Pavement and Runoff

This morning 3 different friends posted this article, about people paving their yards.  As a young and passionate plant ecologist I fled to the wilds of West Marin, wanting to be far away from paved over cities. Now I have been lured back, and love being in San Francisco for so many reasons. My transition was eased by the abundance of parks and wildlands in and around our beautiful city, and by the resurgence of urban farming, and other plant positive policies.  Plants are awesome, and are good for real estate values too. Cities are finding that chronic water pollution problems can be mitigated with green infrastructure.

EPA

Pavement to Parks and Friends of the Urban Forest are places to start if you want a little help transforming your paved over spaces. Keep in mind the mature size of anything you plant, and the importance of planting the right tree in the right place, and if you really MUST pave, consider permeable paving option.

Then when the rain comes down it can sink into the earth, and grow things, rather than roll on into pipes, gathering grossness along the way, and pour out in to our beautiful bay and ocean.

Microclimates in Fogtown

Today in microclimate blather, we bring to you a video  from the Exploratorium's Science in the City. Most of what he is saying applies to Marin as well. Go over the other side of a hill from the coast, and you can usually get out of the fog. This spring and summer so far it's been mostly about wind.  Looks like warm and breezy for awhile, so make hay while the sun shines! For visual of the more or less real time wind situation, go to San Francisco Bay Wind Patterns. (This is a snapshot of June 27th I've inserted after realizing that since this image changes, linking to it on the site does not work.)

Pam Peirce sums it up pretty well too, and her book is really helpful to gardeners here. If you are in the real estate search, and you have dreams of growing food here, you may want to take a look. If you are set on tomatoes, I'd avoid purchasing property in most areas of 1,2,3 and 4, or else plan on a green house. Peas and chard and lettuce and kale grow great though. Same story in Marin. Forget tomatoes (maybe, in the most sheltered spots you'll have good luck with cherry tomatoes) in Bolinas, but on the east side of Tam have at it. Plenty of heat on the east side, especially in inland locations that lack direct gaps where wind and fog come through, like San Rafael and Novato.

Pam Peirce. Golden Gate Gardening: Year-Round Food Gardening in the San Francisco Bay Area and Coastal California. Sasquatch Books. 2002 

Happy Friday, whatever microclimate you find yourself in.

City Farmer News