Dustin Bajer

Designing With Nature. These are my projects.

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An often tongue-in-cheek, over the top, and slightly serious look that the forefront of gardens and landscapes. Avant-gardening explored the for-front of gardening, urban agriculture, and landscape design. Avantgarden seeks to reimagine what’s possible in a world that embraces ecology and being a little over the top. Exploring unused public spaces in Edmonton, Alberta.

Urban Agriculture as a Response to Climate Change

December 7, 2017 by Dustin Bajer

Urban Agricultural Systems Inspired By Nature Can Mitigate Climate Change

Ear of wheat grown in a monoculture.

As climate changes and extremes become more common (floods, drought, storms, etc.) growing food – especially in monoculture – will become more challenging. Monocultures rely heavily on external inputs.

 

Layers of a food forest.

Forests aren’t immune to climate change, but they’re less susceptible because of the connections they contain – forests are diverse, and the end of every process is the beginning of another. Forests cycle water, nutrients, and create microclimates conducive to life.

 

Cities are like forests. Layers of a city.

Cities are like forests. Cities are places for maximizing connections, and they’re filled with opportunity. Whereas a forest might cycle water, nutrients, and energy, cities cycle ideas, information, culture, and resources.

 

Biophilic cities bring nature into cities.

Ecologists describe the border between two ecosystems as an ecotone – a special place where the diversity of both systems some meet. If we could bring nature into the city, we could create a system with all the variety and potential of each separate systems – while creating unique opportunities for these systems to interact in beneficial ways that solve problems.

 

Burdock plant protecting bare soil.

Here’s a secret – nature loves cities. Nature will colonize even the most inhospitable urban environments. And as it does, it will hold onto water, cycle nutrients, and create microclimates. We often fight the parts of nature best adapted at doing this.

 

Drink your problems away. Root-beer from invasive plants.

The key to blending nature and cities is to link them in creative ways – in ways that turn problems into solutions. (Drink your problems away. Root-beer from invasive plants).

 

The drain monster is eating your potential.

In cities, we tend to collect and move water away from our landscapes. Forests, in contract, capture excess water when it’s wet and put it to use when it’s dry. Forests cycle their resources – using water twice is the same as having twice as much water.

 

Swales on counter collect water for a downhill food forest.

In the face of climate change, we can take inspiration from nature and integrate passive water harvesting and storage into cities – especially when combined with the potential to grow food. Small changes in topography can direct water to the soil where it can be accessed.

 

Parkallen Community Garden water harvesting swale.

Here’s a water harvesting feature (swale) going into the Parkallen Community Garden. It’s built on contour and is designed to spread and soak water along the length of the garden.

 

Vegetables growing on a water harvesting swale. Parkallen community garden.

Once planted, fruits and vegetables can access free water stored in the soil. This simple technique stores excess water during wet periods and makes it available when it’s dry – mitigating floods and drought.

 

They're called leaves for a reason. Don't bag your leaves.

Ecosystems don’t create waste  – they cycle it. Though, we tend to bag ours and send it to the landfill. When we throw out our organics, we’re robbing our landscapes of essential nutrients. They’re called leaves for a reason.

 

Carbon powered herbivore.

Watering non-food producing monoculture designed to shed water then bagging and throwing away the result is insanity. This landscape could capture and process the water that lands on it. It should cycle and accumulate its nutrients. It could be producing food.

 

Water harvesting and food producing bed between two houses.

This patch of lawn has been converted into a raspberry garden. Beneath the ground, water harvesting features collect water from the roofs and spread it across the length of the yard. Covered with mulch the beds soak up excess water like living sponges and make it available to the plants. These simple techniques reduce flooding, reduce drought, cycle waste, and grow food.

 

Plant your water before you plant your garden.

This vegetable garden is growing on top of a series of water harvesting features that take water from the roof of the house. A bed of organic much is added on top and planted with vegetables and perennial food plants.

 

Storing water in healthy soil has the potential to mitigate climate.

When I first started working in this yard it was unbearably hot – south facing and void of vegetation – the soil baked. After adding ten cubic yards of mulch, dozens of bags of leaves, and 24 straw bales the earth is coming back to life and the microclimate of the yard has transformed – it’s humid now and doesn’t get as hot or cold. This yard now captures all the water that lands on it and converts it to food.

 

Apple tree and pear tree espaliered against a south facing wall.

Urban environments are exceptional places for creating and taking advantage of microclimates – especially for food production. These fruit trees are planted against a south facing fence to increase the length of the growing season. Water harvesting features below the ground bring water from the roof to the base of the trees.

 

Whitemud retaining wall orchard. Quisnell retaining wall orchard.

Vast microclimates create large potential. The south-west facing retaining wall by the Quinelle bridge would have made an amazing fruit orchard – absorbing the sun’s energy throughout the day and radiating it back at night.

 

Just outside of Edmonton's growing conditions - the 'resilient' peach.

Just outside of Edmonton’s growing conditions (zone 4a) – the ‘resilient’ peach (zone 5).

 

Just outside of Edmonton's growing conditions (zone 4a) - the American persimmon (zone 5).

