Guerilla Gardeners turn Toxic Soil into Eco-Oasis
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- Опубликовано: 30 авг 2023
- Permaculture instructor Andrew Millison journeys to New York City to film the epic work of Smiling Hogshead Ranch in Queens. We tour the community garden which was built on an old toxic railroad bed WITHOUT PERMISSION! Guided by The President of the Permaculture Institute of North America Monica Ibacache and a founding member of the garden, Gil Lopez, we see the incredible transformation of this toxic wasteland over the last 12 years. You've got to see this to believe it!
PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE LINK:
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Smiling Hogshead Ranch: smilinghogsheadranch.org/
Monica Ibacache's Beyond Organic Design:
www.beyondorganicdesign.org/
Gil Lopez: lnk.bio/gil_lopez
Andrew Millison’s links:
www.andrewmillison.com/
permaculturedesign.oregonstat...
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An award should be given to the city officials who decided not to mess up. That’s awesome gardening project.
Is it safe though? From experience, roots and concrete don't tend to mix well. I'd imagine it's only a matter of time, between erosion and the roots, before those collapse.
The award should go to the gardeners over anyone
@@JustMatt99 It was probably seen as a cheaper option than dismantling the entire structure, which will have to be done eventually but that a problem and expense for another city official.
@@JustMatt99If you'll noticed there are no deep root plants on the over passes.
Can't imagine walking thru a grey and drab cityscape and stumbling across this lush greenery.
NYC has tons of trees and green spaces. They're just overshadowed by buildings and massive skyscrapers.
Your thinking of London
@@jef9137 London has plenty of parks
I keep thinking about Maui and how having permaculture in place over that burn area could be such a game changer. Andrew, you could be that change!
Berms and swales on the uphill grasslands would probably be more effective and the chance to reforest that area. I would start there.
It's about the only thing that will save them, since their real estate has ballooned, and the locals are vehemently opposed to any businesses that could actually bring jobs and real, working residents back to the islands.
The traditional Indigenous system of Hawaii is the Ohana system. Between Permaculture and using Indigenous systems, like Ohana, this may be promising for local eco restoration and for communities destroyed, whether by the recent fires or degraded by western society. There is Permaculture already being done in Hawaii and we can look to them as knowledgable for the local bioregion
Actually it would have increased the spread of that particular fire, because the high winds were sending large embers long distances, more fuel in the form of permaculture trees, shrubs, and plant life would have increased the spread not slowed it down.
In the case of normal wildfires, there are permaculture designs that can slow the spread of wildfires but with winds like that it reverses and provides more smoldering material to be thrown up and start new fires.
@@rio425ee The point of permaculture is have well hydrated plants. Stripped of its forest for agriculture and then abandoned, invasive grasses have taken over and precipitation has diminished because... the forest was cut down. Hydrated plants are less likely to burn.
Agree to disagree.
Seeing projects like these gives me hope for humanity.
same
Do not be fooled by small, sporadic incidents like these that create the illusion of hope. There is no hope for humanity. Better to accept the harsh truth and make peace with it, then it gets easier.
@@alexverdigris9939 let the evil win by just doing nothing? wow, thats messed up. At least i want to tell my kids that i tried instead of walking with the brainwashed consumers who seem to love to hate their kids and give them the worst future possible
@@MyBrainGlows I didn't say you should do nothing, you do what you gotta do.
@@alexverdigris9939 I understand that but I still think it's a pointless endeavor to go deliberately rain on someone's parade. Not trying to attack you, but I can see why the other person got annoyed. To a lot of us, gardening and other activities is us doing our part to help offset human damage and gives mental satisfaction in doing so. Sure, for me specifically, it's a small scale but I am still manufacturing an ecosystem that is greatly beneficial and provides for native insects and birds that they may not get elsewhere. Every little bit counts, so why be pessimistic to those who care? There is absolutely hope if enough of us work to be a change we want to see.
