Right Plant, Right Place

Photo Credit: American Orchid Society, Michiko Kurisu

Putting plants in the right place is the key to ensuring they survive and remain healthy in your landscape. You can reduce the need for water, fertilizer, pesticides and pruning if you plant Florida friendly plants.

Try the following things to Green your landscape:
· Understand the soil, sunlight and water conditions of the area you are planting.
· Plan grass areas to be functional and for easy maintenance.
· Learn about problem or invasive plants and avoid planting them at all cost.
· Plant a variety of Florida-friendly plants, including flowering and fruiting plants that attract butterflies, birds, beneficial insects and other wildlife.

Many Florida native plants are especially good at attracting wildlife. Florida-friendly plants will attract beneficial insects and butterflies to your yard and garden.

Source: http://www.floridayards.org/

Trashy breakfast – Please recycle!

Dear Hampton Inns:

I enjoy staying at your hotels and I especially enjoy getting up and eating breakfast. I’m ALWAYS disappointed , however, in the amount of trash that I generate at breakfast, especially the foam materials that do not degrade in our overflowing landfills. At the very least, I hope you will consider using recyclable products and recycling them. My family of 5 can generate a whole bag of trash at one sitting!

Love your coffee but try to remember to bring my own cup,

Connie Roy-Fisher

My husband is a Hampton Inn fan. On our trip to Athens to teach at the Art and Science of Healing Gardens Symposium, we stayed at, of course, Hampton Inn. If you have eaten breakfast at Hampton Inn, I hope you have noticed the amount of trash that you generate – EVERYTHING is packaged in plastic, they use foam plates, bowls and cups, plastic silverware and cups. NOTHING is recycled. I’m sending this letter. Please feel free to copy it and send it as well.

Should we Share?

This spring I had an intern from Florida Atlantic University that is excited about everything green. South Florida geography makes the LEED point requiring that materials be within a 500 mile radius challenging. Furthermore, many products indicate that they use recycled materials but do they meet LEED requirements regarding percentages and post vs. pre consumer waste? My dream has been to put together a list of materials that meet these requirements for South Florida. The materials I’m interested in as a Landscape Architect would be concrete, pavers, wood, irrigation equipment, light fixtures, outdoor furniture, metals, sealers and preservatives.

The intern took the project on and began researching on the web. She found a million products that claimed to be green. In order to focus her efforts, she contacted “green” consultants to see if they might have some sort of list from which she could start. These businesses wouldn’t help; she felt that they were unwilling to share.

I guess there could be a couple of reasons for this. The most obvious reason to a business person would be that they are getting paid for this service. Through the intern’s eyes, shouldn’t we be sharing this information for the better good? Couldn’t the ‘green ‘consultants get a percentage from the products they include on their list? Or – maybe these lists don’t exist at all.

What do you think? Are those lists out there? Should the information be shared?

RIVER OF GRASS CANOE/KAYAK EXPEDITION

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RIVER OF GRASS CANOE/KAYAK EXPEDITION

January 2-7th, 2010

Celebrating the Everglades Coalition's 25 Years of Activism

ARE YOU A HARDY SOUL, IN FIT CONDITION, AND AN EXPERIENCED PADDLER??

DO YOU LOVE OUR EVERGLADES??

ARE YOU A SCIENTIST? ARTIST? TEACHER? JOURNALIST? SPORTSPERSON? HEALTH PROFESSIONAL? PUBLIC SAFETY PROFESSIONAL?

If you qualify in the first two categories and at least one of the professional categories in the third--the RIVER OF GRASS CANOE/KAYAK EXPEDITION January 2-7th, 2010 may be for you!!

This bold venture marks the 25th year of the Everglades Coalition's annual conference, and launches West Palm Beach's Year of the Everglades. West Palm is the host city this year for the Coalition's big event.

The 77 mile route begins at the point where the Kissimmee River flows into Lake Okeechobee, travels around the NE rim of the lake and South to the point where the L-8 Canal leaves the lake at Sand Cut, travels down the L-8 Canal to the junction with the M Canal, and then travels the M Canal to the Visitors Center at Grassy Waters where the expedition will be met by the 2010 Everglades Coalition Conference delegates on January 7, 2010.

The last leg, into Grassy Waters, is especially significant to the City of West Palm because it traces the city's water supply source from The Everglades flow system. There will be a Grand Finale Flotilla on this last leg, where all who wish to join in the paddling procession into Grassy Waters on January 7, 2010 are encouraged to join. More information on how to participate in the Grand Finale Flotilla will be available later.

For additional information, please EMAIL:

Joan Sterrenberg sterrenb@indiana.edu

To apply for the entire 77 mile, 5 day canoe expedition, scroll down to the application,print it out and send it by July 1, 2009 to:

Email to: PlantCypress@aol.com

Mail to: Arthur R. Marshall Foundation

2806 So. Dixie Hwy.

West Palm Beach, FL 33405

________________________________________________
Grassy Waters Canoe/Kayak Expedition

January 2-7, 2010

Application

Name:

Address:


Email:

Cell Phone:
Home/Office Phone:


Education:


Professional Affiliation(s):



Age: Gender:


List Any Health Issues:


Area(s) of Expertise: (Science, Education, Media, Arts, Recreation, Health & Safety)



Canoe/Kayak Experience:




Availability: January 2-7, 2010
If not available for the entire time, please specify dates you are.



Return Application by July 1, 2009:

Email questions to: Joan Sterrenburg - sterrenb@indiana.edu

LEED and Landscape Architects

I’ve been a LEED ap for three years now. Although I do a number of government projects and I’m active in USGBC, I have not done a LEED project yet. Why?

Part of it is that South Florida is way behind the rest of the country in LEED projects. The economy may have something to do with it as well.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen LEED projects for which a Landscape Architect was chosen that was not a LEED ap. It was apparent in the finished product that they were not familiar with what LEED was trying to accomplish. Why were they chosen for the project?

To me, the site and what happens on it are critical but it is often an afterthought to architects and civil engineers that are the project managers on these projects. Maybe they think anything that is planted is “green”. Maybe we, as Landscape Architects don’t care enough to learn about sustainable ways to do things successfully. Maybe we haven’t done a good job of educating project managers, explaining the benefits of our services enough.

Saving the earth should start with exactly that – making sure that we don’t compact the earth, we maintain or improve the quality of soil, we save or restore vegetation that cools temperatures and reduces carbon and we collect, preserve and clean water just to name a few. SPROUT!

Green Roof Update – Bulbine is the Bomb!

My apologies, I haven’t kept up my updates on our test strips. I also have not been able to add to our test strips as we had originally planned. It’s been a busy spring – putting together presentations and teaching on green roofs, evidence based design and healing gardens as well as working on the West Palm Beach Waterfront project.

Probably the most important thing we’ve learned is – put in an irrigation system with a moisture detector. Despite our best intentions to stay on top of rain events and water after 10 days of no rain the strips went through periods of neglect. Fortunately we have had a lot of rain the last couple of months, so I got brave and went up to see how things were doing.

In the 4 inch media depth everything was still alive. The bulbine actually looks great. The mimosa and perennial peanut are still there but struggling.

In the 8 inch media the equisetum had died and devils walking stick had taken over. Devil’s walking stick is usually considered a weed but is actually a great bee and butterfly plant so I’m leaving it. The grasses are hanging in there.