IN OUR PREVIOUS BLOG ENTRY, Backyard Farming, we explored how you can turn your little patch of land into an urban homestead. A tiny sliver of land in the Annex may not be able to feed a family of four, but backyard homesteading brings with it many educational, nutritional, and experiential benefits. And once you turn your own backyard into a fruit and vegetable garden, you may find yourself so consumed by it and caught up in the excitement that you start fantasizing about how you might take it to the next level. For the intermediate-level urban agriculturist, I would suggest Backyard Chickens.
IN THE 2009 SEASON, we successfully started a new ecological business venture, designing and building Living Roofs and Living Walls. In the 2010 season, we plan to introduce another new line of ecological services, growing gardens of edible and medicinal plants… even picking up the concept of small-scale animal husbandry. It’s simply not possible to completely revamp the entire product line in a single season. But we can give you a little preview of what we’re planning down the pipeline.
THIS WEEK THE GREEN APPLE team helped to build a Living Wall at the infamous Gladstone Hotel in downtown Toronto. The installation was part of a two-day training session with Green Living Technologies, a leading North American manufacturer and distributor of Living Roof and Living Wall systems. GLT has hand-picked Green Apple to be their preferred partners in the Greater Toronto Area. So now it’s official: starting in 2010, Green Apple will be designing and building both Living Walls and Living Roofs for our ecologically-minded clients! If you’re interested in having a Living Wall or Living Roof in your own home, give us a call to make a meeting… and let’s discuss it over a pint at the Gladstone!
HERE’S ANOTHER VIDEO THAT we shot at the Cities Alive conference. In this clip, Alan Darlington, Adjunct Professor at the University of Guelph, discusses the results of his research on a number of local Living Walls, to test how effectively they filter out Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOC’s, in enclosed areas. By the end, the walls had performed so well that they exceeded even his own expectations. By combining the science of biofiltration with the floral artwork of Patrick Blanc, Darlington has pioneered a kind of vegitecture, a truly holistic system for human housing. Bravo!
WHEN WE ATTENDED THE Cities Alive Conference on Living Roofs and Living Walls, one month ago here in downtown Toronto, we made the effort to videotape some of the lecturers. Ever since that time, we’ve been pretty busy building our very own Living Wall at the Green Apple offices. But now that the Living Wall is up and running — and looking very beautiful, I might add — we’re able to upload some more of the footage that we filmed at Cities Alive, for your viewing pleasure. Here is a brief clip of Dr. Brad Bass speaking about his scientific studies into the potential energy savings of living roofs. Enjoy!