To the people who did the New York restorations (and anyone else who might benefit from my experiences): In my families old house we had an old deck that was built during an era where they added arsenic to outdoor deck paint and we wanted to restore our local backyard to a heavy metal healthier status. There is one plant that does transform heavy metals and that is willow but in our research we also found out Purple Lu-strife (a flower considered "invasive" and banned in many places. But one thing biologists noticed is that lu-strife only "flairs up" where the soil is toxic with heavy metals and dies back when the locality (usually roadside ditches) are clean. the third thing we planed was ferns as they also uptake heavy metals. :) This concludes this "free information offering
~Empress Pyra
That's quite interesting. Thank you for sharing.
May I ask, what happens to the heavy metals that the plant takes in? Do local animals eat the plants, and thus distribute higher concentrations over larger areas? I assume willows would retain it in their wood, but fern leaves would decompose and return it into the soil wouldn't they?
I'm genuinely curious.
I read something about using poplar to bioaccumulate heavy metals, then chipping them and using fungus to bioaccumulate the metals even more. Then you could dry and incinerate the fungus and end up with an ash rich with metals. Maybe each plant\fungi combo could refine different metals from the soil, that'd be cool. No sense wasting energy mining if we can just refine metal ash back into industrial uses.
I love those railroad bridges that turned into long strip gardens over the main roads.
Thank you Andrew for visiting us and sharing the story of this amazing community and farm!
Safely dealing with toxins and other remnants of the site's hisory must be the biggest challenge.
Props for picking up the fight! 👌🏻🌱
My partner does soil remediation. You do not want to eat food grown here. 2, 3, 4 feet of compost is great, but plants will still leech those heavy metals up from that deep. The city has regulations around burying contamination like this. 2 feet minimum clean soil over contaminated soil, for the LEAST clean soil. And there are restrictions that it cannot be used for gardening.
That said, this is a fantastic project with a great goal! And thank you for sharing. Not trying to shit on anyone's project. Just trying to make sure the kids you bring on the property don't get heavy metals in their bodies from eating the food.
Andrew - love all your videos and I have learned a lot. Let me know if you want a connection to my soil expert. Keep up the great work.
The olympic site in London had it soil clean down to something like 20 metres, that dug up wash and treated remove contaminants and then put back.
I would use sunflower and mushrooms to suck up the heavy metals and periodically send my plants to the lab
Lovely! Andrew, years ago I used to ride the Long Island Rail Road to work every single day and on the way, I would look at the sidings and see tons of vines and weeds growing up and thought, nature will find a way if we just leave her alone. I have a degree in biology and have been a permaculture enthusiast for many years. I have a huge hugelkulture in my garden that is decomposing a 100 foot oak tree that sadly was ringed with concrete blocks that were buried before we moved here. The tree was well over 150 years old (counted the rings) and the cross sections are over five feet near the base. It's covered in mushrooms right now and of course produce, so I know the biome is healthy~ So glad to see you sharing about urban permaculture and I just might try and visit this site some time soon~
Permaculture is a bird just ready to fly. She'll be fully flying free very soon. We're all getting the idea. It's so exciting. My 20 y.o. permaculture forest is still evolving. Still exciting. Still accepting new members, plants, pollinators, critters, birds, trees, even some people. Thanks for sharing your work. It's so fantastic to know we're a growing community. Someone should start a permaculture association! Cheers
Working on starting a rewilding and agroforestry-permaculture CO op collective in the Twin cities area, if you have leads it'd be greatly appreciated
@@0pct-Zscrop2-bcue7im9a.4space Let me mull that over. Canadian Permaculture Legacy here on yt is a great site. There are so many references. I'll get back to you after work this evening.
I watch a ton of gardening channels, in different states and countries but never have I seen one from NYC. Never. This is beautiful.
the temperature there must be such a game changer in a concrete city
The risk of gentrification is real and one of the reasons some communities are reluctant to improve their green spaces.
It’s a sad negative feed-back loop. Put in the work to improve your living space, and you and your neighbors can no longer afford to enjoy it. 🙃
With so much content on the youtubes these days, I'm trying to be more intentional about what I'm watching. I've been subscribed to Andrew Millson for a couple years now, and his videos are always A+ quality. Stories, courses, etc. Please keep 'em rolling!
He is an amazing/inspiring human being! 🎉🎉🎉
A oasis in the city that never sleeps. Nice
I spent my childhood in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, in a house located in the heart of what used to be a neighborhood for steel workers. This city shares a lot of similarities with Detroit, especially the significant impact both cities faced when the steel and automobile industries began to decline. Growing up adjacent to large, mostly deserted factories, I was able to observe directly how nature can recapture these spaces. Nature seems to be much more adept at this task than humans, which has always intrigued me and made me wonder how this process could be made more efficient. It's fascinating to witness the effects of this transformation for these people. Thanks for the video :)
Andrew Millison = immediate click.
Thanks for all the great work you do.
I love when cities do this blend, I invite all of you to check CDMX Chapultepec, Xochimilco and Texcoco
he already has a video about it!!!
the city didn't do shit, people unaffiliated with the state did it
Thank you for turning the world one step away from a concrete dystopia. I know it was a lot of work.
Nature creates relationship and people are a lot calmer in a friendly environment. Thank you from Belgium
Agreed 100%! Nature always has a positive effect on people. Thanks for watching. :)
Birch trees, Dandelion and Sunflowers do an amazing job at cleaning and making the soil healthy.
Aloha! I AM a senior and as a child I rode the train on that track. I AM inspired by this creation of a better world for New Yorkers. As I live and learn this green space on the rail tracks proves humanity is running towards Harmony. Asante 🌄🌍🌙
The making of a solar punk oasis 🐉🌴🌿🌳🌳
Getting back to nature - it's a therapy so needed by all right now.
That is an excellent project in middle of the city. And to have children involved with it is even better because they learn right away what they can do with their time when they're outside. Create food. Very interesting about the creosote breaking down to arsenic and still being able to create a soil above it so you can grow food. Great job.
Oh my gosh. 40 years ago I lived in Queens and whenever I felt like the cit walls were squeezing me I’d walk to an overpass at the Sunnyside yards just to feel some open space. I may have never left NY if it were like that back then. Well done!!
Love this, I live in former steal country/coal country Pittsburgh area.
We have a ton of abandon brownfields like this. Even if it's just for habitat restoration, it would improve property values and reduce flooding and fires. It will help increase native flora and fauna.
Has me thinking about all the abandon malls and business complexes. All these drains on society could be benefits. It could be profitable too and could help those in need as most of these areas are in low-income/low opportunity locals. Empower the community, change things permanently.
So, how is your project to convert brown fields going?
Hats off to all these wonderful folks who did this. Gives hope when all we see are lying politicians telling us they will help - and do the opposite.
I think nature has a healing and calming effect, and having green areas is important in big cities.
Nature has some great built in mechanisms that if utilized can turn even a barren desert or a landfill into a forest, we just need to give it the tools. One type of plant that is really handy to have around are nitrogen fixers such as beans, peanuts, red alders, lupines, ect. because these plants can grow in dirt even without nitrogen because they make their own which gives other plants the tools to change the soil in other ways.
If the gov. invested in these everywhere, there'd be a reduction in human transgressions, and a savings in $. These volunteers are saving the world this way.
“If it’s the right thing to do, we have every right to do it”
Has finally put to words exactly how I’ve always felt.
Learning about this project reminded me of the Materials and Resources component of LEED Green Building Design, which in some ways (similar to permaculture), really drills down into viewing 'waste' as something entirely different.. not something to just get rid of and forget about but, rather an opportunity to take responsibility for what we consume and turn leftover materials into resources for other uses. I love that this project has been able to reclaim so many resources from the wastestream around them and then use that to create beautiful life giving soil. The potential for abundance was there all along.. it just needed a few special people to see it 💚
Omg this is in my neighborhood I'm mindblown 🤯
Power to urban gardens!
would never guess this was in new york just by looking from the inside! so cool!
Isn't it!? Thanks for watching!
I love this so incredibly much!
This is so inspiring!!
Imagine if the city would allow removing of rails and ties. Then using the money from recycling the steel rails to purchase compost organic fertilizer , plants and seeds. The project could really amp up production and clean air in those areas. If you want free saplings I can hook you up!
I am so excited to see Monica!!! She is the best and works so hard to bring green to the city.
Matt! That is so sweet. Thank you for being so supportive of my work and I.
THIS IS WHAT I'M TRYING TO FIGURE OUT! 😆 This is what I want to do for life! But I first need to learn to garden at all. 😭
It's not hard however even the best do lose a few plants sometimes so you gotta be able to accept the occasional failure. It's really part of the learning process.
Just Grab a few seed packs and start planting. Most packets already come with general instructions on them. Alot of Dollar stores have seed packs 4 for a dollar this time of year so it can be pretty cheap to mess around in a garden.
be careful, as soon as you get the hang of caring for your first few plants its gonna become more addicting than cigarettes
Love your content, Andrew! I found this beautiful area with naturalized (but still delicious) crabapples, saskatoons, blueberries and raspberries and I simply encourage the growth of the native berries. The crazy thing is that the soil composition is so alkaline that ecological succession is different. The only "large" tree species growing in this spot is trembling aspen and balsam poplar, so unless the Red Deer River floods, I doubt this will change for at least a century. I find unhoused people there picking all the time and some of them have said there was many weeks where they would have had empty stomachs without the berries and the deer they attract. Permaculture is an amazing thing, and it saves lives, money and the environment!
Please consider doing a video on ancient wind towers that cooled homes
There are a few videos on RUclips which show ancient wind towers still being used in Iran and Morocco.
Green spaces in urban settings are an oasis. A true luxury more impressive
Totally agree! It's so nice to bring nature into the concrete jungles. :)
Oh, wow!! What a fantastic place!! This must’ve been such a fulfilling project to work on!
Amazing video as always Andrew! Wish more greenspaces can become permaculture farms instead of just parks and recreation.
I hope so too! Thanks for watching. :)
Our local town invests in an entertainment district. Promoting places of business that's serve alcohol, building an area for concerts with a stage and lighting. Seems places like the one in the video would be better!
Thank You for influencing and making Steps towards a Better World.
It's my pleasure, and thank you for your support. :)
Oh my gosh!!!! Monica you and your peeps are always so inspiring ✨✨ this was so exciting to see 🌸
Thank you!
Thank you Keya!
a city having green is always a good thing
So verdant. So wonderful. Kudos for the mushrooms! These plantings give a beautiful place to look down on from the nearby buildings.
Think the upper area needs safety railing, though...
love how ny has things like this popping up every other month
your videos are great! hope to get another update on your garden one day :)
I hope so too! Maybe in the near future! Thanks for watching.
I had absolute joy of working for The Radix Ecological Center in Albany NY this summer. It has much of the same process as the development of this amazing site! I truly believe urban green spaces are essential for human and urban ecology, and I am focusing my studies in my environmental science degree hoping to be able to help in the work communities like you do.
Scotty does amazing work! I visited it a long while back and did his Radical Urban Sustainability Training
@@monicajibacache so glad you were able gain some of the knowledge and experience from Scotty and the center!
Thanks as always to Andrew, for shining the light on these great people - let’s keep reclaiming these lands with bountiful, beautiful nature!
We are super grateful to Andrew as well!
This is awesome. Excited to take these OSU classes to continue my education and create the permaculture project of my dreams
i was born and raised in Queens and i’ve never in my life known about this. i want to visit!
