Many people and (dare I say) authors of this blog cite energy savings as one of many benefits of healthy urban trees. But where exactly do these energy savings come from? The answer comes in two parts: trees benefit buildings immediately neighboring them, and they also benefit the surrounding city.
The Silva Cell product is designed for use in the urban environment, so integrating Silva Cells and underground utilities is an important topic to us. In a previous post we discussed basic design strategies and construction methods for integrating Silva Cells and utilities. The next question we’re most often asked usually starts something like this:… More
This hydrograph (diagram showing runoff flow versus time) compares the intense spike of a stream during a storm in an urbanized watershed without adequate controls, with the “gentle rolling hill” appearance of a forested watershed’s response to the same storm. Note the loss of dry weather base flow for the stream in the urbanized watershed…. More
Here are this year’s photos from the Bartlett Tree Lab study comparing different planting methods for urban trees. For comparison, check out last year’s set. And for a fuller chronological picture, you can see all the photos up to that point in this post.
Back in January we posted about a project in Shoreline, WA, where the Silva Cells were being used to extend a sidewalk rain garden underneath paving. This stretch of the project is finally completed! It looks amazing, and we’ve got a case study to tell you all about it.
I’ve been growing bamboo since 1978 and have made many mistakes. Some species of bamboo doesn’t do well in Ohio, where I’m based, because they won’t tolerate the cold weather in winter. In some cases I’ve left the plants growing in my yard if only to show others what won’t do well in my climate. To control bamboo’s growth… More
The Christian Science Center, on Huntington Ave between Mass Ave and Belvidere Street in Boston, is the oldest suspended pavement installation that we know of in the United States. These trees were planted in 1968, making them 43 years old.
In my last entry I talked about the three different types of bamboo. Many people may not know this, but the United States is home to a native species of temperate (running) bamboo called arundinarea gigantean (river cane). Because most of the U.S. has a cold winter, our native bamboo (running) grew from the gulf… More
A few weeks ago I was in a meeting with the chief of staff for a San Francisco supervisor. She mentioned that there are entire areas of the city — those that are predominantly Chinese and Chinese-American — where city tree planting is very limited due to cultural beliefs in feng shui. I’d heard the… More
I run a business called Burton’s Bamboo Garden, so as you can imagine, I know a lot about bamboo, and I get a lot of questions about it from customers. Today, I want to talk about the basics of this amazing plant.
Occasionally we work on Silva Cell projects where the installation of the product and the soil it contains happen far in advance of any trees being planted. In these instances, we often get asked by concerned designers whether the soil biology can be maintained under sidewalks in the temporary absence of trees — and if… More
According to a recent article from Mark Kivner with the BBC, the first scientific study to examine what is commonly known as the nursery effect — that is, identical trees developing differently based on their growing conditions — has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Let the “trees don’t forget… More
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