Toronto
HERE’S ANOTHER ONE FROM THE VAULT: two video clips of David Miller, mayor of Toronto, inviting delegates to the Cities Alive conference on green infrastructure technologies last month. In the first video clip, he lists the various ecological initiatives that the municipal government has implemented over the last several years, explaining why he believes that Toronto is leading the world in fighting climate change. In the second video clip, he talks about the new Green Roof bylaw that city council enacted back in May. I hope you don’t mind the odd colouration of the video; the room was very dark, because while he spoke, he was screening a series of slides, so I had only a small colour spectrum to work with. In any case, I certainly hope that his enthusiasm for the environment will translate into many more green roofs across Toronto! Here’s hoping!
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED yesterday’s article, Backyard Chickens, where we broke down some of the issues surrounding the consumption of animal products in our society, and suggested that if you eat eggs, perhaps you should think about raising some chickens of your own. Well, a couple of months ago, I went to interview a not-so-mysterious local woman that I will refer to only as the “Toronto Chicken Lady”. She raises several chickens in her own back yard in mid-town Toronto, and she operates the website TorontoChickens.com, preaching the gospel about backyard chickens and urging politicians to legalize the practice. I had to doctor the video so that her identity would remain a secret, but we’re very thankful that she agreed for the clip to be posted online, so that we can spread the good word about backyard chickens. Enjoy!
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.
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!
THE DOWN SIDE OF DOING a tour of green roofs in the autumn is that it can be damp and cold outside. Yesterday, it was both. But the upside is that the roofs that you visit aren’t all green: they’re green and yellow and orange and red, and every shade in between, because in northeastern North America the leaves cycle through the colour spectrum before they fall off the trees and bushes. What a sight to behold!
