Curb Cuts for Water Harvesting, Cleansing

Green streets policies support attractive design for walkways and neighborhoods, such as this curb cut walkway along Scott Avenue in Tucson. Photo credit: Wheat Design Group.

Russian Olga Sokolskaya says: “Rain gardens” are another topical element in shaping the environment. It is a stormwater management system. Good examples include green roofs, permeable sidewalk, rainwater harvesting [curb cuts included], green streets, storm parks. These rain gardens effectively discourage storm water pollution and reduce the likelihood of flooding, create open spaces for relaxation and living, improve air quality, regulate the climate and, of course, provide us with another attractive green solution. See more of her perspectives… A practical point to consider is that a study in Seattle found that homes on streets with rain gardens were worth 3.5-5 % more than homes on other streets…and they are pretty.

I live in a hilly arid area, Santa Barbara County, CA. Rain is predicted as I write this and I think, again, how much water is lost to runoff. I think how we need to start with properties in higher areas to reduce flooding below. I especially think of the slow, spread, sink factors, emphasis on SPREAD, rather than water channeled down streets, bypassing trees that so desperately need it. During the recent long years of drought, Santa Barbara County was the last red zone, the driest in the state.

Every inch of rainfall, on a 10-foot wide paved street – that’s a very narrow street – will drain 27,800 gallons of rainfall per mile. And that’s not on a slope or steep street! That’s a lot of water we could use. 1″ of rain equals .623 gallon per square foot! How many square feet is your roof, your sidewalk? Cities are now taking responsibility for this incredibly useful and important green infrastructure.

Curb cuts can be at your home, along a driveway, the parkway along your road, medians, in commercial areas, in parking lots, your local park! Slow, Spread, Sink are the bywords! First we divert the water into an eddy basin and slow it. The basin allows the water to a spread, then sink so more water can enter and sink. When it is full it is self regulating –  the water merely keeps flowing by since there is no lower area for it to go. Flooding and its damage may be avoided.

There are good reasons for Curb cuts! Water harvesting is Number One in drought areas and water spreading in flood areas. The higher in the area they are located, the more they slow runoff, reduce stormwater runoff damage and flooding in lower areas. There is less erosion, loss of precious topsoil. They reduce homeowner watering costs, gives greywater to our trees, sometimes lawns and veg gardens. The water held improves our soil and in time water retention is dramatically improved, as is our water table level! Run-off is filtered before it enters the ground, and at lakes and by streams and oceans, the water is filtered of pollutants before it enters the water. Animals are saved, fish and food sources are renewed. These lovely places can provide habitats beneficial for wildlife, flowers for pollinators!

Why curb cuts?! DIY basic curb cuts are simple and inexpensive to do. No parts are needed. In many cases no permits are needed. They are just a differently intentioned rain garden, built slightly differently! The cut itself can be quite variable per the place it will be used. There can be one or many cuts. They can be big or small, angled for best water capture, on slopes or flat land. You will need a shovel, someone to make the cuts and the gear to do it, very likely some cobble, and if you plant it, the cost of the plants, maybe some mulch. If terracing along a slope, consult with your civil engineer. If feasible, you will likely need big cobble and/or larger stones or weirs, even a series of weirs.

One author says: …I would like to say that a rain garden is an effective bioengineering solution to the problem of flooding areas, as well as purification of polluted rain streams. Rain gardens cannot completely replace the drainage system, they complement and improve it, ensuring stable operation. In addition to fulfilling their main functions, rain gardens also have an aesthetic component – they are wonderful elements for decorating cottages, walking paths in parks, city streets, roads and public buildings.

Water saving systems can be done many ways! Rain Gardens, small, large, or along a roadside, are lovely. Bioswales can be part of systems diverting water to areas that need it, or to large holding areas where water can be allowed to spread and sink. Put rough big materials in the bottom to slow that water down so it has time to sink. Cleverly make that bioswale curvy – install ‘S’ curves, to slow that water down! Make side branches, bulges along the way, and deltas to spread that water. Make generous stormwater retention ponds along the way. Storm control with permeable pavers and giant underground reservoirs are phenomenal and best for heavy vehicles.

Residents can make their own variations of curb cuts in the form of mini bioswales. Larger stones slow water, can act as bridges or water holding areas. On left, a dry creek rain swale in a suburban garden landscape. By Alicia Springer

 

If you want to do your own curb cuts, there are myriad guides online. First, check your local laws. Some cities are doing and trialing curb cut systems and you can suggest locations. Look into credits given toward clean water treatment control you may consider doing. In Santa Barbara area, please see pages 4-10 of Santa Barbara County Green Infrastructure for Storm Water Runoff Slopes are a challenge and consulting a civil engineer, a professional, is suggested.

