This might be of interest to some of you regarding how much land we have hidden under streets and buildings:
from: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/06/040615080052.htm
If all the highways, streets, buildings, parking lots and other solid structures in the 48 contiguous United States were pieced together like a giant jigsaw puzzle, they would almost cover the state of Ohio. That is the result of a study by Christopher Elvidge of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Geophysical Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, who along with colleagues from several universities and agencies produced the first national map and inventory of impervious surface areas (ISA) in the United States.
…
The population of the United States is increasing by three million persons annually, Elvidge writes. New impervious surface areas are rapidly covering vegetated surfaces, including one million new single family homes and 20,000 kilometers [10,000 miles] of new roads per year. Given these trends, he says, ISA will likely become a more prominent issue in coming years.
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Kinda like Coruscant, of STAR WARS fame.
I have been doing everything I can to concrete my yard, I hate cutting grass
ah, the sweet discovery of myrtle.
Groundcover that is durable and grows fast. Shrink that lawn I say!
wouldn't it be great to blow up the mower
I found the secret,
Pour the whole yard. But, Put a few pieces of Sonotube in strategic locations. After it dries paint it all green. Get some buckets that fit into the holes left by the tubes. Plant flowers or shrubbery in them. Now you can change your landscaping everyday and you never have to mow. Leaves more time for motorcycles and Golf.
Plant flowers or shrubbery in them. Now you can change your landscaping everyday
I know of a "leasing" landscape outfit that does something similar. They had the landscape archy come up with a pattern of sizes (1 gallon at 2'-0"; 5 gal @ 4'-0", or what have you). The crew then set a bucket of that size in the planters, and used gravel & bark chips up around them. The nursery comes up with a scheme of plants, the LS crew goes and gets those out of the yard/GH, and take them to the site.
They pile out of the van, take a trolley along and take out last month's scheme. This month's comes off the trolley, still in its plastic buckets, which go into the installed buckets. They move the drip irrigation lines over, and they are done.
Slick.
I'd do the same--if I could keep plants alive (I'm so 'brown-thumbed' that silk plants are a risk around me . . . )
Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Edited 6/17/2004 11:22 am ET by CapnMac
Yeah, but what about all the rooftop gardens? Do they count those? ;)