Showing posts with label roof top garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label roof top garden. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Urban Agriculture Conference at The New York Horticultural Society


Love and urban agriculture have so much in common.

Think about it.

Just like the early stages of love – meaning there is the flirtatious gamble on exciting, new confrontations, the early passion, and the-where-have-you-been-all-my-life affirming commitment – so it is not off the mark to read the opening sentence on the flyer for The Horticultural Society of New York’s (HSNY) www.thehort.org
recent conference on Urban Agriculture where it posits the question, “Is Urban Farming here for the long haul, or just the latest iteration of a ‘back to the land’ reflex that occurs whenever the nation or economy is threatened?” to see the parallelisms of love and urban farming and long-term relationships.
This manifesto of sorts could be the opening salvo of an online dating strategy.   (Substitute You for Urban Farming and back to the land for the steady lover and you catch the drift!)

But when it comes to Urban Ag, HSNY is all business.  They are no one-night stand!  The organization rightfully claims they have been cultivating urban gardeners since 1902 – so they are the Oprah-like poster child of long-term commitment and can claim a home field advantage on this subject.
 
Urban Agriculture Conference

It was an energized, cosmopolitan-peppy, sold-out audience that filled the Hort’s midtown headquarters for the all-day educational and entertaining event. 
Anticipation fairly crackled as attendees greeted one another -- eagerly embracing the too-early (i.e. hot) spring – and each other -- while serving up the healthy breakfast provided by The Hort. 
Overheard clutches of conversation were riffs on the themes: “Can you believe the herbs are up already?” to “There’ll be hell to pay with the ‘bugs’ this summer” to “My clients think we should start planting annuals now!” and “Does anyone need more proof of climate change??”       
All rather natty horticulture exchanges, don’t you think?

The Urban Ag Conference Line Up

The day’s agenda was a “Who’s Who” of urban farming and gardening. 
As an aside, does one read a difference in those terms or is the urban environment where the two acts: gardening and farming are rendered two sides of the same coin?

George Pisegna, Director of Hort, Introduces Conference at The Hort
George Pisegna, Director of Horticulture and the genius who toils to put these fascinating programs together opened up the Conference.  

Thomas Fox, Keynoter and author of “Urban Farming: Sustainable City Living in Your Backyard, in Your Community, and in the World,” (available at Amazon http://tiny.cc/fvmkcw and on the Kindle. I got that version) was the ideal candidate to address the audience with his talk:
Urban Farming in 2012:  Anything New Under the Sun?”



Following a delicious and equally healthy lunch was the Panel Discussion, moderated by Camilla Hammer, Farm Manager, Battery Urban Farm The Battery Conservancy

Panelists: Erika Brenner, Farm Educator Dekalb Farm
Annie Novak, Founder and Director, Growing Chefs
Phyllis Odessey, Director of Horticulture, Randall’s Island Park
Eun Young Sebazco, Horticulture Manager, Randall’s Island Park
Britta Riley, CEO and Founder, Windowfarms
Zach Pickens, Farm Manager, Riverpark Farm at Alexandria Center 

Keynote
Tom started the book in 2001; finished it in 2010. 
His talk was as much about the making of the book as it parallels the evolution of the world of urban farms as it was about the state of urban farming.

The moniker “urban farming” didn’t even exist when he started his research and writing, he said.

There was a Brooklyn rooftop farm, and the first urban CSA and pretty much nothing else.  His research took him from no material to everyone’s doing it, with urban farming-as-phenomena.

His book opens with the Google search results that go from three to thousands…

So what is creating this new status of urban framing?
Tom outlined what’s driving Urban Ag, with the starting gate of 2011:

1. The attacks on the World Trade Center caused many New Yorkers to move away. He cited a friend who relocated to Atlanta and subsequently felt drawn “back to the land.”  But then she also realized “food as crop” and was dissatisfied, nay disgusted with the choice of perishable food being offered for sale.   
She asked, “Is this the legacy we want to leave to our children?”  She came to farm her food.

2. Wars and economic problems  - there is precedence of this crisis that leads to gardening. Think Victory Gardens. The recent recession jumpstarted the practice of urban gardening.  In any economic crisis there is a want (need?) to grow our own food to save money.

3. China and the World Trade Organization –First we lost a lot of jobs when we stopped being the people who made things with our hands, leaving that to China and things like food here became cheap.

4.  Climate Change – It rains less frequently but more intensely and this is bad for agriculture.  Climate change will continue and will only get worse.  Tom said we can see the affects climate change has created and called out proof of its consequences in an article he found in an insurance industry press story on this – noting it was not covered in the popular press.
This discovery caused quite a stir in that business is already baking the climate change element into their spreadsheets and yet the mass population is not even accepting the fact that climate change exists! 
Moreover, there is a land grab presently going on in Africa, according to Tom.
Rain-fed cropland is already being farmed. Now, so many resource-poor countries are buying up millions of acres to lock in their land insurance for growing food. 
The land grab effort underscores a country’s insecurity.

Tom continued: The Slow Food movement started in Europe and like past immigrants, soon made its way to the US.
The organization is a grass roots effort to promote local food traditions and to combat industrial and unsafe food practices. www.slowfood.com

In 2003 Europe reacted to its Mad Cow disease but scientists still can’t figure out where the cow came from due to the complicated fabric of cross-networked food sources.
Now the Slow Food movement is making its way to China in reaction to its health scares and as a partial solution to that country’s food scandals, including salmonella outbreaks in eggs there – that are shipped elsewhere…

“It’s all very disturbing,” lamented Tom.  “All these examples point up the precariousness of our food supply.”

Part of the allure of urban farming is to reclaim the food supply.

Food Mantra

Food is radical. Food is power.
“This is a mantra that can be applied to most every urban farming experience,” claims Tom. “If you don’t control the food, you don’t control life.”

Most of this country’s “life” or food – comes from California’s Central Valley, and Latin and South America.
But, Tom suggests, fruits and vegetable can be grown locally. 
At this point, he noted the rice that was grown at Randall’s Island.
We’d learn more about this successful, revolutionary urban farming experience later from Eun Young and Phyllis – the Randall’s Island food farming heroines and geniuses behind this brave and creative experiment.

From a perspective of cultural anthropology, Tom pointed out the history of how farming changed mid-century -- after World War II.
At that time, it was considered a favor to get people off the farm. Working with one’s hands is wonderful yes, but tough.
Here, Tom showed a Gifford Pinchot sign he came across that celebrated this notion: getting farmers out of the mud and onto paved roads!

As in ‘preaching to the choir, Tom said the pendulum has swung the other way – and we now have nearly every city practicing urban farming.

There are generations of kids who have been exposed to growing their own food through the efforts of passionate citizens and organizations including public parks: i.e. Randall’s Island, botanic gardens, and GreenMarkets.  “Often, these kids go off to become professional farmers,” said Tom.  

Cities have built-in advantages, he said.  There is the ‘heat-island’ affect that can extend the growing seasons. 
In addition, cities can offer protection from winds and provide ready access to technology to better implement farming approaches such as hydroponics, and drip irrigation and greenhouses and window farms.
“In many ways, urban farms are more efficient than rural areas.”
He cited Lake Mead where the water levels have been steadily dropping due to less than average snowfall feeding the Colorado River.  Can’t miss that bathtub ring badge of water loss.

The Ogallala aquifer supplies 30% of the country’s total irrigation water and yet its waters have been so tapped that the trees there are drying up, Tom noted.
This aquifer, by the way, nourishes the “breadbasket of America” and has been dragged back unwillingly into the news recently because there are those who argue to allow the construction of the Keystone pipeline to carry oil to the Houston refineries from Canada, thereby increasing the risk, to say the least, for environmental disaster and loss of food security.  Does anyone remember the Gulf oil spill? 

