Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘watersmart’ Category

What are WaterSmart Landscapes?

Posted in environmentally friendly landscaping, native plants, watersmart, WaterSmart Landscapes on July 6, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Armand Bayou Nature Center (3)From sprinkler to storm drain, from bayou to bay, the water used to maintain your yard remains untreated. What you do to your lawn and what runs off it determines the health of your local bayou and Galveston Bay. Runoff from residential areas in the Galveston Bay watershed is the No. 1 source of water pollution in most of our bayous. However, you can take steps to reduce the pollution that flows off your yard by adopting WaterSmart practices.

WaterSmart landscapes

A WaterSmart yard uses plants and practices that require little or no fertilizers or pesticides and less water than conventional lawns. With minimal grass cover and maximum use of native and adapted plants, the WaterSmart landscape can be beautiful, easy to maintain, and environmentally friendly.

WaterSmart landscapes can reduce the amount of polluted runoff entering the storm drain system by 90 percent. They can also cut the amount of water you use for irrigation by 90 percent. By converting your lawn one section at a time, you can create a landscape that helps preserve the bay area and gradually reduces your maintenance time. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Green Roofs and Food Production OR Eat Your Roof!

Posted in Bay-friendly, environmentally friendly landscaping, stormwater, Uncategorized, watersmart on December 19, 2013| 1 Comment »

Green roofs are popping up all around the country.  The benefits of these roof top gardens are widely recognized: turning an impervious surface into a pervious one; reducing energy costs; improving air quality; reducing the urban heat island effect; the list goes on.  Despite the need for additional engineering work and sometimes added upfront building costs, this best management practice is really catching on.  Cities like Chicago have hundreds of green roofs, and even small communities like Webster and Friendswood Texas can brag about a green roof in their town.

As the idea of roof top gardens spreads, new ideas continue to pop up.  One of the coolest in my opinion is making the roof top into an actual garden; an edible garden; growing food on your roof.

All of the folks that I can find who have created roof top vegetable gardens are using commercial spaces or multi-family dwellings.  Mostly because they are larger, typically have flat roofs and more accessible.  They also offer opportunities for gardening in urban areas where real estate is at a premium and on the ground space is difficult to come by, it’s the idea of growing up, not out, applied to gardens.

Click on the photos below to check out some  projects where roofs are producing food and improving water quality, not just keeping us warm and dry.

  HigherGroundFarm Higher Ground Farm boasts of being Boston’s first rooftop farm

BRITrooftopCactus

The Botanical Research Institute of Texas has a more traditional green roof but harvested prickly pear fruit to make jelly

EagleStreetRooftopFarm

Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Brooklyn

RoyalYorkRooftopGarden

Royal York Hotel Rooftop Garden in Toronto has taken the local food movement to heart

Read Full Post »

The Ghirardi WaterSmart Park, a new idea for League City.

Posted in Bay-friendly, environmentally friendly landscaping, rain garden, runoff pollution, stormwater, watersmart on October 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

We are working with the City of League City on a very exciting and ground breaking project, the Ghiardi WaterSmart Park.  This Park is currently under construction on Louisiana Avenue in League City, Galveston County, Texas. Scheduled for completion next month, this space is much more than just a park.  The 3.75 acre neighborhood space has a pavilion, walking trails and a playground.  It also has special features including rain gardens, a cistern to collect rain water for irrigation, a green roof on the pavilion and WaterSmart landscapes.  The park is also home to the 100+ year old Ghirardi Oak tree that was relocated during the reconstruction of Louisiana Avenue in 2012.

P1010092 - CopyCrew moving the 100+ year old Ghirardi oak tree.

The Ghirardi WaterSmart Park design is based on the three principles of WaterSmart Landscapes: water conservation, water quality and habitat for wildlife.  These three elements are integrated with typical park features to create a unique and water conserving park. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Rein in Thirsty Texas Landscapes

Posted in drought, native plants, Resilience, Uncategorized, watersmart, tagged , , , , on June 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

ImageImage

“There are two ways to face the rainless weeks. One is to water, and the other is merely not to.” Elizabeth Lawrence, a Southern gardener.

Perhaps this is a bit too simplified, but we do have to face the fact that in a world of overburdened water supplies and weather extremes, conserving water in the landscape whenever and however we can has never been more critical. During July, August, and September, Texans’ increase their water use by as much as 58%, with half of what is used to irrigate landscapes being wasted due to over-watering or runoff. The projection for the Houston area is that the population will double by the year 2030, but our water supplies are finite leading us to realize that even though we may get all the rain we need, more people means water shortages–frog-strangling deluges or not.  (more…)

Read Full Post »

Bay-friendly Landscaping Begins at Your Watershed Address

Posted in Bay-friendly, drought, freshwater inflows, Galveston Bay, native plants, rain garden, Resilience, runoff pollution, stormwater, watersmart on January 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Planted wetlands help protect Brays Bayou

Planted wetlands help protect Brays Bayou

Over-watering causes runoff.

Over-watering causes runoff.

Armand Bayou leads to Galveston Bay

Armand Bayou leads to Galveston Bay

What is your watershed address? If you do not have an answer then it probably means you are not sure how or even if you are connected to Galveston Bay. Actually, everyone lives in a watershed whether or not a body of water is in view. Simply put, a watershed is the land from which water drains on its way to the nearest bayou, river, lake or bay. Your watershed address bears the name of that accepting water body. For example, I live in the White Oak Bayou Watershed. Water from my yard makes its way into the stormdrain and flows, unfiltered, to White Oak Bayou and ultimately empties into Galveston Bay.
Galveston Bay is a complex mixture of salt and fresh water and is teaming with life. On the land, it is surrounded by prairies and marshes which form rich estuaries, or nurseries, for marine species like crabs, shrimp and oysters. The entire area supports a vibrant, diverse wildlife population. Galveston Bay also ends up being a repository for pollutants found in urban runoff. Stormwater, or rainwater, flows from surfaces that cannot absorb water—impervious surfaces like roofs, streets and parking lots—and from our own landscapes carrying with it substances like motor oil, litter, fertilizers, pesticides and pet waste that all end up in the bay. One way we can make a difference in the health of our watershed and of Galveston Bay is to use landscaping practices that are bay-friendly—working with, not against nature. (more…)

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »