Greening the urban jungle.

Hidden in the gravel and concrete that dominate today’s cities, it is possible to find tiny plots of green. Whether it’s an eco-activist art installation, a city-funded park, a guerrilla gardening experiment, or just a weed that has broken through a crack in the sidewalk, these urban green spaces provide pops of nature where you least expect it. This photo collection highlights some of our favorite examples from around the world.

The High Line, New York, New York, USA

The Pothole Gardener, London, England

Guerrilla Gardening, Tokyo, Japan

Bus Roots by Marco Antonio Castro Cosio, New York, New York

Le Mur Vegetal, Melbourne, Australia

Brussels Farmer, Brussels, Belgium

The Green Carpet, Jaujac, France

Glenwood Green Acres, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Pothole Gardener, India

Urban Cactus, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Guerrilla Gardening at Occupy Oakland, California

NoPark by Natalie Jerimenjenko, New York, New York

Moving Forest by NL Architects, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Hoop Goodenia in a Boot Project, Melbourne, Australia

Lugo History Museum, Lugo, Spain

Social Guerrilla Gardening, Southern California

Plant Pockets, San Francisco, California

Skip Conversions by Oliver Bishop-Young, London, England

Roof of Canada Malting Co., Alberta, Canada

Guerrilla Gardening, Rome, Italy

Little Community Garden on Falmer Road, London, England

Park(ing) Day, San Francisco, California

Kensington Market, Toronto, Canada

GuerArsenal, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Posterchild, Toronto, Canada

SEE ALSO:

40 Gorgeous Photos of Europe

40 Gorgeous Photos of North America

40 Gorgeous Photos of Latin America

40 Gorgeous Photos of Asia

40 Gorgeous Photos of Africa

25 Photos of Islands Threatened by Climate Change

25 Images of Female Adrenaline Seekers

40 Photos from Flea Markets Around the World

30 Gorgeous Photos of Winter Snowscapes

30 Gorgeous Photos of Farming and Agriculture

15 Hilarious Photos of Interspecies Mingling

30 Photos of the World’s Most Uniquely Designed Buildings

20 Photos of Female Activists Throughout History

30 Gorgeous Photos of Spring

30 Gorgeous Photos of Traditional Textiles

The post 25 Photos of Urban Green Spaces appeared first on EcoSalon.

Gardening goes to the boys.

There’s a new crop of gardeners on the scene: they’re young, handsome, and they know their way around a pile of dirt. Some are latter-day hunter-gatherers and others are aesthetic geeks who drool over orchids like some dudes salivate over fantasy football trades.

The guy gardener is not an entirely original phenomenon. In the United States, The Men’s Garden Clubs of America (TGOA/MGCA) was first established in 1932 to promote camaraderie among men and facilitate community beautification as well as gardening education. Today, the organization has more than 2,800 members, though due to organizational changes in 1992, women are now amongst that number.

Meanwhile, across the pond in Surrey, England, Gerrard Winstanley and The Diggers started planting in 1649 as a form of public protest. Nowadays it’s called guerrilla gardening, a phrase coined by NYC activists in 1973 that’s being popularized anew by Richard Reynolds, shown here discussing seed bombs and the first manscaper on our list.

Richard Reynolds, 33
The Guerilla Gardener
London, UK

As Richard puts it, “Guerilla gardening is the illicit cultivation of someone else’s land.” In other words, it’s like squatting for geraniums. Apart from his own balcony garden, which he maintains communally with his neighbors atop a 10-story housing block, he takes care of seven guerilla gardens.

“My emphasis is on public and neglected property,” he says. “Using plants to make a provocative statement.” And, at times, a more romantic one. In a show of the couple that weeds together stays together, he recently proposed to his girlfriend on the same plot of lavenders where they first met five years ago. Remember that the next time someone compliments you on your tulips.

Mike Lieberman, 31
Urban Organic Gardener
Los Angeles, CA

Mike Lieberman insists he’s not a gardener.

“When I think ‘gardener,’” says the boy from Brooklyn, “I think of a middle-aged woman who’s been doing it just for the beauty of it and not considering all the other aspects.”

Aspects like taking on the industrialized food system and eating a predominantly plant-based diet.

The label-shy food cultivator started his first fire escape garden when he was living in the East Village in the spring of 2009. He’s been blogging about it since on his gardening blog, which averages about 1,000 hits a day.

“A lot of the information that’s out there in the gardening space is written for other gardeners. My blog is about raising awareness of the food system through fire escape and balcony gardening. I’m all about, grow one thing and you’re doing something. ”

Jason DaPonte, 35
Managing Director: The Swarm
London, UK

Full disclosure: I first met Jason DaPonte, Managing Director of The Swarm, during our university years. That means we spent a lot of time around loud music in dark clubs at odd hours of the night. Imagine my shock and awe when I discovered some 15 years later that he’s a mad cultivator of exotic orchids.

His Tumblr Growing Crazy, which is followed obsessively, recounts his adventures in taming his rooftop wilderness. Formerly an allotment gardener (the UK version of the plot system), he was kicked out for free-forming.

“I was planting so that it looked nice instead of keeping neat and tidy rows. That was against the rules.”

He’s also of the one-plant-at-a-time school of growing. “So many people say to me, I could never have a garden like yours. To them I say, well, start with one pot.”

Reggie Solomon, 35
reggieCasual and co-author of I Garden: Urban Style
New Haven, CT

Reggie is a basil and tomatoes kind of guy; you won’t find any flowers in his patch unless they’re marigolds that have offered themselves up as “sacrificial lambs to the aphids that attack my garden.”

He argues that there are two uniquely contemporary factors that draw men to gardening: one, a burgeoning interest in DIY organic sustainability employing a “control what you grow” brand of logic, and two, “Society gets away with saying males can’t also be producers, you know, ‘manning up’ to go gardening. But there is something unconscious happening here. Men want to be physically responsible for something and produce with their own hands.”

There’s a social component in it, too, says Reggie. He has two gardening buddies that pop by his house when they’re in the mood for cultivating some herbs or pruning some vines. In the winter they make beer together, in the summer they grow together. It’s an arrangement made in bro’ heaven.

Michael Nolan, 38
Co-Author of I Garden: Urban Style, Founder of My EarthGarden, Food Advocate and Public Speaker
Birmingham, AL

“I’ve been gardening since I was a kid,” explains Michael Nolan. “I was always sorta fascinated with the whole idea of the way things grew.”

Like most of the other guys featured here, Michael sticks to the edibles, but tries to strike an aesthetic balance. “I’m working on the first-ever Steampunk themed garden now: a combination of wild edibles, herbs, flowers and lots of rust.”

Michael predicts that the trend of men gardening will continue to grow vertically in the years to come. “It goes beyond being the cool thing to do these days. Guys are taking better care of themselves and growing your own food is a logical step in that direction. Plus, chicks dig gardeners.”

It’s true.

Richard Reynold’s image: Alessandro Rota

Main image: Solly Markovitch

The post Manscaping: These Guys Have Stems Attached appeared first on EcoSalon.

In a grassroots, public interactive awareness campaign by Common Studio, Greenaid for Change provides Seed Bomb vending machines for small business owners to place in their communities, making guerrilla gardening more accessible to its local citizenry. Re-purposing old gum ball machines, Greenaid will even make up a special Seed Bomb concoction specific to the particular ecology of the local environment where the vending machine is destined.

The idea of guerrilla gardening planted its seed back in 1973 in the Bowery neighborhood of New York City. In essence, guerrilla gardening is meant to beautify the world’s neglected spaces with flowers and plants by secretly tending those areas when nobody’s looking.

A technique frequently employed by guerrilla gardeners – simply scattering seeds into neglected areas – is not always successful depending on the soil conditions. Thus the Seed Bomb was born.