And India has frequent blackouts due to the strain put on the grid by the overwhelming use of water pumps needed to extract water…  

 
Metrics

OK, so the audience was already sold on the idea of urban farming, and were spellbound by the history and stories of farming romance engendered by working with the land…

Now the pragmatics were wondering about that place where the road hits the rubber, er, tractor tire.

How much money can one expect to make or how much yield will urban farming produce??

Tom says 20-30 pounds of tomatoes and cited Gotham Greens and others who claim they can earn $50K on a half-acre to 100 tons of produce yield from one-third acre. 
It all depends on the way the land is farmed. 
Shanghai, for example has a population of 23 million and produces 90% of its eggs and 50% of its chickens and pork, and more than two metric tons of wheat and rice.   “Something to aspire to,” he noted.

New York has 52,000 acres of back yards. 
An exciting development is “Distributed Farms” – where farmers do a lot of work on homeowners’ space who set aside land for farmers to work their land, with the homeowners having shares – similar to a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.  This could be a Home Supported Agriculture or a HAS!

Further, New York City has 14,000 un-shaded rooftop that can be farmed. This can also be considered an added advantage for building owners and landlords because the rooftop farms offer insulation that can benefit heating and cooling costs.

There is 11,000 acres of brownfields and vacant lots in NYC. 
Riverpark – celebrity chef Tom Colicchio’s Kips Bay restaurant overlooks a garden that was a “stalled” commercial development and is a good example of this enterprise.

In general, it was noted edibles can be grown in containers and raised beds to safeguard against ground pollutants, as is done at Riverpark’s farm.

Just look around – food can be grown most everywhere: in community gardens, patio containers and windowsills and on fire escapes – (the last being illegal, of course, and shouldn’t be promoted as a place to grow anything.)

Talk about Job Creators

Unlike some big shots, who claim they know business only to lay off workers or shut down plants, farming on the other hand does indeed generate jobs. 
Tom said it is a difficult metric to determine, but delighted the audience not only with his research and results, but also in his sheer pluckiness in finding the data in a Kellogg Foundation Report from which he extrapolated his work.

So here it goes:  The USDA says for every $1 million in sales, 13 jobs per million are created so therefore, urban farming can expect to provide 13,000 jobs! 
Major cities that can contribute to urban farming jobs are Detroit, San Francisco, Boston and New York that combined are one-third of the US population. 
“It’s an Agricultural Disneyland” Tom declared. 

How to Foster an Agricultural Disneyland – and get a Tool Library!

No “Land of the Future” amusement here, rather buying locally grown food and encouraging local restaurants that support local farms. 
“It is a great cachet for the restaurants,” said Tom.  “And many of the chefs get to help determine what’s grown – so they get an exclusive” to offer to the customer.

Another way to get urban farming going is to recognize zoning laws need to change.  City planners need to consider the height of buildings; consider having limits not apply to greenhouses.  “We could be looking at 12,000 acres of commercial rooftop use for farms,” noted Tom.

Our goal should be 15% of our food supply be grown in our own breadbasket. We can even grow apples -- just like they do on Randall’s Island, he observed.  

“Start with vegetables as opposed to livestock, “ grinned Tom while offering another tip to get urban farming in place.
Push for more community gardens and farmers markets with Tool Libraries as GrowNYC has.  www.grownyc.org

Tool Libraries? 
What a great idea.  Tool libraries lend the garden instruments needed to till the land and can reduce overhead costs for start up efforts.

Another kick-starter is to allow for cottage industries.  For example, the Bronx Community Farm wanted to sell their produce but didn’t have a way to do business with a GreenMarket.  But after the city lent a hand, the Farm can now sell food commercially and make money to fund their operations.

