Chris, In New Haven, we have had some community gardens next to parking lots.
One concern that has been raised by people is the proximity to car exhaust and
if there are any dangers to vegetables. With lead out of gas, there is less of
that, but I don't know the answer to if there are other potential components of
exhaust that would not be healthy for vegetables being consumed. Flowers are
often planted or sown near streets and highways but are not consumed by humans.
Other than that possibility, it sounds great. Maybe somebody else has
information on this.Sylvia
On Sunday, June 26, 2016 12:03 PM,
"community_garden-requ...@list.communitygarden.org"
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Today's Topics:
1. Traffic Calming Tomato Gardens? (Christine Reid)
2. Re: Traffic Calming Tomato Gardens?
(j...@growinggardensforlife.org)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 2016 17:04:27 -0400
From: Christine Reid <chriscr...@yahoo.com>
To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Subject: [Community_garden] Traffic Calming Tomato Gardens?
Message-ID: <c10be40a-3ea9-4efc-be9a-c1286f5a8...@yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Hello,
Has anyone on the list put raised vegetable beds into parking spaces on the
street?
We have, on our narrow tree lined streets, a problem with traffic cutting
through to avoid main artery traffic lights. After they cut through they roll
through - the four way stops, that is.
People will do anything to keep from being prevented from going from Point A to
Point B for even 30 seconds.
Trucks, vans, school buses -- you name it. Snapple trucks, Naked Juice trucks
-- all cutting through.
The traffic department tells us t hat, although people think stop signs and
speed bumps slow traffic, they are not very good solutions. (You already know
the luck we are having with stop signs, and I have video of people slowing
slightly just to get over a speed bump and then speeding up till the next).
One way that cars are slowed is to make the streets that should be free of
through traffic harder to speed on. They will place planted bumpouts at
various points in the street to force traffic to wend its way around them.
There are many interesting "parklet" ideas where parking spaces are converted
into temporary or seasonal places to sit under an umbrella, have a coffee, or
play checkers, but so far I have not found a tomato bed!
I figure everybody loves to grow tomatoes, there is more sun on a north-south
running street than in many back yards with mature trees, and it gets people
back into their f ront yards and enjoying each other's company instead of
retreating to the back yard to avoid the noise and being on public display to
tons of traffic.
Our city has agreed to the concept -- we still have to write a proposal and get
the neighborhood association to sign off on it -- and we are brainstorming
about the best designs.
I am hoping that your experience with community gardens, raised beds, or
gardening near congestion and traffic may help us come up with design
considerations we have not thought of.
The beds probably need to be 20" high or more, and surrounded by hardware cloth
up maybe 6 feet so that animals cannot enter and passersby are not tempted to
pick some food for dinner. It's a pretty low key neighborhood so I think we
might be ok there. I think it would open like an armoire for watering,
weeding, harvesting, and then be kept closed.
The beds would probably be more like planters and if we could put some kind of
auto watering reservoir in the bases, the weight of 8 lbs/gallon of water would
help keep them from being moved or removed until intended.
Of course we have to check dimensions with fire department and make sure
emergency vehicles and trash collectors can get through.
We like the raised bed corners from Gardeners' Supply, and they could be made
even easier to use of the screw holes were drilled on the outside face of the
brackets instead of inside. Inside, soil must be pushed away from the screws
to remove them and the heads can corrode (use stainless teel!). If outside, at
the end of the season the beds can be disassembled, stored in a compact way
(maybe even in a resident's garage), and the soil can be donated to residents
nearby who would like to improve their garden soil.
Watering still has to be accomplished, so somebody has to have a long hose or a
spigot near the street.
What is great about it is that instead of the city figuring gardens are
frivolous and cost extra money, we can convince the traffic department that
gardens an be used to slow traffic and divert through traffic from residential
streets. These beds are going to be pennies on the dollar compared to a
permanently installed "chicane" that is landscaped and intrudes into the street
to slow traffic. They can cost in our area $28,000. Now the same amount of
money looks like a clever way to save money, not an onerous extra cost.
The reality is that sometimes people in community gardens don't take good care
of their beds, and we don't know how successful we will be at convincing people
to take care of these. But it's better than 177 cars per hour through the
nearest intersection!
I invite you to share your experiences and any input on similar efforts, and I
promise to share back whatever we do and learn, including the mistakes.
Many thanks,
Chris Reid
Springdale Village
Stamford, CT
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2016 06:57:23 -0700
From: <j...@growinggardensforlife.org>
To: "Christine Reid" <chriscr...@yahoo.com>,
community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Traffic Calming Tomato Gardens?
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