Seed Bombs, otherwise known as Green Grenades, are small balls of soil and seed combined. The soil and compost surrounding the seed create a built-in mini-environment, which enables the seeds to germinate in areas that are hostile to plant growth.

Apparently, Seed Bombs are relatively easy to make and are a favorite among DIYers. A bit of quick research revealed numerous websites and blogs with instructions on how to make your own, such as GuerillaGardening.org, FloridaGardener.com, and even the L.A. Times.

Or just join the Greenaid initiative, and get your very own Seed Bomb dispenser to start dispersing those seeds.

Image: bradley.garwood

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If you want a glimpse of our world in centuries to come, stroll round a city. Dystopian-mongering pessimists will now be holding their heads in their hands and groaning. Can we blame them? Urban areas are too commonly associated with poverty, pollution, neglect and a brutalizing of the environment for the sake of a fast buck. Pretty? Only from high up.

But that’s the old model of city life. Crocodile Dundee wasn’t too far off the mark when he said cities must be friendly because so many people want to live together. They’re the biggest physical expressions of our social nature on this planet. They’re filled with people, every one of them an individual – and so in these eco-conscious times where everyone can step up and contribute, cities are where things happen.

Here are 10 urban trends that will shape of the cities of tomorrow.

Keep The City Buzzing

Bees are on the wane, and we have no idea why. Entire populations are dying or disappearing as part of the baffling phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Bad news in itself, but the sting in the tale is that without bees, many of our staple crops are doomed. While scientists search for the answers, the urban backyard remedy is obvious – and here’s how it works. Bee hives only need a little land to thrive – and you’d be following in the footsteps of committed enthusiasts like Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L Jackson. Further incentive needed? One word: honey.

Urban Growth

Escalating food prices, and all that land out back? Put the two together and turning your place into an edible garden is a no-brainer. But even if you’re squeezed into a concreted corner or you’re halfway up a towerblock, there’s still room for some horticultural creativity. Agricultural skyscrapers are on the rise (as it were) but while city-planners develop a coherently green strategy, it’s all about self-expression. Snake some vines over your balcony or up the wall. Let your potted plants grab onto windows and railings. Make your city come alive!

Up Where The Air Is Green

But whatever is done in the vertical is being done tenfold in the horizontal. Green roofs have captured the urban imagination like no other eco-craze, and it’s not hard to see why: they’re beautiful, they have a deeply practical element, and…did we say how beautiful? Of course there are new architectural challenges that come with having tons of topsoil and greenery piled on your ceiling – and there’s the usual amount of half-hearted bandwaggoning. (Yes, Astroturf is cheating). But wouldn’t it be nice to have a little less of the “concrete”, a little more of the “jungle”? I bet the local wildlife would think so.

Seed-Bomb It Back To The Stone Age

If you’re heartsick of seeing drab, neglected patches of municipal land blighting your neighborhood…you could be a guerrilla gardener waiting to join the green revolution. “Fighting the filth with forks and flowers”, these law-skirting folk are on a mission to bring budding life to every corner of our cities by any means possible. They sneak out at night with seeds and trowel, beautifying furiously before daylight exposes their efforts to the cops, or they plant greenery while hidden in full view. Sound like your kind of thing? Sign up here (you rebel, you).

Cleaning The Streets: Electric Cars and Friendly Rides

It’s been on the horizon for years (far too many of them) but now the electric car is starting to make headway in the place it’s best suited for – the urban grid. Where else is it practical to build recharging stations at the kind of density that suits the electric car’s shorter range? Ah, but that’s changing too – some of the models on our 2009 roundup hold enough juice to compare favorably to their gas-powered counterparts. These admirable advances aside, do you really need your own car? If not, and if braving the public transport isn’t an option, grab a lift with someone else – because urban carpooling is here to stay.

