The urban greenvasion, like so much this year, withered in the unequivocally-caused-by-climate change-as-a-result-of-human-activity colossal Europe-wide (or is it global now?) heatwave. But rest assured that I have not forgot it, and it returns this week with box verges.
Verges come in all shapes and sizes. Motorway verges, home to wildflowers, scrub woodland, kestrels and kites. A and B road hedge-and-ditch combos where frogs and hedgehogs lurk, and birds scuttle through the branches. Urban verges, Brazilian-shaved to slender strips betwixt pavement and tarmac, complaints accumulating (scruffy, uneven, slippery, untidy) on their way to oblivion.
Eventually, we get this:
It's this slide towards permanent hardstanding that's been steadily degreening our cityscapes. This is a bad thing, and not just because of the run-off and flooding problem. Increases in hard, reflective surfaces causes light to bounce around, increasing glare and heat haze; solid surfaces warm up and act as heat stores, increasing urban hotness and stretching heat later into the night.
Although up-to-the-edge tarmac and concrete is easier to clean of course. Any form of verge does seem to get pressed into duty as toilet, ashtray and rubbish bin. And of course it's more durable - any crevice that gets a root in it will gather filth, get prised apart, suffer ingress of water, insects and worse.
How to retain hygiene and durability, while still getting green round our edges?
Consider this street:
It's a pretty bleak space if you're an insect. Let's drop a box verge in against the edge of that house:
My box verge is built from tough, thick, slightly flexacious recycled plastic. I've picked a textured green but you could probably go terracotta or black without causing the companies that make these kinds of things any conniptions. You'll note there's a little gap at the back, too. This is not to allow rodent access, but because you don't often get a neat right angle down there. The box verge has to settle into its space. It also needs to be heavy enough to avoid people running off with it or tipping it over, but light enough not to crack a paving stone, so there's a self-watering reservoir at the bottom and concealed voids to help with stability and balancing on uneven surfaces.
The back board protects the wall from water-splash and stops soil running down the space at the back. It would be nice if you could order it to custom sizes, but realistically it's probably going to be something more akin to a temporary barrier type item, available in a series of fixed lengths and widths.
As far as the urinal/ash-tray problem goes, word is that people are less inclined towards anti-social behaviour if they feel someone is watching them. So a repeated pattern of eyes printed on or stuck to the backboard so that they peer up through the greenery might help discourage bad behaviour and add a charming touch of the uncanny.
So, what do we need to get from here to there?
Verges come in all shapes and sizes. Motorway verges, home to wildflowers, scrub woodland, kestrels and kites. A and B road hedge-and-ditch combos where frogs and hedgehogs lurk, and birds scuttle through the branches. Urban verges, Brazilian-shaved to slender strips betwixt pavement and tarmac, complaints accumulating (scruffy, uneven, slippery, untidy) on their way to oblivion.
Eventually, we get this:
It's this slide towards permanent hardstanding that's been steadily degreening our cityscapes. This is a bad thing, and not just because of the run-off and flooding problem. Increases in hard, reflective surfaces causes light to bounce around, increasing glare and heat haze; solid surfaces warm up and act as heat stores, increasing urban hotness and stretching heat later into the night.
Although up-to-the-edge tarmac and concrete is easier to clean of course. Any form of verge does seem to get pressed into duty as toilet, ashtray and rubbish bin. And of course it's more durable - any crevice that gets a root in it will gather filth, get prised apart, suffer ingress of water, insects and worse.
How to retain hygiene and durability, while still getting green round our edges?
Consider this street:
It's a pretty bleak space if you're an insect. Let's drop a box verge in against the edge of that house:
My box verge is built from tough, thick, slightly flexacious recycled plastic. I've picked a textured green but you could probably go terracotta or black without causing the companies that make these kinds of things any conniptions. You'll note there's a little gap at the back, too. This is not to allow rodent access, but because you don't often get a neat right angle down there. The box verge has to settle into its space. It also needs to be heavy enough to avoid people running off with it or tipping it over, but light enough not to crack a paving stone, so there's a self-watering reservoir at the bottom and concealed voids to help with stability and balancing on uneven surfaces.
The back board protects the wall from water-splash and stops soil running down the space at the back. It would be nice if you could order it to custom sizes, but realistically it's probably going to be something more akin to a temporary barrier type item, available in a series of fixed lengths and widths.
As far as the urinal/ash-tray problem goes, word is that people are less inclined towards anti-social behaviour if they feel someone is watching them. So a repeated pattern of eyes printed on or stuck to the backboard so that they peer up through the greenery might help discourage bad behaviour and add a charming touch of the uncanny.
So, what do we need to get from here to there?
- A more forgiving attitude towards having greenery and insects near our legs/push-chairs/mobility scooters, and a higher tolerance of narrow pavements.
- A shift in attitudes to all commercial and private buildings feeling they should have some form of greenery outside, no matter how small or token.
- Availability of the product, along with a regular service agreement to keep the planting maintained and topped up.
- Full error testing and link-up systems to help it interact positively with existing drainage to capture water and reduce run-off.
- Some high-profiles adoptees to make it fashionable.
This is one of those ones that feels very close to where we are now. