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Sidewalk Garden

zachklein.com

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Re: Sidewalk Garden

#51

Post by stephencanon »

audibahnbacks wrote: post #25

“Incredibly rich people made their environment and those of their rich neighbors better.” Great. But it does nothing for Oakland, or Richmond, or the kind of neighborhoods I can actually afford to live in (but still not buy a house in). I guess it’s okay if we keep making everything nicer for the elites and worse for everyone else? I see the property deeds of the rundown apartments and tenement housing in my neighbor…

I did some gardening in every cheap apartment I lived in as a broke grad student in the East Bay. Yeah, landlords aren’t going to do it for you, but that doesn’t have to stop you. Planting a small garden can be pretty cheap and is a huge improvement to the experience of living in most rentals, even if you’re only there for a year or two. Even got a couple of my landlords to let me deduct material costs from rent.

Re: Sidewalk Garden

#52

Post by tzs »

jacquesm wrote: post #45

What a fantastic initiative, the before and after pictures, especially the one after five years show an incredible transformation, it is hard to believe it is the same spot! Congratulations on a job very well done. It's the most literal example that I have seen in a while of improving the world around you. This sort of thing scales very well. What surprises me about the whole effort is that the municipality allowed y…

> Here in NL that would never ever happen with a permit. Lots of in-ground infrastructure and serious risk to that if you start digging around in that without the right maps and access to various IT systems to indicate where you can safely dig, where you absolutely can not and where the pavement and the water management interact.

Would digging for a garden be deep enough to reach that infrastructure?

Water pipes should be below the frost line. Google is failing to find me any frost line data for NL, but in places in the US where it tells me the climate is very similar to NL water pipes have to be at least 2 ft down.

If codes for power cables are at all like those in the US, I'd expect power to be at least a foot down, unless it is metal conduit. If it is in metal conduit you should be able to find it with a metal detector so you can avoid digging into it.

Those should all be deeper than you would typically dig when making a garden, except for electric lines in metal conduit.

Re: Sidewalk Garden

#53

Post by jacquesm »

tzs wrote: post #52
jacquesm wrote: post #45

What a fantastic initiative, the before and after pictures, especially the one after five years show an incredible transformation, it is hard to believe it is the same spot! Congratulations on a job very well done. It's the most literal example that I have seen in a while of improving the world around you. This sort of thing scales very well. What surprises me about the whole effort is that the municipality allowed y…

> Here in NL that would never ever happen with a permit. Lots of in-ground infrastructure and serious risk to that if you start digging around in that without the right maps and access to various IT systems to indicate where you can safely dig, where you absolutely can not and where the pavement and the water management interact. Would digging for a garden be deep enough to reach that infrastructure? Water pipes shou…

That very much depends. There is a ton of shallow fiber and a well placed shovel would cut right through. I've worked with a company that sells software to manage infrastructure and the amount of stuff in the ground is pretty impressive.

Personal experience: 380V feed 40 cm down (too shallow, but: old cable), sewage shallower than that because the main pipe was itself too shallow and this was an old vacuum system (newer ones are usually positive pressure). Stuff also doesn't always stay at the depth at which it is buried and sometimes there are repairs which end up less deep than you'd really like to have them because you don't want to dig up a bunch of stuff around it as well.

I'd be very wary of sticking a shovel into the ground in a city without having access to the relevant data. Keep in mind that you may be held liable for any damage.

Re: Sidewalk Garden

#54

Post by nomel »

seszett wrote: post #40
nomel wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Removing any amount of living tissue from someone else's plant, without their permission, is wrong. It's ridiculous to think it's ok. Buy your own, and cut it up.

I'm happy when people take seeds or fruit from my sidewalk garden, it means they like it.

In many places, it’s legal to take fruit. No cutting required.

Seeds don’t require cutting, and can usually be picked up off the ground.

Re: Sidewalk Garden

#55

Post by JoeAltmaier »

nomel wrote: post #16
Scoundreller wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though I wonder where the line is: obviously uprooting a whole plant is wrong, but is there a point in the size of a plant where one can take a cutting (or seed pod when/if it bolts into seed) to root/seed yourself?

Removing any amount of living tissue from someone else's plant, without their permission, is wrong. It's ridiculous to think it's ok. Buy your own, and cut it up.

Not true! Most urban environments, anything from the public path is fair game. And for good reason. The sun, air, rain aren't personal property. And the right-of-way is for everybody.

And in the US in national parks, picking fruit for daily personal consumption is also allowed. No hoovering up the entire raspberry patch to make jam at home! Just during your visit.

Re: Sidewalk Garden

#56

Post by JoeAltmaier »

ajmurmann wrote: post #3

"Plants are routinely snatched from our garden by florists and landscapers." What's wrong with people?!

Had an ancient neighbor in downtown San Jose, would totter up and down the street stealing plants, putting them in her garden. What could you do? She was like 97, registered number 5 or something on the national Widows of the Veterans. Her father had fought in the US Civil War.
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