When you get down to the work of it, pay attention to your soil substrate – is is rock solid clay? Might pass on that area. Think about slope, parking hazards, trees, pedestrian safety, contamination that may be brought in, archeological concerns. You don’t want to make a muddy area that collapses from the weight. Don’t forget, sidewalk runoff can be captured too!

Here is one diagram of a City of Claremont curb cut plan. The area is dug down below the surrounding area. The basin is prepared as needed per what is wanted to be achieved. Water flows in, the area fills. When it is full, no more water goes in, it just keeps flowing by, not finding a lower entry point. The curb cuts can be angled to capture the incoming water per the direction it comes from. The size of the cut and the number of cuts determine how much water is allowed in. On a slope image I have seen 1″ cuts that really slowed the water’s entry speed and the amount possible to go in.

Here’s another version planted with trees! Bioswale concept diagram: (1) Dirty and polluted water from rooftops, roads and parking lots enters the bioswale; (2) Water is slowed down by various plants and rocks, pollutants settle out, clean water infiltrates the soil; (3) Water enters the perforated pipe and is slowly absorbed into the ground; (4) Excess stormwater exits the bioswale and flows through the pipe into the recipient, cleaner than when it entered and in the amount significantly reduced.

Slopes require different design! Deeper water holding areas, strong basin dividers, sometimes bank support. Weirs with notches for spillways, pipes, more.  There are so many lovely ways to treat them! The image at right shows Curb Cuts on a Sloped Street using water holding terracing. Moreland, Victoria, Australia

Please see some terrific examples here of sloped areas that Arlington VA calls ‘Green Streets.’ They say ‘A green street is a street with a vegetated area in the public right of way that reduces the volume of stormwater and stormwater pollutants that enter our local streams, Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. They are one of the best tools we have at our disposal to address environmental and regulatory stormwater needs.’

Be creative with your curb cuts and inlets! Make them as long as you want. Shape them for easy access for the water. Pay special attention to the direction the water is coming from to angle the cuts to capture it. Make wings, image 4, to protect the bank of the basin from eroding as the water enters. If one cut isn’t enough, add another one or make it longer!

The City of Burnsville MN is making beauty and harvesting water!

   

 

Plants play a crucial part. Plants need to be both water and dry tolerant, whether flowers or serious working plants! Deluge and drought areas, established deep rooted native plants can hold their own on sloped street parkways to slow water. Bebas Banjir says: ‘Native plants don’t require fertilizer, have good root systems, and are better at utilizing the water and nutrients available in their native soils than non-native species.’ He has a lot more to say! An experienced installer says stay away from invasives. Plants are generally planted on the slopes, sides, of basins and in the cracks between groups of rocks, not on the flat bottom.

Trees! If you are doing a rain garden, you don’t want trees that suck up the water. If you have trees that need water, be sure to make your area big enough to help the trees and use underground storage devices that gradually release the stored water to your trees. Some say, forget the storage devices, Soil is the best place to store rainwater! Do what you feel is the long term best! If you are in a flood zone, plant thirsty trees that don’t mind water and to take up that water!

However, depending on the specific purpose of a rain garden, the design may vary, and interesting additional functions may also be added. In some rain gardens there is a function of a reserve (reserve) of water – first, water is purified by passing through terraces from plants, then it enters an underground reservoir. The water is stored there and will be used for underground irrigation of trees during dry weather. There are also rain gardens designed to protect areas from flooding during storms.

Working Plants If in arid or short rain season areas, or your water flows to the ocean, your first consideration is plants that detox the water and soil. This is especially true in urban areas with water coming off the street. That would be special detoxing grasses and plants that filter the water and help with soil remediation, chemicals from street runoff. After a flood, install ground covers of water absorbing plants to detox the soil if you must replant in areas that have flooded. Plant quick growing legume plants and legume trees to feed and restore the soil. Include both native water and drought tolerating plants that will grow deep and break up that soil, that make breathing airways for soil organisms that will help clean up the soil. Check out Phoenix AZ suburb Avondale AZ diagrams, plans for several situations including plants, and, fabulous plants lists! In fact, Cities who have been water harvesting many years, 20, 30, often include plant lists for residents in their city water management plan PDFs! Choose one or two that best represent your area.