Sure to enable urban agriculture is to support Farm to School programs to promote nutrition, careers, etc. 
Note: many master chefs recognize cooking is transformative – they work diligently for children’s gardening programs including chefs that are featured in this Examiner’s book, Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook  http://tiny.cc/4zjhbw
For example, chefs Bryan Futerman and Joe Realmuto build greenhouses and teach cooking and sponsor fundraising for their Spring Seedlings Project they spearheaded in 2008 to teach kids about growing their own food and quality of what they cook and eat.  http://www.thespringsseedlings.org/index.php

Here’s a nice story about their efforts in the East Hampton Patch:

Chef Bill Telepan’s Wellness in Schools (WITS) helps city schools produce healthy menus. Other Celebrity chefs, including Marcus Samuelson, lend a hand to teach and train school kitchen staffs. WITS aims to foster “healthy eating, environmental awareness and fitness as a way of life for kids in NYC public schools.  http://wellnessintheschools.org/

What’s on the Horizon?

When asked what’s new under the sun, Tom delivered on the keynote’s headline provocation and didn’t hesitate to say he thinks there is great momentum, there are more ways to engage and to complement traditional agriculture along with plenty of ways to be sustainable. 
He also offered examples of successful Distributed Networks and shared the fact that Bryerson in Canada has a Distance Learning program.

He believes the future of urban construction and urban farms will be part and parcel of each other.  Urban farms will have become part of the construction building criteria and lexicon.

Agri-Tourism will become a popular form of travel entertainment, too.

For more information from Tom and his world of Urban Farming, visit his website:


Tom Fox, author & Urban Ag Conference Keynote Speaker

Next up is the Panel Discussion review filled with insight and tips from “some of the most productive and innovative projects in the city’s urban farming community,” as profiled in The Hort’s flyer.
They should know.



Friday, March 12, 2010

Sex on the Roof at Gramercy Park Hotel


From the moment you turn the corner and experience the undulating boxwood garden border fronting the entire block of the Gramercy Park Hotel (www.gramercyhotel.com) you are transported.



I was reminded of the opening scenes of “The English Patient” where the screen is filled with sensuous, undulating, curving landscapes.  Never mind that the movie focus was of sand dunes. 
To my mind’s eye, the elegant spare landscape of that cinemascope was the artistic twin to this Gramercy Park Hotel urban landscape.  (Planted in just 12 inches of soil I learned later.)

And this was just foreplay! The real piece de resistance is the roof top landscaped garden.

With heightened anticipation, I entered the lobby of the hotel not for the first time.
But with a different purpose. 
I was meeting Lynn Torgerson (www.lynntorgersongardens.com), the garden designer for the hotel’s front border garden and its roof top terrace garden. 

At a recent MetroHort event, Lynn invited me to visit the garden.  I love this hotel and had wanted to see the celebrated roof top garden for some time but the stars were never aligned. 

Gramercy Park is Ian Schrager’s luxury Hotel in New York City’s Union Square area. The art collection that adorns the colossal walls is sensuous and commanding. The room lobby and bar look like a castle, albeit a glamorous sexy one – with sparkling chandeliers, bold red carpets, sumptuous velvet furniture and heavy drapes, cavernous fireplaces and sweet, sultry scented candles seemingly everywhere.

I had graciously accepted Lynn’s kind offer, saying spring wasn’t toooo far away.
Not pausing, Lynn said, “Come anytime.”  Sensing a slight faux pas or egads, a missed trick on my part, I squinted a follow up.  “What do you mean, anytime?” 
She reiterated. “Anytime.”
Hmmm. Now I’ve got to ask.  “I thought it was a rooftop garden?”   With great patience she nods. “It is.”  Pause.  “But it’s all enclosed in the winter – so anytime you want to come, it’s good.” 
Winning the lottery can’t feel as good. J

I think seeing a garden like this in winter makes it even more special than if I experience it when everything around is green too. 
So now this all gets even better than I had hoped. 
Come on – when all is cold and grey to others (I like the city in winter, thank you very much) but I am privy to a warm garden with iconic views of Gotham—be still my beating heart!

We agree to a scheduled date. Follow up will happen. But we have a plan.

Carpe diem!

