Eclipse Award owner Toby Barazzuol, Projects In Place Board Member Jonathan Hays and Volunteer, Charlie Chen prepare the agricultural planters for their crop
Yesterday saw a small, but hardy group of volunteers planting agricultural planters and maintaining a green roof at Eclipse Awards in Railtown. Toby Barrazuol, owner of Eclipse Awards and Projects In Place members oversaw the installation. The Agricultural planters, containing a wide variety of vegetables were planted, including heirloom variety tomatoes, squash, thai basil, mint, onion…
Volunteer Charlie Chen and Projects In Place Board Member, Jonathan Hays show off their 'Garden Hands'
The planters were a unique design. Plastic industrial sinks (cheap and nearly indestructible) were mounted against the parapet in a continuous line forming a railing. They were then lined with filter fabric, with a plastic drain attached to the bottom. They were then filled with layers of garden soil, organic peat (water retention) and perlite (light weight and free draining) to create our own custom-lightweight growing media.
About Our Latest Volunteer Member
Volunteer Charlie Chen is an engineer who has worked as a building envelope consultant, but is interested in pursuing a career in sustainable development found the process of becoming intimately acquainted with green roofs.
“This is an exciting learning experience. I recently completed the GROW 1000 green roof course at BCIT. But this is my first chance to actually get my hands dirty, planting vegetable and removing weeds. It is surprising to see just how easy and simple a vegetable planter could be installed on a roof. I am sure the people who work in the office below could benefit from the garden and the green roof”
Education is a big part of what we do at Projects In Place, but with Charlie, the education goes both ways. His knowledge of engineering and building envelope technology are highly advanced skills that make him a very handy volunteer to have around. We’re hoping he’ll participate in some of our future installations, gain some experience in a sustainable design technology and hopefully continue to share his invaluable knowledge with us as well. Thanks, Charlie!
Green Roof Maintenance
As the green roof, originally designed and installed by founding Projects In Place member Erika Richmond, enters its second summer, you can see things really starting to establish! Unfortunately the weeds are establishing themselves as well, so the green roof weeding was a bigger job than we anticipated. We’re about half way through the planting and weeding process. We’ll be finishing the rest of the roof shortly. If you are interested in learning more about sustainable agriculture as well as intensive and extensive roof top gardens, drop us a line and we’ll add you to our list.
Notice the clover and other weeds choking-out the sedums and grasses??
