That data can then be used by urban foresters and city planners to better manage trees in specific areas, track and combat tree pests and diseases, and plan future tree plantings. Climatologists can use it to better understand the effects of urban forests on climates, and students can use it to learn about the role trees play in the urban ecosystem. Source : Urban Forest Map Press Kit The project is a partnership of the Friends of the Urban Forest, the City of San Francisco, and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal FIRE) and is staffed by Amber Bieg and Kelaine Vargas.

Emerald Cities book giveaway

Update: Christopher is the winner of the Emerald Cities book giveaway. Thank you for participating! Image courtesy of Joan Fitzgerald "This is an absolutely invaluable resource and essential reading for anyone working on the agendas of green urbanism and green cities," writes Timothy Beatley of Joan Fitzgerald's Emerald Cities: Urban Sustainability and Economic Development . Fitzerald is Professor and Director of the Law, Policy and Society Program at Northeastern University in Boston. I learned of Fitzgerald's new book (she's authored two other books) while listening to the April 20 episode of The Leonard Lopate Show. I was so intrigued by Joan's observations that I emailed her asking for a copy of her book for a giveaway on this blog (thank you Joan and Kathie). *Contest Details* To enter to win the copy of Emerald Cities , simply answer the following question in the comments section: What sustainability projects are being pursued by your city or

Sustainable Urban Yards

Do you live in a building that has a front, side or back area that is concrete, neglected or just plain ugly? Whether you live in a rowhouse or apartment building, there is probably a nearby space that can be transformed into an urban mini-oasis. If you answered yes to this question then the "Overlooked Assets: Sustainable Urban Yards" landscape seminar is for you! The May 14, 2010 event is sponsored by Sustainable Yards, The Horticultural Society of New York, and the New York Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Courtesy of Evan Mason *Seminar Details* When: Friday, May 14, 2010, 10am-3:45pm Where: The Horticultural Society of New York 148 West 37th Street, 13th floor Cost: $35 HSNY/ASLA members; $50 non-members LACES credits (2.5) available for an additional: $25 ASLA members; $45 non-members To Register: click on http://www.hsny.org/programs_workshops_talks_tours.html . Or call 212-757-0915 x100 if you have questions or wish to register

Going a Maying

I love the title of this print from the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog of the Library of Congress: "The boy who knew where there was a tree, or, Going a Maying." Image credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-USZ62-90145] ca. 1898. Other May Day prints can be viewed here . According to Wikipedia , May Day, celebrated on May 1st, is associated with pagan rites such as "the festival of Flora, the Roman Goddess of flowers, and the Walpurgis Night celebrations of the Germanic countries....[and] is also associated with the Gaelic Beltane. The holiday goes beyond floral rites.  Labor rights advocates gather on May Day so May 1st is also known as International Workers Day .   Where will you go a Maying? Will you be twirling around a tree or pole, or will you be marching for a cause?