The day of the planned tour, I am inspired to email Roberta, the unparalleled floral designer for Danny Meyers’s restaurant empire.  Danny’s latest restaurant is the Tuscan inspired Maialino


which is seemingly part of the Gramercy Hotel and in fact, occupies the space next door and yet is still attached. (Don’t ask – just go!)

More serendipity as Roberta has agreed that -- with relatively no notice – she can do it!

I met Roberta when we were photographing Chef Michael Anthony at Gramercy Tavern restaurant – another shining star in Danny Meyers’ restaurant portfolio. 
I was there because of a photo shoot for my book about master chefs and their gardens.
My photographer, Jennifer Calais Smith (www.jennifercalais.com) and food stylist, Patty White (www.pattywhitefoodstylist.com) were working with me to photograph Chef Michael’s amazing culinary art. 
At the same time, I couldn’t help be drawn to the floral design compositions that Roberta was divining and arranging. 
I had to include her in the book!  Chef Michael agreed as did my editor, Kari. 

When you visit any of Danny Meyers’s restaurants, please let me know how much you love Roberta’s amazing interior garden designs.
She is an artist.

So the evening of the first rooftop garden tour, I was looking forward to great interior garden design AND great exterior garden design.

And to seeing and having networked two amazing plant women.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I was meeting a former colleague and friend, Joanne Trout, who was treating me to a birthday dinner at Maialino restaurant.  Maialino is Myers’ latest culinary tour de force. Maria, my garden design client and Italian language linguist told me maialino means “little pig.”  How cute!

It just doesn’t get any better  :) 

Maialino is located just to the downtown side of the hotel. As a guest, you’d think they are part of the same establishment. 
Roberta took us on a quick tour of the restaurant. We could better appreciate its simple, elegant yet casual environment – punctuated by Roberta’s floral designs.










Private dining room and Roberta's floral creations

Cuccina:










Well, we were drinking our Prosecco and Roberta and Lynn were having such a good time getting to know one another  --- and I was enjoying it all. 


Yet, as a garden sprite, I knew we had to get to that roof.  There wasn’t much winter daylight left…
A tad late, we hop in the special elevator transporting us up 16 floors to the Hotel Rooftop Bar – a Private Club and Garden.  Only members are admitted to this level so I’m feeling very VIP.



Like a Broadway stage whose curtains rise to reveal a carefully crafted other world of make-believe, the elevator doors opened to reveal a magical garden in the sky.
The anticipation matches the reality. 





This garden is a fantasy. A dream. 





It was dusk.  The sky was pink. The nearby skyscrapers loomed as architectural sentinels.  All this drama was mere backdrop for the garden at Gramercy Park Hotel. 


There, the entire length of the garden sparkled with tiny white lights on the ceiling, peeking through the green overhead and on the shrubs and trees in containers bordering the garden walls.




As we walked, I was awestruck.  My head was like a scope – turning upwards – left and right – all the while listening to Lynn describe the design work and maintenance that is integral to this unique garden. 

I defy anyone, of any age, to not be rendered speechless by this garden. 
It has the magic of Disney, of countless movies of Manhattan, and is a gardener’s dream world.  We gardeners can appreciate the design and work that goes into a living room such as this.  

For everyone else, the garden embraces you in a very intimate way and stimulates the senses.  This is especially so on a winter day simply because it’s a paradox.  But Lynn has made this impossibility just so natural.

The garden wraps around three sides of the building. In the warmer weather, the hotel has the option to open up part of the glass roof, or all or provide an awning to cover part of the garden in the sky to block the sun with the use of the retractable roof. 



When I was the Director of Communications at a major NYC botanic garden, I had recommended Lynn to New York Magazine as the ideal candidate to redesign NYC’s marriage bureau.  She nailed it: http://tinyurl.com/yjsdh9s

Sexy too, no?