If you want beauty for your pollinators, food for birds, plant a mixture of water loving/drought tolerant flowers, herbs, perennials, and shrubs, for all seasons habitat.

RESIDENTIAL

This area between the sidewalk and the road has many names. Depending on where you live, it’s called a boulevard, median, hellstrip, parkway, verge or tree belt. This spot has been dug down for water collection and the vigorous growth of the planting shows the lovely result! Here’s a nifty little quicky Introduction to Rain Gardens from Cornell!

Green street terracing at the sloped John Marshall Drive, median as part of a storm sewer improvement project in the area. Arlington VA

What if your street doesn’t have a curb?! All the easier! You don’t have to make a curb cut because the street slope can bring the water right where you want it! How about a rain garden type ‘eddy basin?!’ This one is super simple to do, brings beauty to your home, reduces water costs.

Maplewood, MN streetside Rain Garden

Calculations are important! Design for an adequate capture area wherever you are harvesting water! This helps restore our water table. Thanks to Surfrider.org for this image. The Surfrider Foundation is a super conscientious environmental organization. You can see how important this is to them. We want those dolphins and our surfers to have safe clean water.

What fine Marin CA Green Street Planters! Sidewalk slope and curb cuts, plus allowance for offloading area from parked vehicles and walkways to sidewalk, make all the difference!  Small Design, Big Impacts!

Aesthetic curb cut grates designed for safe walking for pedestrians and people off loading from vehicles. Parkways become filled with inspiring healthy vigorous plants. This image is posted on the Stormwater Management Handbook of Northern Kentucky Communities. Plenty of useful ideas and details here!  Photo by Kevin Robert Perry, City of Portland

Curbless rural street transformed! Water-harvesting eddy basins created by Eden on Earth on a curbless street in Clarkdale, Arizona. Photo by Carol Luhman just after the work was completed in 2007. Featured on Brad Lancaster’s site.

Before the work, road runoff would flow up against and flood the house. After the work, the dirt dug from the street-side basins created a raised walkway that acts as a berm ensuring no basin water or street runoff can flow up against the house. Before the work, there was no walkway; now there is a wonderful path wide enough for two people to walk side by side, separated by the trees from cars and street. Now the trees have grown to shade both walkway and street.

Author, Zhehang Li says, ‘Sometimes, the smallest design can make great impacts.‘

ALONG ROADWAYS – MEDIANS, are super bioretention areas!

Biofiltration! For roadway plantings, hyperaccumulator plants are important. A hyperaccumulator is a plant that capable of growing in soil or water with very high concentrations of metals, absorbing these metals through their roots, and concentrating extremely high levels of metals in their tissues. Find out which ones grow in your area. They are capable of phytoremediation, a bioremediation process that uses various types of plants to remove, transfer, stabilize, and/or destroy contaminants in the soil and groundwater. FIVE best plants! Here you see cobble stones slowing water, protecting the integrity of the edge of the basin and plants at the water entry point. All the beautiful trees here are well watered and flourishing!

COMMERCIAL and PARKING AREAS – GREATER URBAN RESILIENCE! You might see the letters LID used, Low Impact Development.

Proper design is key as maintenance is not the same as typical landscaping. Rain is one thing, clean, while run on water brings sediment. Sediment clogs the pores in soil. In some city systems, that fine sediment, called fines, is simply vacuumed! Know that your Curb Cut eddy basin will need maintenance. Some cities have two person teams to make sure cuts and flow ways are clear before a rain. Depending on your situation, many clear debris/sediment after each storm; in a big storm the soil can be quickly overwhelmed. Other basins need clearing only once a year, very low maintenance! The basin itself may fill with sediment and need a dig out clearing. Gravel fills with sediment and is heavy to work with to clean. It may be more simple to replace it, a cost. Some do plantings in their deep basin areas. Mulch is cheap and keeps weeds down, needs occasional replacement. Over years, it remarkably improves the water holding capacity of the soil. If you plant your eddy basin, it will need supplemental irrigation until your plants are established.

Sediment prevention can be helped by installing a pre barrier like a small cobble filled trench, a permeable netting staked vertically along an edgeway. However, some recommend to never use filter fabric because it in turn adds synthetics to the landscape that block the water from percolating into the water table and the soil from building biology. Landscape fabrics are usually synthetic, made from polyester or polypropylene.

Large pretreatment catch basins can be made. ‘Bottomless’ have large ungrouted boulders that allow water to infiltrate. Concrete is not porous. Neither Porous concrete or porous asphalt can be cleaned and the asphalt is toxic. 8-10″ Cobble may be your answer. There is more air and no standing water for mosquitos.

The image on the left shows both curb and sidewalk cuts to allow rainwater entry. The right shows a terracing weir and attractive pedestrian protection for the basin with plantings including flowers! It’s an image used in the State College of Pennsylvania Mansfield Rising Plan.

 

Parking lots are often massive land use areas that receive huge amounts of water!

Thinking has really changed. Parking lots are now being built with land included for water harvesting and cleaning. The area is sloped toward the plants that filter the water. Some have curb cuts or no curbs at all so the water can enter freely. Sidewalks, parking areas, and streets are now being built sloped toward water capture areas. The parking lot below is a lovely mature water harvesting area. Thanks to McKenney’s Inc. in Atlanta, GA

PARKS!

The Edinburgh Gardens Rain Garden in Melbourne, Australia is stunning! Melbourne experienced some years of drought and this extensive project was to replace the existing need for potable water being used to irrigate the parks and gardens. It provides treated irrigation rainwater for surrounding trees and other vegetation and sports venues. The construction of the rainwater park solves the double crisis of local drinking water and irrigation water. Various water landscapes and corresponding measures in the park collect and store rainwater, purify the water body and distribute it to the required area through the shunt pipe. The water source is purified by the natural action of filter media and various vegetation. Collection areas prevent spreading of pollution. The four platforms in the park are convenient for visitors to enjoy the beautiful scenery and engage in outdoor sports. According to some reports, rain gardens can reduce the amount of polluting flows by 25-40%. This is the Chalvey Brook Character Area. See some of the structural details.

This is not a curb cut collection type area, but you can see how water is channeled into the bioswale, large boulders and cobble, plus curves, slow the water. Beautiful Nature Walk Bioswale at Dawn, Duarte CA by BlueGreen Consulting. See more at Veg Gardening Changing Climate Survival Guide!

Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012, the Ventura Ocean Friendly Gardens team returned to the recently completed garden to take it one step further: the first residential ‘curb cut’ in Ventura CA! At that time it was stated: In order to make this possible, the City of Ventura will soon be offering a standard design, no-cost permit for all City residents, a first in the nation!

Research pointer. Universities are much smaller than large cities that have many kinds of streets and circumstances. Universities will do research projects, students do papers, cooperative extension tries to serve the community and often includes Master Gardener programs. Sometimes they sport the cutting edge and come up with super innovative options, often starting a whole new way of doing things. Cities have all kinds of buildings, highways, urban/residential to rural. They have broad challenges and a lot of experience in practical applications. Much of what their management programs and PDFs show are well proven. If you have some tough questions, consult with their experts per your unique situation. Get around and get a few different opinions.

All over the world people are wanting water, clean water. Do what YOU can do. You may or may not enjoy gardening, or be able to maintain a curbside water gathering space. The simplest is to have someone do the curb cut for you, then, if you are on a slope, dig your basin, have 8-10″ cobble hauled in and forget it. If your land is level, get the curb cut, have someone dig and put the plants and mulch in, with cobbles at the entry point to slow the entry of the water. If you can, hire a maintenance landscaper to care for it. If they are educated about water/drought plants, and plants that detox and feed the soil, all the better.

Here is a 2018 delightful tale by Urban Planner Dan Read. He tells what happened in Wheaton Woods, a Washington DC, Montgomery County area, when the powers that be intended to install rain gardens. It’s funny and becomes inspiring, along with some practical pithy and informative comments following! Worth the read. Montgomery residents are fighting plans to build rain gardens

Next time, take a walk in the rain…to find spots that could be more beautiful and profit from a Curb Cut. Do your curb cuts and eddy basins well before your rainy season or as soon as you can. If you will be planting, do your plant  installation as early as possible so their roots will be well established and ready to do their job.

Small changes add up! Preserve your precious water!

In honor of Barbara Wishingrad, Sweetwater Collaborative, Santa Barbara CA, for all her dedicated work.

Updated 3.10.21

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Love your Mother! Plant bird & bee food! Think grey water! Grow organic! Bless you for being such a wonderful Earth Steward!

The Green Bean Connection started as correspondence for the Santa Barbara CA USA Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden. Both of Santa Barbara City’s remaining community gardens are very coastal. During late spring/summer we are often in a fog belt/marine layer most years, locally referred to as the May grays, June glooms and August fogusts. In 2018 they lasted into September and October! Keep that in mind compared to the microclimate niche where your veggie garden is.

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Veg Gardening Changing Climate Survival Guide!

