Low Impact Dunbar-Spring
Posted on 04. Apr, 2012 by pamela in G3 Blog, G3 Community, G3 Education, Green Infrastructure, Neighborhood Walks, Rain Capture, Rain Gardens, Resources, Watershed Notes
Surfrider's Paul Herzog Starting LID Tour At BICAS
The holy book (Rainwater Harvesting For Drylands And Beyond Vol. 1) requires that, at one time during their lives, all Green Infrastructure pilgrims must make their way to Brad Lancaster’s neighborhood in Tucson, Arizona, called Dunbar Spring. Perhaps the most stunning aspect of this oasis of rainwater endowment is the birdsong choir that follows one throughout the visit — birds of all sizes flit from native Mesquite (Prosopis pubescens) to Ironwood (Olneya tesota) and surf the fragile branches of Chuparosa (Justicia californica) and Palo verde (Cercidium microphyllum and Cercidium floridum). Watershed Management Group, hosts of the 2012 Tucson AridLID Conference, arranged for a bicycle tour of Dunbar Spring to get up close and personal with the simple curb cuts and sunken water wells around native trees that identify the neighborhood as the most water-progressive in Tucson.
Curb Cuts
Embracing Water As A Resource
The bicycle tour started at BICAS (Bicycle Inter-Community Art & Salvage), a collectively-run community-based non-profit education and recycling center for bicycles, devoted to the facilitation of affordable alternatives to travel by auto. BICAS and other people-scale businesses arrived in this neighborhood in the mid-1990′s, around the same time Brad Lancaster was making his first, subversive curb cuts allowing stormwater to flow on to his property from the street. This neighborhood-scale green infrastructure is so very simple — cuts or cores in the curb, native and edible trees and understory plants strategically placed in depressions to receive the flow, meandering decomposed granite pathways, traffic-calming water receptacles in the form of bump-outs and circles, and using paint to create perpendicular parking instead of parallel parking, effectively narrowing the wider of the busy streets. The effect is stunning. Time slows to the pace of a stroller or bicycle. Dappled sunlight filters through wispy, native trees. Colors seem brighter in shaded bird and animal refuge nooks. People smile — laugh — enjoy living in Dunbar Spring.
TV Killed Thinking Man
Now that we have experienced the transformative experience of community-based green infrastructure, we are thinking about how best to transport these lessons to the urban deserts of California. What medium best suits the message of cherished resources and better quality of life? Maybe via cave paintings…
Conservation Starts With LID Education
Posted on 14. Mar, 2012 by pamela in Environment 911, G3 Blog, Green Infrastructure, Rain Capture, Rain Gardens, Resources, Water, Watershed Notes
It’s time for the Conservation folks to be honest with the public about the realities of “reliable” water supply and join hands with Stormwater folks who need to motivate property stewards to break with a century of building code and begin SLOWING, SPREADING, and SINKING rainwater on EVERY SITE possible. Jason Gurdak, Assistant Professor of Geosciences at San Francisco State University, notes “conservation starts with educating future generations about where their resources come from and how limited they may be.” Gurdak has been studying the effects of climate change on groundwater, and the results are as expected — we need to start thinking seriously about recharge NOW, BEFORE the water table drops to the point where it cannot be recharged.
Says Gurdak, “In many ways, California is leading the way in developing solutions. Artificial recharge, managed storage and recovery projects and low impact development around the state will become more important for many local water systems to bank excess water in aquifers.”
For more on Jason Gurdak’s research, check out his book.
Watershed Management Group Embraces Ocean Friendly Gardens
Posted on 21. Nov, 2011 by pamela in G3 Blog, G3 Community, G3 Design Studio, G3 Partners, Ocean Friendly Gardens, Rain Capture, Rain Gardens, Resources, Surfrider Foundation, Ventura County, Watershed Notes
The Watershed Management Group’s Fall 2011 Newsletter featured an article by Paul Herzog of Surfrider Foundation’s Ocean Friendly Gardens Program. The article discusses the transformation of a typical turf-covered front yard in Ventura County, CA into a beautiful, California-native front yard that holds all the rain from the adjacent roof. This garden was designed by the homeowner after attending an OFG Watershed Basics Class hosted by Surfrider Ventura Chapter and the City of Ventura, and taught by G3. The garden was installed through an OFG GAP Volunteer Workday that was led by G3 and was the site of the first Ventura County Lawn Patrol. WMG OFG Profile
TreePeople’s Andy Lipkis: Sponge Gardens Can Save The World
Posted on 16. Nov, 2011 by pamela in G3 Blog, Green Infrastructure, Los Angeles/South Bay, Rain Capture, Rain Gardens, Resources, Video, Water, Watershed Notes
G3′s been saying it for years, and it is the central message we teach in all of our classes and embed in all of our landscape design projects. But TreePeople’s Andy Lipkis says it with typical panache and wit in this video. Sponge Gardens can save the world:
Carpinteria Sponges Up G3 Hands-On Workshop
Posted on 04. Nov, 2011 by pamela in Attainable Sustainable, G3 Blog, G3 Design Studio, G3 Education, Green Infrastructure, Homeowner, HOWs, Ocean Friendly Gardens, Professional, Rain Capture, Rain Gardens, Resources, Speaker Series, Surfrider Foundation, Ventura County, Watershed Notes
Carpinteria City Hall Sponge Garden 2011
G3′s Pamela Berstler led a small, but mighty, team of volunteers in creating a sponge garden (a.k.a rain garden) at the Carpinteria City Hall as a kick-off event for Creek Week 2011. This seven hour build blended a Hands-on Workshop in Sheet Mulching, Planting, and Irrigation with a Volunteer Workday sponsored by Surfrider Foundation’s Ventura Chapter Ocean Friendly Gardens Committee. G3 Qualified Trainer, Renee Roth, was on hand as a representative of the OFG Committee. And Erin Maker from the City of Carpinteria, coordinated with G3 to have all the materials on hand.
Sponge Gardens Means "Rock Mover" In OFG
The objective was to make the existing boulder installation appear more natural with wider areas to slow down water, and deeper areas to sink it. The new dry creek bed takes rain water from the adjacent grass area and allows it to slow, spread, and sink before overflowing into a large grass staging area. The creek bed was altered to allow inflow from the parking lot and street when and if Carpinteria cuts its curbs. The garden area itself was contoured to hold more water in the dry creek area and to provide low spots for tucking CA native plants in around the rocks. Humates were applied liberally to the garden, and the plant material was inoculated with myccorhizal spores and thoroughly dunked in water with fish hydrolysate.
Carpinteria Sponge Garden Completed
Native plants including Arctostaphylos ‘Howard McMinn’ (Manzanita) Eriogonum fasciculatum (Buckwheat), Achillea millefolium (Yarrow), and Mimulus cardinalis (Monkey flower) were planted throughout the garden after the site was covered in painter’s paper and sheet mulched with fresh tree trimmings. These plants will be hand watered twice a week until the winter rains begin. Drip irrigation was partially installed, but the team ran out of daylight before being able to complete all the zones, check the emitters, and flush the lines. The irrigation installation will be completed in coming weeks by the Carpinteria Public Works Dept. crews. Check out the Carpinteria City Hall Sponge Garden as it grows, and be sure to stop by in the rain!
The Garden Before Sponging
Carpinteria Garden After Sponging
Carpinteria City Hall is located at 5775 Carpinteria Ave., Carpinteria, CA 93013.