Here at the Gramercy Park Hotel, Lynn’s brilliant work is not only on display in the design, but in the ongoing maintenance.  As you can image, it’s not in the least bit easy to keep up a good garden considering the inhospitable conditions.  There is the weather to consider of course and on a roof top terrace, weather can be extreme.  In addition, because it’s club, guests often “see” the plants as backdrop and don’t always treat them with great care, resulting in glasses in the pots or broken branches…

Her team is there two times a week – at a minimum.
“I want perfection,” Lynn said, not surprisingly.  They over-service their clients here – as elsewhere  -- because they love their work and have a passion for the plants.



The garden was launched in 2006.  Lynn and her team designed the container garden to adhere to owner Ian Schrager’s fondness for Italian gardens. The miracle on the roof is that with a series of containers, fruit trees, fragrant vines, including jasmine, ficus plants, palms, dracenas, ferns of all kinds and overhead silk leaves, Lynn captured the look and feel of the beauty of Rome or Tuscany.  “I wanted a lot of citrus plants to really get the feel of an Italian garden,” Lynn explained.



She was also able to use a lot of red color - prized by owner Schrager – even down to a red furniture composition.



Keen gardeners will want to know how all this green beauty is achieved and maintained – on a budget. 
Lynn chose containers that are lightweight; some of the seemingly hundreds of planters are fiberglass and zinc.  

The quality is terrific – the pots look like terracotta or the real deal, there is no doubt.
Lynn noted she sourced most of the containers from Evan Peters & Co., direct importers of garden pottery and are located in Long Island City http://tinyurl.com/ykym96o




Lynn had to establish a formal watering system and so installed a drip design for the containers.  In addition, the team supplements the irrigation systems and does hand watering too.

In terms of pest control, they employ an integrated pest management (IPM) approach because it’s the smart way to do it and also, this is a dining area.

Even though there can be lots of wind in the summer, Lynn has positioned pots of plants all along the windowsills – in fact, she changes them out with the seasons—usually every six months.  She loves the kalanchoes for their red color (a nod to the client) and for their water-wise needs.

Under extraordinary conditions, Lynn has employed a variety of plants, containers, and elegant garden design to create a sustainable, intoxicating garden. 





This is a seductive, mysterious world that Lynn has created – from traditional ladybugs and green plants, to the urbane, sophisticated “Lady Bugs" ^:^ and their escorts = quintessential New Yorkers and urbane tourists enjoying nature, seen poised throughout the garden terrace’s stylized conversation compositions – or as Schrager describes it, “lobby socializing.”

This chandelier is the size of the room it adorns and is breathtaking. 
                                                  Roberta (left) and I are dazzled by the light!

Because our first garden tour was abbreviated due to diminishing daylight, I asked Lynn if we could come back.  I also wanted to share the garden tour with EunYoung Sebazco, Duchess Designs’ lead horticulturist and extraordinary garden designer and Randall’s Island park manager. Lynn agreed. 
The garden is just as exhilarating in the daylight.  



The perfect finish on the second garden tour a week or so later was to enjoy the glamorous garden – with an herbal cocktail. 






I had the Ginger Fig:  vodka with muddled ginger root, fig jam and fresh orange juice.  Lynn & EunYoung enjoyed the Rose & Lychee Martini: Hendricks gin (which if you don’t know is made with roses – member of the cucumber family), rose syrup, fresh muddles blackberries and a touch of coconut.



Aren’t plants the best?  We can sit among them enjoying their beauty and fragrance and drink a plant-filled ambrosia.

A heavenly experience. Especially being that much closer to the clouds…

Oh, and when I wanted to add Lynn’s web site to this blog post, I Googled her business and guess what? 
The Google pin indicated Lynn Torgerson’s garden design business – and curiously, made it appear for the entire world like it is located directly at the Museum of Sex!  Coincidence?  With all the sensual garden design I saw at Gramercy Park Hotel, I don’t think so.


 Lynn - oh so elegant with fabulous garden footwear!



Gramercy Park Hotel
2 Lexington Avenue, NYC 10010
212-920-3300

Check out the visual images slide show – next best thing to being there.

Maialino, a Roman Trattoria at Gramercy Park
2 Lexington Avenue, NYC 10010
212-777-2410