Root Systems of Prairie Plants

A customer pointed out this interesting information, from the Illinois Native Plant Guide, on the root systems of native plants. Since we occasionally get asked about the root depth of our grasses, and because we sell 8 of those shown in the diagram, I thought it may be of interest. Click here to view.

It is a bit difficult to read the names of the plants, so here are those that we carry:

• Sorghastrum nutans (Indian grass) - 4th from the left
• Andropogon gerardii (Big bluestem) - 9th
• Sporobolus heterolepis (Prairie dropseed) - 11th
• Bouteloua curtipendula (Sideoats grama) - 12th
• Panicum virgatum (Switchgrass) - 14th
• Schizachyrium scoparium (Little bluestem) - 16th
• Koeleria cristata (pyramidata) (Junegrass) - 19th
• Buchloe dactyloides (Buffalo grass) - 21st

Note that the first one is so small that you may miss it when counting from the left (its Kentucky bluegrass)

Click on the coloured text to go directly to our website to view more info aabout each grass.

Nova Scotia Community College - Living Wall

I received a link to this video of a living wall under construction at the Waterfront Campus of NSCC in eastern Canada.

Congratulations to all involved. It looks beautiful!!

If You Have Streambank Erosion Issues

From a newsletter we receive:

Streambank Soil Bioengineering: How to Build & Install Vegetative Structures for Reducing Streambank Erosion

Same Agenda, Two Locations:

February 23-24, 2011 Portland, OR

or

March 9-10, 2011 Spokane, WA

"Join us for a very practical, in-depth and applied workshop on building and installing vegetative structures for reducing stream bank erosion. Our two very experienced instructors will cover all aspects from understanding stream functions, and riparian sites to the building, applied uses and life expectancy of stream bank erosion control techniques. A wide variety of designs and applications will be covered with an on-the-ground assessment of what works and what doesn't. The same workshop will be offered in both Portland, OR and Spokane, WA to make your travel plans easier."

For more information and to register, click here.....

Living Walls or Vertical Gardens

A vertical wall of greenery is not only aesthically pleasing in concrete jungles, but it also significantly cools the wall.

The vertical garden is not just ivy growing up a wall, rather the plants are rooted in the wall. It is closely related to a green roof.... simply a green roof suspended vertically.

Previous to the Olympics in Vancouver, I had been seen pictures of living walls(aka vertical gardens, green walls, plants walls, biowalls), but I hadn't been able to get up close to one until I saw this one on display during the Olympics. The picture below looks a bit like it could be a bunch of plants at a nursery, waiting to be purchased, doesn't it? However this small panel is hanging vertically and while he plants have not filled out yet, you can see the various colours and textures have created something visually appealing:

To explain the concept, from Wikipedia:

"In vertical gardens, plants are rooted in fibrous material anchored to a wall. Water trickles down between the sheets and feeds moss, vines and other plants. Bacteria on the roots of the plants metabolize air impurities such as volatile organic compounds."

To further develop the idea of using various leaf colours and textures Patrick Blanc has designed many incredible vertical gardens around the world. This one is on the Marché des Halles in Avignon, France:

The overpass below is Pont Max Juvénal, in Aix-en-Provence, France:

A living wall on the CaixaForum, a new museum in Madrid, Spain:

Made by Scotscape Living Walls, in Scotland:

The walls can also be indoors, such as in offices, hotel atriums, etc, to improve the air quality, but I will save that for a future post.

Some further info and pictures can be seen at these websites:

• Green Fortune
• an article about Patrick Blanc
• 10 Living Walls
• Scotscape Living Walls

Sod Furniture, Grass Furniture or Organic Furniture

I see that it was way back in 2006 that I discovered some pictures of sod furniture and put them on my own blog. I am guessing that some of you might like to see what wonderful things some creative people are doing with a mound of dirt and some rolls of turf.