Commute Yourself Slim

In the convenience-drugged city of tomorrow, the only sweat you’ll break is when you’re deciding which button to push. Utopian dream? We say: urban nightmare. We spend our day in the thrall of convenience technology…and then heads straight to the nearest super-expensive gym to compensate. With modern life in full swing, who needs The Onion? Luckily there are architects who recognise the danger and, like Nintendo, are sneaking gyms into our lives without us realising. Their thinking is: why consume electricity when calories can be burnt instead? So the urban fabric gets a healthy makeover, like the much maligned stairwell. Cars are zoned out of existence and replaced with their human-powered counterparts (saving you cash in all sorts of ways). Parks and paths are expanded, and everywhere can be reached by a sidewalk. Healthy commuter, coming through. For specifics, check out the New York City Department of Design + Construction’s Active Design Guidelines.

One for Me, One for You…

My mum has a logistics problem. Thanks to some absurdly prolific fruit trees, her freezer is permanently half-full with surplus she has to freeze or it goes to waste. What she needs is a local fruit exchange – a social network (online and offline) that collects and distributes surplus produce for the good of the neighborhood. Take San Francisco’s version, Neighborhood Fruit, working like a foodie’s version of Freecycle – the goods are there for free, you collect them yourself, and first come is first served. If you like free food (ie. if you have a pulse) or want to reclaim your freezer, find your local fruit exchange…and if there’s none at hand, why not start one (pdf)?

Serving the Needy (With Servings)

Gone are the days that it’s acceptable for shops to chuck unused food away at closing time (and having worked as a barista for a certain worldwide coffee chain, I’ve seen my fair share of that). While up to a third of household groceries still go into the trash, restaurants are acting rather more respectably by offering up their output to local charities and nonprofit organisations, or directly into the hands of the homeless on the street. Check out the National Restaurant Association’s food donation work, and their guide to doing it (PDF).

It’s Cheaper Online (or, How We Killed The High Street)

Here’s a phrase to fill a shopkeeper with dread: “No, I won’t buy it here, I’ll get it on eBay / Amazon /Craigslist”. Online retailing is gargantuan business, simply because it’s usually the way to pick up the best goods from anywhere in the globe at the best price. Is it green? With minimal packaging and low overheads, you’t think so – except it’s also the quickest method of wiping out profits for urban retailers and for killing small traders. (Even the big ones aren’t safe – take the fate of Borders UK.) However, counter that with the fact that they’re billion-dollar recycling machines that often do a lot of good.

No matter your view, the bottom line is that online retailing is on the rise – and shopping is changing forever.

Neighbors are a Big Deal

But why spend money at all? Before money there was bartering, and thanks to the people-connecting power of the Internet, it’s firmly back in fashion (although we wouldn’t say “money is dead” – merely looking a bit peaky). If it fits through the post, it’s being swapped: books, DVDs, clothes, gadgets, plant seeds and tons more. Yet cities are where this is taking place in person, exchanging goods and services and reinforcing social bonds. Bartering binds people together.

And for the more intrepid barterer – why not trade homes with a complete stranger?

Images: telmo32, NNECAPA, axiepics, bbjee, ubrayj02, frankh, emrank, Alex E. Proimos, eHow and paul(dex) busy @ work

The post Where Cities Are Taking Us: 10 Urban Eco Trends appeared first on EcoSalon.

Having trouble deciding what you could do to make a difference this Earth Day? (You mean you missed our multi-city guide to Earth Day?)

Perhaps dropping a seed ball or two might be the answer. It’s an ancient farming technique, widely promoted by Masanobu Fukuoka, as a way of beautifying paved cityscapes.

Here’s how it works. Native, drought-tolerant seeds are mixed with compost and clay and formed into small balls that are dried in the sun. They are then taken by urban gardeners and tossed around the city, especially onto abandoned lots and other open but neglected spaces. Then it’s just a question of a little rain to make the seeds come alive, take root, and bloom. It’s a lovely way of taking control of your small piece of the planet.

Interested?

Then get some friends together, follow this seed ball recipe, take a hike around your city, toss them about, and pray for a little rain to make them grow.

Image: Robert S. Donovan

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