Inside Urban Green

A Rooftop Plaza Garden That Could Have Been SIPped

Denny Park Apartments from robert mccadden on Vimeo.

I've lived in a wide variety of homes over my lifetime including some large houses during family raising years. Watch the video. Does this look like low-income housing to you? I haven't seen the living accommodations but based on the rooftop plaza I'd be happy to live here.

My reason for posting about it is to point out that the entire rooftop garden could have been done using basic principles long used in the interior plantscaping business.

This project cries out for the use of sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) as "growing inserts" concealed inside all of the overly large planters that were used. Professional interior plantscapers have long used SIPs inside decorative planters. It is "plumbing" that is hidden from the eyes of occupants and visitors.

"Green" Homes of the Future

The Wall Street Journal asked some architects to design what they envision as an energy efficient house. 

I found a couple of them rather amusing. Here we have a "green" energy efficient house. But what about water efficiency? 

Note the wasteful hose watering, not the most efficient way to irrigate plants. Shouldn't a green house conserve water? I hope so. Where is the drip irrigation and sub-irrigation? 

This is an interesting concept, but i'm trying to understand how the produce is harvested. Looks like a ladder job to me. How would you like to climb up there for your fresh tomatoes? 

L.E.D. There be Light

J.R. Krauza

Will the green home of the future have L.E.D lighting sufficient to maintain decorative plants or even better to grow edible plants?

This article from The New York Times is encouraging. Incidentally I read this article in context of how misinformed the Times reporters can be regarding the maintenance and growing of container plants. That is a subject that I'm qualified to critique professionally.

However, I simply don't know enough about L.E.D. lighting technology to analyze this article in detail. If you do, please comment for the benefit of other readers. Here are some reader reviews of the article.

There is obviously significant money betting on an L.E.D. future. Will the living plants sector of the “green” movement be a significant player? Only time will tell, but the past is not a good precursor of the future.

Hopefully, projects like the “Smart Home” in Chicago, will soon demonstrate the use of L.E.D. plant lighting along with sub-irrigated planters. It will certainly make these homes a lot greener.