The Occidental Arts & Ecology Center (OAEC) is an 80-acre research, demonstration, advocacy and organizing center in Sonoma County, California. We live in a time of profound challenges that require immediate, courageous and strategic responses. We are confronted by global ecological and climate crises… OAEC supports diverse communities to design their own regenerative systems at the regional and local scale. OAEC supports change makers and communities to design for a resilient future.

There are other organizations like this one that are helping us plan specifically for our areas. Sometimes the processes of one situation can be used as a template, adapted for another area, the basic premises, sequences holding across the board.

July 2019 Kollibri Terre Sonnenblume’s latest article was published. The title reads: Our Veggie Gardens Won’t Feed us in a Real Crisis As things stand right now, for most of us he’s right.

As Veg Gardeners we are emissaries to all who would grow food! In a serious crisis, our skills may be called on to feed many people. Kollibri’s provocative article makes you think about how important our growing can be in these times of extreme climate situations.

Some of you may be permaculturists, already knowing about collaboration with the land, sustainability, self-reliance, having multiple support/backup systems. Others of you may be rank gardening beginners. Most of us are in progress. We need you all!

Kollibri’s experience is his. There are many stories to be told, many responses possible. Some of my thoughts and responses include:

• Select safe land for your growing space carefully for the long term. Anticipate what changes you can, timing as possible. Have a backup plan in mind. Yes, there will be unanticipated events – a microburst storm, a devastating foreign insect coming through, huge hail where it hasn’t happened before, others.
• Change your diet. In a crisis you might expect to let go of meat, diary, and grains, or reduce your intake dramatically. Instead of beef, raise fish or other animals, perhaps. Maybe your choice will be animals that provide milk and fur. How about chickens? They poop manure, scratch, eat insects, make eggs!
• Learn about soil. Check out the soil chapter in the book Gaia’s Garden!
• Plant efficient per square foot plants. Our small 10X20 Community Garden plots teach us that. Those plants can be high producers like zucchini, plants that produce prolifically all season long, or cut and come again types like lettuces and kales. In summer string beans are super producers – broad beans and long beans give you more bean for the space they take up!
• Plant Perennial plants, like Tree Collards, for continuous crop all year and year after year.
• If you have cold winters, plant potatoes that store well. In summer plant winter squashes that store well in winter. Set up an in-the-ground greenhouse to equalize seasonal temps.
• Learn about Succession Planting. While one plant is growing, plant another round. Some plants are started every week.
• Learn about Seed Saving so you allow time and space for that type of production as well.
• Plant year round habitat for birds to keep pests down, and for bees and other pollinators to keep pollination going.
• Check out what the indigenous ancestors in that area survived well on. Restore some of that process. It could be an efficient food/garden forest. Could be ‘Tending the Wild,’ using edible native plants, as Kat Anderson writes about. If your land is hilly, terracing is a phenomenal and beautiful technique. If your land is flat, build bioswales to collect water, hold moisture.
• Plant plants that have over-the-top nutritional value like fast grower Garden Purslane, pur·sluhn, aka Verdolaga south of the border.
• If you are planting for a family, consider the special food needs of children, people who are ill, elders. Plant herbs for medicine.

The Gardener’s New Emergency Kit Bag!

SEEDS  A gardener’s emergency kit bag is a little different! It likely includes important select seeds for all seasons in an airtight container! Select some productive fast growers, like lettuce and radish (has edible leaves too), and ones of plants that produce all season long. Select bush and pole beans, determinate and indeterminate tomatoes. Select heat, drought and cold tolerant plant seeds. Some will grow earlier crops that produce in cool weather! Some survive heat, grow later and more healthily in fall. Some will survive frosts, even freezing. Be sure to have seeds for all seasons. Some areas, especially flooded areas, it isn’t recommended to grow edible plants there for at least one full season, so you need access to fresh soil and to be prepared for every season. Remember, you won’t be the only hungry people. Take as many seeds as possible. Seeds for flood soil restoration. Seeds for sprouts!

SOIL  If you anticipate you would need ‘soil,’ whether you would be able to leave in a vehicle or intend to stay where you are, keep a couple or more bags of fresh clean compost around at all times. You can plant directly in compost. Remember, kitchen scraps can be processed to be used to make more compost. Think about including a lightweight folding shovel in your emergency kit.

What if you live in an apartment? Growing food in a north facing window system would be a challenge – not enough sun. If you have power, set up some grow lights. These days, thoughtfulness about your directional window placing could become vital. Install  window solar power devices for when your power is off! Many a fine container garden has been planted in windows, on balconies, along the stairs, on the walls, a pallet leaning against the wall, in hanging baskets, on trellises made of strings or wire. Creativity abounds! Also grow tasty high protein sprouts!

