Hoping for a City full of Rootop Farms - NYT 8/4/02

[Guest guest]

I thought this item looked interesting. Even city temples could create rooftop

gardens for Srila Prabhupada -- of course ours would include a special section

for

Srimati Tulasi devi -- as many temples already do.

 

Could be an interesting preaching project. Check out the websites, too.

 

your servant,

 

Hare Krsna dasi

 

*****************************

 

 

New York Times August 4, 2002

 

HOPING FOR A CITY FULL OF FARMS ON ROOFTOPS

 

By Anne Raver

 

NEW YORKERS and other city people may be used to seeing tomatoes and peppers in

big

pots on the roof, but what about a little farm growing right out of the tar

beach?

 

"This is our kitchen garden," said Leslie Hoffman, the executive director of

the

Earth Pledge Foundation, a nonprofit group that promotes sustainable

agriculture and

environmental preservation. She crunched across the pebbly ground of her

vegetable

plot, where tomatoes, eggplants, sweet and hot peppers, lettuce and squash, to

say

nothing of a river of herbs and flowers, are flourishing in a strange soil mix

covering about 700 square feet of the roof of a 1902 town house at 149 East

38th

Street in Manhattan.

 

She picked up a few of the smooth little pebbles. "This is called expanded

slate,"

she said. "It's like puffed stone."

 

The stones, formed by volcanic ash, do seem as light as air, and they hold

moisture.

Mixed with 15 percent compost and 30 percent sand, this porous soil

(www.stalite.com, phone 877-737-6284), has to be fertilized about once a month.

The

fertilizer is fish emulsion, but not of the usual kind.

 

"Most fish emulsion is rotten fish guts," Ms. Hoffman said. "It's cooked, which

kills the enzymes and proteins." This fertilizer, not yet available

commercially, is

cold-processed fish waste, alive with the enzymes from shark innards.

 

By the look of the tomatoes ripening on the vines, these plants seem to be

thriving

on fish and fake soil, with a reservoir of rainwater beneath their roots. When

rain

is scarce, a drip irrigation system is used.

 

"We had a bumper crop of arugula," Ms. Hoffman said. "And zucchinis and yellow

squash. I got six off the roof on Friday."

 

Heat-loving herbs and flowers — including basil, sage, lavender, tarragon and

verbena, bee balm, catmint, day lilies — are flourishing among the vegetables.

 

Earth Pledge may be familiar to many, thanks to its virtual farmers' market,

www.farmtotable.org, which connects more than 120 organic farmers and their

fresh

produce with consumers looking for local foods, unusual recipes and the latest

events on food-related issues.

 

Last month, it began a Green Roof Initiative with a conference of more than 100

people, from landscape architects to investment bankers wanting to know how to

build

greener, cooler, cleaner cities. Though Germans have been growing green roofs

for

years, Portland, Ore., Toronto and Chicago — which last summer installed a $1

million green roof, covering half a block, on top of its city hall — are

leaders in

North America.

 

Earth Pledge, which was founded in 1991 by Theodore W. Kheel, the lawyer and

labor

mediator, to promote interest in the principles of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit,

hopes

to turn New York roofs into green oases that not only feed its citizens but

keep

them cool.

 

Green roofs can combat the urban heat island effect, Ms. Hoffman said. All the

stone, brick and blacktop absorb so much heat that cities are six to eight

degrees

hotter than surrounding suburbs. Energy experts estimate that New York could

save as

much as $16 million a year in energy costs by growing green roofs, which not

only

cool buildings in summer, but insulate them in winter.

 

Designed by Diana Balmori, a landscape architect based in New Haven who also

teaches

environmental design at Yale University, this green roof has an ingenious

layered

construction, manufactured by American Hydrotech of Chicago

(www.hydrotechusa.com,

800-877-6125), which allows for the absorption and retention of rainwater

without

leaking through the roof. It also keeps roots from breaking through the

waterproof

membrane that covers the deck.

 

The layering, from the deck up, begins with a seamless waterproof membrane made

of

rubberized asphalt, which is applied to the deck as a hot fluid. On top of that

a

root barrier, polystyrene insulation, drain mat (resembling an upside-down egg

crate) for water retention and aeration and finally, 3 to 12 inches of soil

mix,

depending on the crop, like shallow-rooted mesclun, or deep-rooted tomatoes.

 

Ms. Hoffman said she does not know the actual cost of this cutting-edge system,

because most of the materials and labor were donated. But American Hydrotech

estimates that the layered system, from waterproof mat to high-tech soil mix,

could

cost $10 to $15 a foot, if you do it yourself; $15 to $30 if it's a union job.

 

The Green Pledge garden has custom-made stainless steel planters bordering two

sides

of the roof. These Cadillacs, 18 inches deep and lined with plastic foam for

heat

insulation, form an elegant $20,000 wall around the roof. They are filled with

rosemary, oregano, summer savory, cucumbers and pole beans winding themselves

up

steel posts, which hint of trelliswork to come. (To see the green roof, call

the

Earth Pledge Foundation at 212-725-6611 or visit www.earthpledge.org.)

 

This green roof will collect about 75 percent of the water that falls on it,

Ms.

Hoffman said. That means a lot less water flowing into Manhattan's sewer

system.

"Most down-spouts are connected to the same plumbing infrastructure as toilets

and

sinks," Ms. Hoffman said. So New York is treating all that rainwater the same

as

sewage. What a waste. And when it rains in torrents, that water floods the

city's

sewage system and can send raw sewage straight into the rivers.

 

"Imagine a city of green roofs," she said. There wouldn't be so much overflow.

And

all those air-conditioners wouldn't be burning quite as much energy.

 

Earth Pledge is planning a fall conference for government officials and others

to

draw up a plan for building more green roofs in New York City. Ms. Hoffman has

her

own vision for the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site: kitchen

gardens on

all the roofs.