I'm german and nearly fell from my seat, when I heared "mexican sauregurken". Saure Gurken or lets call it vinegar cucumber is the most german vegetable I know :D Very good project. I love your videos
This is so inspiring!!. Andrew Millison = immediate click.Thanks for all the great work you do..
"If it's the right thing to do, we have every right to do it." Those are words to live by. And I love the train track gardens. 😁
How amazing is this transformation. It felt so rewarding watching all the good in this video and Monica is so knowledgeable in her field of permaculture. I’ve learn a lot from Monica!
Amazing and inspiring! I especially love the image of green growing over the old rails/roads! It's like futuristic solarpunk art but already happening in real life!
Wow. This is amazing and absolutely beautiful.
This is the embodiment of love. Nature in harmony, intricately connected and supportive of one another, celebrating itself through abundance. As humans we have the capacity and the potential to take in our humble role and sprout, care for and protect this true abundance and have nature do the rest. And we'll become beautiful grounded human beings in the process. Thank you🤲🏽
"If you can make it there, you 'll make it anywhere."
Love the transformation of the old railway system and the creation of Hogshead Ranch! Absolutely amazing!!!! Wow, I bet the work that went into that was grueling at times, but it's absolutely beautiful to see the transformation!
I love the thinking, the endeavour and determination. The wonderful folk who've put their time and effort into this project deserve heaps of praise.
Raise your hand if you thought the train horn was censoring a swear word, lol. "If it's the right thing to do, we have the right to do it." I like this guy's style.
Absolutely inspiring! Definitely take the PDC course, if you’re considering it. I took it in the Fall of 2019 and it’s changed my life and perspective on our ability to create massive impact on the world for the better. ❤️
It changed mine as well, and set me on a new work path.
Amazing work gardeners do for the community. Bravo
Some people like my wife see places like this as messy because trees produce dried leaves into the ground which she hates. I don't know how to encourage such people to love this idea of making places like this greener. For me, this is my dream.
Trees and plants make leaves for energy food to eat. Tell her she can't eat then. 😮
Awesome ❣️ your work is so valuable ❤ keep going as a divine example for humanity ❤
I love this! What types of test are done and can be done to be confident that the arsenic and heavy metals and toxins are not being drawn up into the food items? That would be good information for everyone gardening in formerly contaminated areas. Thanks!
Or entering plants via air pollutants and/or watering… Time for serious changes!
The joy on her face at 3:22!
the toxins kicking in ^^
❤❤❤ OMG her sweet face when she smiles eating that blackberry! 🤗🤗🤗
I’ve heard of projects like this, but this is the first time I’ve seen how these things get started and keep going. THANKS!!!!
How inspiring! Just goes to show you can grow food anywhere.
These ❤ projects are just mind-blowing and inspirational
It's so refreshing when I see real environmentalism.
Unbelievable...what they did is huge help on so many levels to whole City ...We should all take same initiative in our own cities.🙂👍👏❤
A question Andrew please. There was a video about some where in AZ where over 40 years the land owner put 20,000water catchment on his land. Iirc it lengthened thr run off from 2 or 4 weeks to 6 and total runoff by 30 percent. Now under forest service they compared it to a neighboring watershed. Do you know thus project? Once thought it was on pine creek. Found a vid on turkey creek but maybe memory has drifted? Thankyou for any help
El Coronado Ranch? www.harvestingrainwater.com/2022/08/where-rocks-have-made-the-water-flow-a-water-harvesting-arizona-ranch/
I love this, this green oasis reminds me so much of my home country.
The world would be a much better place if these priciples would be applied in every big city around the globe. Just imagine, each city having its small oasis of greenies, feeding the people, but not only. Such places have so many positive functions, it's sad to see that authorities don't acknowledge the importance of permaculture. In Romania for example, a big chunk of what used to be farmland 50 years ago, is turning into a dessert.