I believe that credit can be given to Greg Tate for coming up with the idea. He is responsible for these beauties:

Cornell University has done quite a bit of work in this area, including a video series. This is the first, which is a time-lapse video:



This page has many more videos in the series: Cornell University Living Sculpture, and these pages have more info and links.

For those of you considering making a piece of sod sculpture, I suggest that you visit Cornell's blog, as they have also followed it up with an article title Sod Furniture Revisited: Some Lessons Learned

Instructions for a sod chair can also be found at the bottom of this page at Rumble Pie.

What fun!!!

Willow Elephants in England

The Brits are miles ahead of us in North America, when it comes to the use of willows for sculpture (though Patrick Doherty and Alastair Heseltine are two notable exceptions).

Here is my latest discovery, from a post that is no long available on The Guardian's website:

"A herd of life-size wicker elephants arrives in Hyde Park today for a two-week stay. The 13 elephants are specially commissioned by charity elephant family, which is working with the Royal Parks Foundation and The World Land Trust to raise awareness about habitat protection projects in the UK and India. Here we chart the elephants' journey from the workshop to the banks of the Serpentine."

 
There are 9 more photos on The Guardian's website, including some of how the elephants were constructed. There are a few more interesting details on the BBC website.

On our website, I have more links to artists who are creating willow scuptures.

How to Build a Living Willow Dome

When Harriet sent pictures of her living willow structure, I was so impressed that I asked if I could put them on our blog. She not only agreed but sent along a wonderful set of instructions! Thanks Harriet!

Building a Willow House

"Coming from England, I have seen and admired Willow structures for a number of years thinking one day I would build one myself. Having our children rekindled the idea and I searched for a place to find the Willow rods. I finally found Bluestem and ordered my rods for delivery in Spring this year! I ordered 50 rods in total. This is what we did...

What you need:

• Willow rods
• Garden twine
• Weed membrane
• 12" Planting Dibber or stick to make holes in the ground
• Compost
• Bag of Flour!

Step 1
Pick a spot about 40' away from your house or any other structure/building and lay down a membrane to make the floor of the house. Our floor was 8ft square and the rods I think were 8'-9' long.
Note: due to US Post Office shipping restrictions, we ship rods 84" long; in Canada 200cm.

Step 1

Step 2
Find the center of the floor and use a piece of twine and the dibber as a guide while you make a circle using the bag of flour :-)

Step 2

Step 3
Decide where the door will be and choose some sturdy rods to make a doorway (wider than your shoulders so big people can get in too!). Make two holes in the ground through your flour circle with the dibber (about 10"-12" deep) and place your rods in for the doorway. Bend the rods into a cross and twist/weave together.

Step 3

Step 4
Select 6 more strong rods and place them in the ground at equal distances around the circle pointing straight up.

Steps 4 and 5

Step 5
In between each upright rod two more rods need to be placed in the ground; one on a diagonal to the left and one on a diagonal to the right. So when you are done you should have an upright rod, a right and a left rod repeating all the way round.

Step 6
This is where you need 6 pairs of hands, the more people you have to help the better! (we did it with two adults, a three year old and a 7 month old, it was rather amusing, more adults and less kids would have been better) You need to gently bend in your rods so that they have a window about 2' round left open at the top for growth and weaving when the structure grows. While a few hands bend in the rods, another set of hands has to secure the rods in this position with twine whilst weaving the rods in between each other in a very loose basket weave type effort!!

Steps 6, 7 and 8

Step 7
Fill in any gaps you can see with left over rods. Apparently it is best to plant them on the diagonal for maximum coverage when they grow, rather than straight up.

Step 8
Once it was complete, I trimmed the flooring into a circle.

As it grows, I plan to weave in the growth at the top and eventually release the twine holding it together at the moment."

Growth during the first season, along with some happy little girls

Visit the Living Willow Structures page at Bluestem Nursery to purchase rods and for more info regarding all the neat things that you can do with willow rods.