Just outside of Edmonton’s growing conditions (zone 4a) – the American persimmon (zone 5).

 

Just outside of Edmonton's growing conditions (zone 4a) - the largest fruit native to North America - the Pawpaw (zone 5).

Just outside of Edmonton’s growing conditions (zone 4a) – the largest fruit native to North America – the Pawpaw (zone 5).

 

Volunteers planting a food forest in Edmonton's river valley.

We can choose to come together and create innovative food-producing systems that benefit the city and the natural world. Since 2014, I have been partnering with the City’s Roots for Trees program to plant thousands of native edibles in the river valley.

 

A community is a forest.

A forest is a community, and a community is a forest. It’s a dense web of connections, ideas, and potential. Working together is probably the single biggest strategy that we can adopt from nature to grow food and mitigate climate change.

 

Map of Edmonton utility lots for gardening and urban agriculture.

There’s no shortage of places to do this – backyards, front yards, boulevards, vacant lots. The City of Edmonton recently released a list of public utility lots available for gardening.

 

Highlevel bridge park and food forest.

One of my favorite things to do is reimagine the cityscape as food-producing ecological systems. I used to call this “postapocalyptic Edmonton”, but I’d rather see them in a preapocalyptic reality.

 

Anthony Henday roundabout food forest

I will admit that some of my drawings are a bit tongue in cheek – but we have so much unused space, and we should be putting it to productive use.

 

West Edmonton Mall Community Garden

This is a favorite of mine. West Edmonton Mall Community Garden.

 

The long tail of urban agriculture.

How much food could we produce in the city? Probably not all of it – but let’s not underestimate the food producing capacity of many small players. What we need are people who are willing to try and the regulatory and political conditions conducive to doing so.

 

Wild goji berries growing in Edmonton's river valley.

What I can tell you is that in addition to capturing water, reducing waste, and temperating the local climate these systems will be uniquely Edmontinain – like these, naturalized Goji berries left behind by Chinese market garden community.

 

Capilano apricots guerrilla planted in an Edmonton scrub bed sometime in the 60s.

Or these – Capilano apricots guerrilla planted in a city scrub bed sometime in the 60s. This is a uniquely Edmonton variety – it exists nowhere else int he world.

 

Biophilic city street that stores water, nutrients, co2 and produces food.

So let’s take inspiration from nature and create a city that cycles nutrients, tempers climate, and captures water and our imaginations.

 

Let's create a forest city. City as forest.

Let’s create a forest city.

Filed Under: Dustin Bajer's Articles Tagged With: Avantgarden, Biophilic Design, Edmonton, Urban Agriculture, Urban Ecology

West Edmonton Mall Ice Palace Greenhouse

December 11, 2015 by Dustin Bajer Leave a Comment

The West Edmonton Mall Ice Palace Greenhouse. Because Who Among Us Hasn’t Though “Jeez, I Could Really Go For Some Locally Grown Mall Kale Right Now”?

West Edmonton Mall Ice Palace Garden

The West Edmonton Mall Ice Palace Greenhouse. One of many assets in a post-apocalyptic Edmonton.

We’ve all been there. Shopping for the holidays. Walking from one end of the Mall to the other. Feet aching and arms filled with…way too much stuff. Who among us hasn’t though “Geez, I could really go for some locally grown mall kale right about now”? Ladies and gentleman, may I present to you the West Edmonton Mall Ice Palace Greenhouse. Marvel at the melons. Tour the turnips. Browse the brussel sprouts.

Filed Under: Dustin Bajer's Articles Tagged With: Avantgarden, Edmonton, Urban Agriculture

The Walterdale Bat Bridge

June 21, 2015 by Dustin Bajer 2 Comments

Span The Gap Between Urban and Ecological Design with Bat Bridges

Edmonton Waterdale Bridge, Bat Bridge, Biophilic Design

The Walterdate Bat Bridge is an ecologically inspired structure at the edge of Biophilic design. Part bridge, part mosquito solution, the structure places the built environment within its ecological context.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Dustin Bajer's Articles Tagged With: Avantgarden, Biophilic Design, Edmonton, Urban Ecology

Urban Glaciers In A Time Of Climate Change

February 8, 2015 by Dustin Bajer Leave a Comment

Urban Glaciers:  In a world where glaciers are disappearing, could Northern Cities build them from scratch?

A slightly tongue-in-cheek, slightly serious look at what to do with all that snow.
Urban Glaciers: In a world where glaciers are disappearing, could Northern Cities build them from scratch? A look at what to do with all of that snow.

Urban Glaciers: In a world where glaciers are disappearing, could Northern Cities build them from scratch? A look at what to do with all of that snow.

If you visit Edmonton, Alberta (Canada) travel the city’s ring-road in search of giant mountains of snow. Often lasting well into Summer, some citizens have taken to betting when on when it’ll melt. What if Northern cities [Read more…]

Filed Under: Dustin Bajer's Articles Tagged With: Avantgarden, Biophilic Design, Edmonton, Urban Ecology

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Dustin Bajer

Teacher, permaculture designer, master gardener, hobby beekeeper, consultant, and network nerd living in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Read More

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