Every roof should be like this and every road should have a roof (with tethered electric cars below).
WAY TO GO! Regenerative fruits and vegetables would be great. Cilantro is good with pulling heavy metals.
Thanks for shining a spotlight on this, Andrew! I think this can really inspire people to guerrilla garden in their own neighbourhoods/cities where there are brown sites / abandoned places. Would love to see this become de rigeur in every city, and part of city policy and planning for what to do with these sorts of places. - Ariel
Brilliant. Just Brilliant. Set an example for: Pittsburg for Cleveland, for Detroit, for Chicago. On and on, all the way to California! Brilliant. Thank you so much for sharing this. Get your Federal and State Reps invovled with all that you are doing and learning. SOME ONE just has to address the effects of Corporate Rot. RRR I suppose this is Andrew Carnagie ~ he would support this. There is history here. Briliant. I Love New York. Thank you! But then this is Andrew's blog. Oh well. from New Hampshire. ✨🌸🙏🌸✨
strong work Andrew and crew... :) trees sun air ,breathe more goodvibe herbs...🙏🏼 grow n prosperout...:)
Thank you!
Andrew, at this time you are one of the most important humans on our planet. You show us to recover. Thank you and please keep on with it! Hakuna Matata brother😘
“We kept it trashy because we didn’t want to gentrify the neighborhood.” Yiiiiikes.
I think maybe what he's saying is if you clean up a place, developers will come in to try and gentrify the area
"important metrics for a western mind" lmao
Surely well-meaning, but it comes off as a bit counterintuitive or hypocritical, right??. ie. "We want to clean up and improve the quality of life of a neglected part of the city, but not if we believe any outside group will benefit from our work."
Yeah I had to replay that part because I couldn’t believe what I was hearing
😂 What a dumb world
So inspirational 😊
So awesome!! The power of community is so influential, keep educating!
The soil in NYC is very fertile, precipitation is evenly dispersed throughout the year, and there's far fewer insect pests than in many parts of the deep south. I remember how very incredibly fast and trouble-free plants grew there in NYC compared to where I live now. I remember I planted a 12 inch tall fig tree against a brick wall there. In three years it was 20' tall and bearing hundreds of fruit at a time. I never feed it even once. Where I live now, I planted a similar size fig tree. In three years it grew only three inches. Soil insect pests here in the deep south apparently stunted the roots, inconsistent rainfall and weather patterns also affected it.
"If it's the right thing to do, we have every right to do it." Hell yeah brother!
think about where such rhetoric might lead.
Isn't there a brake fern that absorbs arsenic? You could probably plant that in droves along the length track
i believe you are right!
Google gives me Pteris vittata, the Chinese brake fern which hyperaccumulates arsenic. Great idea.
I mean if your goal is to bio-remediate the chemicals and heavy metals in that area, it's probably worth looking into feasibility
What happens with/ to the “absorbed” arsenic? Is it broken down/into what? Anyone know?
@@eugeniebreida1583 well the term used is hyper accumulate so my base line guess, is it doesn't really break down into anything particular, and just does what apple trees do, and stores and restores it, keeping it in the plant instead of the soil and animals that eat the plant take small amounts of it and distribute it elsewhere. But it's definitely a good question.
Wow I’m surprised this is allowed in capitalist USA where it’s a crime to feed other people! Well done, I love seeing people make a community that helps others. A stark contrast to the to what the USA has become just throwing out good food that has a few blemishes and forcing people to spend as much money as possible for basic goods.
This is just beautiful thank you for all you do and for sharing with us ❤
This is so incredibly important for every living thing! Thank you! 🙏 ❤❤❤
My school is a few blocks away from here, i would walk through this area often and never knew about its story. Although I did kind of guess lol. regardless its a beautiful walk through.
oh man that's awesome,. nature in contrast with the urban industrial site wow truly awesome
It's amazing! :) Thanks for watching.