Weather Crises are now unpredictable. The modern survivor needs to be prepared for any kind of emergency at any location, at any time.

IN a Crisis situation, burning heat, a water wipe out, an extended freeze, it’s over. What do you do? In a worst case scenario, there may no longer be a nursery or transplants at it. Most crops planted from seed take two+ months to get into production. Lettuce/Microgreens are really fast, but even they take about two weeks minimum. Radish, an incredibly fast grower, takes about a month. Transportation may be an issue. You may need to migrate to land that has plants to forage. Carry your lettuce plantings with you – wagon, cart, bicycle, grocery cart, sleep with them to protect them. You may become vegan for a while. You may not be happy, but you won’t die, probably will lose some weight! Succession planting becomes a necessity.

Always have an emergency backup supply of dry food for until your new plants become available to eat. Be sure your food supply takes up little space and weighs little. You want to be able to carry it comfortably if need be. In airtight/waterproof bags pack: Jerky, nuts, the least bulky dried vegs and fruits. Make a trail mix of nuts for protein and dried fruits that are high in Vitamin C: Raisins, Peaches, Pears, Bananas, Apricots, Longans, Litchis, Cranberries. Include trail bars that don’t melt or freeze. Keep a ready lightweight waterproof backpack.

Heat – Maybe Drought, Fire

In a serious heat situation you may need to migrate north to a cooler higher land or coastal land with access to clean water. Plant right away in a sheltered, perhaps shaded area, use shade cloth if you can get it, branches if you can’t. Choose a north facing slope for less sun. If there is no slope, build one as you can. Put up porous windbreaks to slow drying wind. If the soil is sandy, compost, compost, compost for water holding capacity. Bring seaweed from the ocean if you are coastal. Mulch to cool down the soil. If it is windy, put shade cloth, heavy branches, stones or other cover to hold the mulch in place, especially if your land is sloped. The Zuni used ‘gravel,’ handpicked pebbles as ‘mulch’ in their waffle spaces. Use the old Zuni humble technique of Waffle gardening. They knew how to garden in heat! If planting in trenches, make them deeper and at right angles to the Sun’s path to take advantage of the shade the sides of the trenches make.

Simplest and cheapest is to set up an underground greenhouse to equalize seasonal temps. Make it the right size for your needs. Dig it right into the side of a hill or slope if possible. You want that shade and shelter for both you and the plants. Check online for the pros and cons of building bank barns for your animals. Bank buildings can be improvised to suit a temporary immediate need, or planned to the inch if built for long term use… Fastest and next cheapest are Hoop houses! See Growing Super Veggies in HOT, Drought, Desert Areas!

In the most urban situations like New York City, use those balconies, the rooftops, a window! Just be sure the balcony or roof will support the additional weight of soil and water. Whenever you rent choose a place that has 8 hours of sunlight. Wherever you plant, choose highly productive plants per square foot. Pole beans on a trellis! Bush Zucchini. Cut-and-come-again plants like chard, celery, lettuce/microgreens, kales. Chard, celery and lettuce need a lot of water. Otherwise, choose plants that are heat and drought tolerant.

Walipini Pit Greenhouse! How a Walipini works and how to build one!

Great tips here: Underground Greenhouse Ideas: What Are Pit Greenhouses

In the long term, plant more trees like fast grower legume trees that feed the soil and cool the Earth. Plant them in Bioswales that hold moisture. The trees make shade, hold even more moisture, secure the soil with their roots. If possible, start where there is an initial water supply.

Beautiful Nature Walk Bioswale at Dawn, Duarte CA by BlueGreen Consulting

Flood

This is no longer new to us, but it’s a dramatic example. 7.23.19: Less than a month after New York City declared a climate emergency due to a heat wave, the reality of the crisis came crashing home Monday as streets across Brooklyn and Queens were inundated with dirty water flash flooding a day after power went down in three boroughs. These New Yorkers aren’t going to be growing much of their own food right now. But, do what you can! Use those balconies, the rooftops, a window that receives sun. A LOT can be grown in small spaces! Choose apartments wisely – sun facing in case you need that sun.

July 2019 NYC: Heat Wave, Blackouts, Flood back to back.

Some consider floods to be worse than droughts. Flood soils are dangerous, mask and gloves needed when you do remediation. You may not be able to grow edible plants there for at least a season.

You don’t want to plant in low areas after a flood. There are sewage, oils, plastics, garbage, disease in that water – likely Giardia, sometimes dead animals and humans, their fecal matter, fecal matter from nearby animal/chicken farms. Afterwards there are decaying materials. The soil that remains may be infected for a long time to come. Your first tactic would be to plant quick growing detoxing grasses, sunflowers and other plants that remove crud. Grow plants that reach deep into the soil and loosen its structure. Turn the soil to off gas toxins and so dangerous soil organisms will dry and die. Incorporate fresh clean compost. See more ideas

If your veg garden got flooded, here are some important tips. Shasta CA Master gardener Leimone Waite gives good 2023 information! West Virginia U Extension Horticulture Specialist Lewis Jett has further advice. Adapt these informations to your area.  

Planting in lowlands, below dams or water barriers, may not be the wise choice these days. An unusual amount of fast high water can blast right through these structures. The face of agriculture is changing. Grains and corn may become unprofitable choices, equaling less beef, higher prices. Water may bring silt and fertile soil or fast flooding may wash away all the topsoil leaving nutritionless, even dirty, soil. For your personal situation, choose higher land. If needed, protect it with terracing, done with a combination of bioswales and Hugelkultur. Choose the cleanest soil you can find to plant in.

Soil Restoration Please see this List of Phytoremediation Plants Used to Clean Contaminated Soil. Alfalfa grows quickly. Sunflowers take longer but are pretty. Willow trees. Per Anita B. Stone ‘Indian Grass is one of nine members of grasses that assist in phytoremediation plants. When planted on farmland, the reduction of pesticides and herbicides is significant. This list also includes Buffalo grass and Western wheatgrass, both capable of absorbing hydrocarbons from the land.’ Be sure to grow grasses appropriate to your location, native grasses if possible. Put some alfalfa and grass seeds in your emergency kit!

Three things are important! 1) Install a ground cover of water absorbing plants to detox the soil if you must replant in areas that have flooded. 2) Plant quick growing legume soil feeding plants and trees to feed and restore the soil. 3) Include plants that will grow deep and break up that soil, that make breathing airways for soil organisms that will help clean up the soil. Oats are good.

Rapid Run Urban Bioswale, Seven Hills Neighborhood, Cincinnati OH  The learning curve was steep…

In the long term, in non-urban areas, or urban areas that are interspersed with land, build bioswales that interrupt stormwater flow and divert it to areas that need water! Interrupt flooding with many bioswales – just like in nature. Remember these words: Slow, Sink, Spread! Put rough big materials in the bottom to slow that water down so it has time to sink. Cleverly make that bioswale curvy – install ‘S’ curves, to slow that water down! Make side branches, bulges along the way, and deltas to spread that water. Again, make generous stormwater retention ponds along the way.

A big 2¢ worth from Cornell! Woody Shrubs for Stormwater Retention Practices

China is building 30 ‘sponge cities’ that aim to soak up floodwater and prevent disaster

Freezing or an Extended Period of Exceptional Cold

There may be no snow plow, cell service; electricity may be out. It’s not safe outdoors for humans or pets, farm animals, livestock. Fishing at the lake through an ice hole may be all that’s left, IF you have a lake, if it has fish…

In an immediate situation, a southern migration may be in order, preferably to land with a clean water supply. If you stay, go Vegan, at least temporarily. Building a greenhouse may be a challenge. We want warmer, to reduce wind chill. The ground may be frozen, so no underground greenhouse yet. But you can build along a south facing slope, even a snowbank! If there is no slope, build one. Gather and pile up any materials at hand. Make the face from wood panels, plastic sheets, old windows, even logs and branches can do the job. At each side put up permeable wind barriers that make a U shape with your ‘greenhouse’ and let the area inside the U warm up. Use any reflective materials you can find to reflect heat onto your greenhouse.

In the long term, well in advance, build a greenhouse. Such a greenhouse can be built in the ground during summer months when the soil can be worked. Homesteaders in -40° weather, used their garage and came to two prime conclusions. #1 is Insulation! No surprise. #2 was their water tanks, a thermal mass that kept their water buckets near the tanks from freezing solid! They needed water for their plants! You can put in stoves, showers, sleeping quarters! Store foods you want to be cold well away from the stove area. Clearly, light is needed. That’s why a greenhouse against a slope or a mound you make is a practical idea. The south facing side can have light allowing material slanted against it steeply enough the snow falls down. If you want to collect it to make water, all the easier. Depending on what you want to do, snow can act as insulation. See excellent tips at SF Gate: How to Keep a Greenhouse Above Freezing. When you can, install a self-sufficient Solar Power System for energy to keep your plants warm, lighted and growing.

