Farming in the Sky

The NY Times reports on the design and development of urban vertical farms, where crops are grown on specially designed skyscrapers.

When Mr. Stringer heard about the concept in June, he said he immediately pictured a “food farm” addition to the New York City skyline. “Obviously we don’t have vast amounts of vacant land,” he said in a phone interview. “But the sky is the limit in Manhattan.” Mr. Stringer’s office is “sketching out what it would take to pilot a vertical farm,” and plans to pitch a feasibility study to the mayor’s office within the next couple of months, he said.

More here.

Get Outside--A List

Here's 15 things to do to get you and your kids outside, from Iowa.

A sample:

Plant specific trees and bushes in your backyard that can provide food and shelter for birds, as well as food for insects. The key is variety, said wildlife specialist Jim Pease. “The greater the variety, the more different kinds of insects it will attract, as well as birds,” he said.

When possible, stick with native plants, the Iowa State University Extension expert said. Avoid invasive plants such as bush honeysuckle, buckthorn and purple loosestrife. Pease suggests:

•Hazelnut

•Nanking cherry

•Chokecherry

•Arrowwood viburnum

•Elderberry

•Ninebark

•Dogwoods

•Wild plum

•Bee balm

•Legume plants

•Purple or gray-headed coneflower

•Brown-eyed Susan

In addition, USA Today had a good article last week on Taking a Cloud Walk.

Take a Cloud Walk encourages children to experience nature firsthand -- to "take a minute to be in it." As the title suggests, the main focus of the book is cloud identification. Readers learn to distinguish and name low, middle and high-level clouds, and there are example photos to test their identification skills. Once cloud identification is covered, readers learn about the different types of precipitation -- rain, snow, sleet and hail -- that come from the clouds. The book also tackles the complex role that clouds play in climate change. Of course, since the book encourages kids to enjoy the outdoors, it also instructs them about when not to take a cloud walk with a section on severe weather safety. While experiencing nature is the focus of this book and the whole Take a Walk series, documenting these experiences in a nature journal or even one's own cloud book is encouraged and writing tips are provided.

Garden

Heard my first white-throated sparrow of the season today, that means spring is here.

Gardening is a great way to get kids and adults outside working with the land. I started getting serious about gardening after I read Shep Ogden's Straight-Ahead Organic: A Step-By-Step Guide to Growing Great Vegetables in a Less-Than-Perfect World, a fantastic book for the beginning organic gardener. The results were great, and are even more desirable today, in this world of vegetables imported from places thousands of miles from home, and the subsequent problems that arise because of the that. I even got to know Shep Ogden, who is a local neighbor and colleague now--one hell of a gardener.

That garden was at our last home, and our lot now allows for a smaller plot. But we'll be working on being as locovorious as possible this year, by either growing our own or buying from local providers.

To help get you started or psyched for this year's garden, check out this site to start with, as it's National Garden Month.