The Bronx River Lives!

Alewife are back for a second year in a row.

Carroll Gardens garden roof

I've been researching green roofs for Eco Brooklyn for the better part of two months, and have become acquainted with the components and fluent in the language. I've really enjoyed learning the theory. But because of the confines my dayjob, I have been limited to developing an abstract notion and knowledge of The Green Roof. This weekend that finally changed, as I participated in my first green roof installation.

We worked with folks from Green-It-Yourself (GIY) to install a modular extensive green roof using Gaia Soil, burlap bags and a variety of sedums. We ran into some unforeseen issues and couldn't finish while it was light on Saturday, so folks were going back today. I imagine that Gennaro will post photos of the finished roof on the Eco Brooklyn blog, so check there if you want to see the remainder of the project. In the meantime, check out my photos below (sorry the picture quality is kind of bad -- had to use the iPhone camera since I broke my digital in a rainstorm).

Get in touch if you want to learn how to do this yourself...

Prepping the roof for the water retention layer: Jack cutting reclaimed styrofoam insulation to form the perimeter boundary.

Gennaro inserting plugs of radiant heating tube to keep the roof from slipping downslope. The water retention layer was actually triple-ply filter fabric and it created slipping problems (this is NOT protocol: do not do this if you can avoid it).

Plugs in place. Notice the (drilled out) drainage holes -- there are fewer upslope and additional ones as you approach the drain.

Laying the filter fabric over the drainage layer: challenging when the wind is gusting.

Gaia soil: good growing medium (made with compost and shredded styrofoam packing peanuts) used to fill the burlap bags laid on the roof.

Burlap bags to be cut and planted with sedum...

Sedum cuttings waiting to be planted.

The (by far) least glamorous green roof job: pulling soggy, moldy year-old woodchips out and marching them up four flights to mulch the roof and keep moisture in.

A sea of blank canvases waiting to be attended to.

Musings on urban blight

First, a photographer interested in documenting the Gowanus Canal, something that I had thought about doing before I realized he'd already done it. I don't have the evidence with me here on this computer, but the similarity in some of the pictures we've taken is kind of eerie.

Second, SF-based designers who want to make something of their city's empty lots. Kind of reminds me of my backyard garden.

Science in the City

Tickets for the 2009 World Science Festival became available yesterday.  Sessions of interest to water people include The Hudson Since Henry and Rising Waters in a Thirsty World.

The Hudson session will include input from Alex Matthiessen, president of Riverkeeper, Eric Sanderson, one of the folks behind the Mannahatta Project, and John Waldman, a professor of biology at Queens College whose research focuses on ecology and evolution of fishes and urban aquatic environments.

Maude Barlow, Senior Advisor on Water to the President of UN General Assembly, and Radley Horton, a climate change modeler and Climate Science Lead for the Science Policy Team of the NYC Panel on Climate Change, will present with other colleagues at the Rising Waters presentation.

As John Tierney noted yesterday, tickets sold out last summer and some programs may sell out rather quickly... so get tickets soon!