Moss Graffiti - another form of guerilla gardening

A lot of people just love filling the walls, the houses, the parks and every other public place you can think of, with all kinds of colorful graffiti drawings and quotes or just random words or sayings. The most used graffiti materials are in particular spray paints and marker pens. Besides the fact that graffiti is not actually legal and it’s considered a vandalism, spray paint causes a lot of damage to the enviroment. Spray paint contains a lot of toxic chemicals, which causes damage and eats through things like plastic, so they also get destroyed. Graffiti is also bad for the enviroment because it is a visual pollution to some people and it creates eyesores in the public.

          Therefore fans of wall painting can start using the so called “moss graffiti”, “eco-graffiti” or “green graffiti”, which can also be considered another form of guerilla gardening.

          For those who don’t know, guerilla gardening is basically planting on land, that doesn’t belong to you, without the owners permission. Guerilla gardeners are doing that mostly for making neighborhoods more attractive and prettier, and they also want to draw attention to issues and urban blight. They usually work at night, so people won’t discover the responsible and to surprise people, but some guerilla gardeners work at daylight, to teach their community to care about the enviroment and to inspire them.

          Now that everything is explained and hopefully understood, I will write down everything there is to know about moss graffiti. Spray cans can be replaced with moss-graffiti. It doesn’t cause damage to the enviroment and the drawings can look the same, besides the fact that they’re going to be green and not so colorful like spray cans. Moss graffiti really is the green thing to do, but it is still best to ask for permission to the owner, who will probably understand if he is a healthy-enviroment fan. Here’s a list of what you’ll need and tips:

You will need:

·       about a handful of moss;

·       2 cups of buttermilk;

·       2 cups of water or beer;

·       ½ teaspoon of sugar;

·       a blender;

·       a paint brush.

Easy steps of how to prepare it:

1.    Wash the moss as good as possible and remove all the insects and dirt you can find;

2.    Place the moss in small pieces in the blender;

3.    Add all the remaining ingedients and blend it all together until it becomes smooth like a milkshake;

4.    Apply the mixture on the desired surface with a paintbrush;

5.    Check weekly and spray it with water or apply more moss paint, so it will grow(espacially if the enviroment you live in is dry).

      

   Learn to be green! 

Green Roof

 Probably everyone has seen Lord of the Rings, or at least everyone heard about it. Well I don’t have to tell you the story, because for this project I need to inform you about the Green Roof idea. What has that to do with Lord of the Rings?- the answer is: the landscapes. The beautiful landscapes of the film include the hobbit houses.

   They are small, cute, they are built under the hills and they seem to be the solution to our problem of the 21^st century. Because they have a garden to cover them up, they don’t damage the atmosphere, the animals or the others.

   

So, let’s tell you about the Green Roof idea.

 1.What’s that: Green Roof?

A Green Roof is a new trend that breaks up the monotony of common roofs. Long popular in Europe, homeowners, businessman and even entire cities found it attractive to promote environmentalism while solving the problems of the old known roofs.

They supplement traditional vegetation without disrupting urban infrastructure, because they take a neglected space and make it useful and beautiful.

Green roofs last longer than conventional roofs, reduce energy costs with natural insulation, create peaceful retreats for people and animals. On a wider scale, green roofs improve air quality and help reduce the Urban Heat Island Effect, a condition in which city and suburban developments absorb and trap heat.

There are two types of green roofs: intensive and extensive.

1. Intensive green roofs are essentially elevated parks. They can sustain trees, walkways and shrubs and benches with their complex structural support, irrigation, drainage and root protection layers. But they need 36-68 kilograms per square foot.
2. Extensive green roofs are relatively light at 7-23 kilograms per square foot. They support hearty native ground cover that requires little maintenance. They usually exist for their environmental benefits.

One of the most famous American Green Roofs, Chicago's City Hall, combines extensive as also intensive systems on one retrofitted roof.

Did you know that….

- A study performed by the Environmentally Institute of Canada discovered that Green Roofs reduce with 26% the necessity of cooling the air and the lost of heating in a house?

- In Egypt, Green Roofs are a true source of earth for vegetable gardens?

- 10% of Germany’s roofs are green?

- The largest Green Roof is in Madrid, Spain- Santander Bank?

THE BENEFITS OF A GREEN ROOF

Water - As a source control mechanism in the Sustainable Urban Drainage System green roofs can help reduce  floods as a consequence of intense rainfall events. This will become an increasingly important thing as a consequence of climate change.

Air Quality – airborne particles and pollutants are filtered by the substrates and vegetation on a green roof.

Urban Agriculture - Urban Rooftop Food Growing – roofs. Although many of the large flat roofs may not have the loading capabilities to hold food growing some roofs will and the many balconies in are urban areas are ideal.