Green Sprouts in the Canadian Arctic A unique “Green Igloo” project is helping grow fresh vegetables in a remote Inuit community! The 42-foot growing dome, built in modular sections, can handle seven feet of snow and winds up to 110 miles per hour.

Keep extra bags of compost/manure, to plant in while soil isn’t available. Grow cold-tolerant crops that can even tolerate a freeze. Harvest frugally. Plants grow slowly when it’s cold. Grow plants that regrow – like lettuces/microgreens, bunch onions, spinach, chard, Kales. Plant successively to keep supplies coming. While one plant is regrowing you can harvest another area.

We have now discussed Greenhouses for both heat and freeze temps needs. Underground greenhouses accommodate both situations with less difficulty. Just be sure to make them safe from flooding or snowmelt. Bioswales work well with planting more trees and diverting water, making more space for the natural flow of water.

We haven’t talked about SPROUTS! Technically, growing sprouts isn’t gardening, but it’s a relative! In all cases, Heat, Flood and Freeze they can be grown easily and super quickly, 2 to 5 days, in light weight containers. Select seeds that have plenty of protein! Make a fast growing mix and a slower mix. Mix in some spicy seeds for tasty results. You do need water to rinse them and they need to be kept warm. You could carry them in your jacket when it’s cold. In the diagram below, particularly note the grams of Protein!

Please right click on image, select ‘Search Google for image’ to see a more clear image.

If you are starting over, you might consider a Food Forest. If you have enough land with good soil, they have special advantages, including the possibility of mitigating crisis situations. Same goes for the use of Permaculture techniques, which might include a Food Forest. Food Forests often start with, may already have trees you want in place. They can provide shade and windbreaks. Wood for winter. Food Forests provide high density production per square foot, a variety of foods and living needs in a much smaller space! It would serve you well to read up on both and possibly modify your long term plans for a safer, more sustainable and comfortable life.

Not everyone likes or wants to garden. If you are evacuated, right away select a food person. Could be an experienced veg gardener who knows how to get things going again. They will work intuitively and be innovative on their feet as needed. Select someone who has a natural inclination. If no one in your group likes gardening, appoint someone responsible and practical to do it anyway. Give them your support by working side by side with them as much as possible. It’s a start. Some people don’t yet know they would like to garden! Show them what you are growing; give them a few samples of your 100% fresh organic food with no packaging! That full bodied taste and fresh texture makes a huge difference! Someone who loves gardening enjoys the work it takes. A greater amount of fresh food will need to be grown to meet initial crisis needs.

Some of us Community Gardeners are considering meeting together if there is a serious crisis and we would evacuate together if need be. We could help people with the food situation. Local permaculturists might form a team to help our community in extreme circumstances. They might train for different kinds of climate situations. We need Permaculture First Responders on staff! Farmers might join an advocacy association to train key gardeners about mass production techniques. Neighborhood associations could create a seat on the council for a person to get knowledgeable and take charge of crisis food needs. Certain centrally located secure homes could be appointed as gathering places. Homeowners that already have veg gardens could be assisted to produce more.

We have been talking about temporary survival fixes in extreme circumstances. The important key to all is responsible land stewardship toward regenerative agriculture. See about Crater Gardens! Sepp Holzer has one! Do read the comments at this page. Create your own to suit your space and needs!

Plan and support Regenerative Agriculture!

This post is intended to be provocative in its own way. Please think about it, let us know your ideas, make comments, ask questions, share your experiences. This has been in the back of my mind for some time and is still in progress. Our solutions now will undoubtedly change as circumstances change, unfold. It will take all our collective genius. People who have lived alone will find themselves suddenly thrust into collaborating. Life will be changing for all of us. We’re in it together.

Be safe, be well, tend your future just as you would your garden ~ it is a garden of another kind!

Updated 3.25.23

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Love your Mother! Plant bird & bee food! Think grey water! Grow organic! Bless you for being such a wonderful Earth Steward!

The Green Bean Connection newsletter started as correspondence for the Santa Barbara CA USA, Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden. Both of Santa Barbara City’s remaining community gardens are very coastal. During late spring/summer we are in a fog belt/marine layer area most years, locally referred to as the May grays, June glooms and August fogusts. Keep that in mind compared to the microclimate niche where your veggie garden is. Bless you for being such a wonderful Earth Steward!

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