Amenity Space – in dense urban environments there is often a lack of green space for residents. Green roofs provide important green spaces to improve the quality of life for urban residents.

Pollution - dust particles,including particles of heavy metals and other contaminating factors, wich circulate in the air,may be withheld by the substrates of a green roof,instead of harming us by polluting the enviroment.

 The “Hundertwasser project” represents one of the most important green roofs idea of the century.

You can plant a real garden on your roof, so that you can climb the stairs and reach to your vegetables and fruits. 

 And it’s also a very easy step to feed your animals, when you are not in the mood to walk them out.

Green Roof. Vertical Garden.

Even though our questoinnare  was not completed by a lot of people, we are glad that we helped the ones that did by explaining them if  necessary the correct answer to some questions. For example many people believed  that a Green Roof  is a roof that is painted in green. The correct answer is that this roof is actually a roof on which is grown a real garden. A lot of people consider this a new and innovating method but it was used in the past as well. In that time this sort of garden had the role to isolate the roof from water infiltrations. Now it’s considered an alternative for the environment. Our college had to choose between several methods of improving the environment but the green roof couldn’t be done because of the structure of our roof. First of all the layer of grass needs a thin layer of earth on which it can grow and develop properly. Because the roof did not meet these conditions we had to consider planting  a Vertical Garden.

These gardens are in some peoples mind a way to improve the way walls look like. After the questionnaire we found out that many people know and have tried this garden. For a base it has a metal structure with different materials applied. These help the plants to grown faster and don’t let the water  drain. Because of this it can pe “planted” on the front of buildings or even in the house to make the atmosphere more pleasant .  This kind of garden is also a good idea for the ones that have a small garden and don’t have enugh space. Developing a garden such this can offer a specacular view, brings color and gives life to an empy  wall.

So all we need now is the wether to improve and we’re ready to work!

Working

Making of

In Cismigiu, a park of Bukarest, in the courious look of the passers, we managed to concentrate and follow our plan despite the low temperature and our innocence. Dead with cold, red in the cheeks , without feeling our hands and legs, but always smiling and laughing we succeed to do a wonderful work with the movie, even better than we thought.

Presentation

In the last weeks of November a bunch of teenagers gathered together on a Saturday at school. I was among those who decided, that our beloved home, our earth, needs our support. We were just about 8 kids. We had no high expectations, we barely knew where to start from. Plans had to be done, ideas had to be discussed, the project had to start. Firstly we had to decide which problem in Bucharest was the most important. After voting our own ideas we came out with questions for our citizens. Do they know what our earth is going through? Have they any idea about the attitude we have to adopt in order to make a change? And most of all, are they willing to help us? Throughout the weeks, our group of about 8 people increased to almost 20 little ecologists. Each of us thought about questions we could ask people. Out of more than 50 questions we carefully picked up about 15. Then we all asked our families, our friends, or just strangers from the street what their knowledge about ecology is. Honestly I was surprised to find out that people in our city are aware of the damage they are causing to the environment, and have already started to take measures. After statistics had been made we started to think about ways we could promote our project. So with the help of my very talented friends and project-members and with the support of our head- teacher  we worked together on a little movie, persuading people to live a healthy, natural life. Though filming in high snow on a windy day was rather painful, we had loads of fun. And we skipped school to do that, which added a bonus of joy. All in all the little film we made turned out to be great, and we gained a lot of joyful, beautiful memories. While we were working on this film, a friend of mine came with the idea of the “ Didn’t think so campaign”. I was so thrilled with the idea, I couldn’t wait to promote it. And so with the help of another great member of our team we built up this “green” blog where we can promote the things we believe in and where we can motivate people to save the world. Until now, the project goes far better than expected, and we are working on more surprises. Great specialists in this ecological life will visit us this week and we are eager to welcome them and learn new working tricks from them. This project means  team-work, responsibilities, expectations to all of us, but most of all it means fun. Because that’s what’s important, right?

Get involved!

When the usual person throws something on the ground it does not think of the follow ups. We pay no attention to it what so ever and carry on with our lives.But as unsignificant as this gesture can seem,it catches up on people. Pollution makes sure that the world has its “downs” along with its “ups”.The earth as we know it is changing and it does not look very bright. When asked, a simple citizen either does not pay attention to these sort of problems or is not interested in the matter, thinking that this does not harm them. One can not be more wrong. Our bodies are vulnerable to the pollution in the air, to the lack of trees, etc. People become sick and do not understand why.. So, we bring awareness to you, readers, who now are sitting at home: Get involved!Even the slightest gesture can make a difference. Genetics may load the gun but the environment pulls the trigger.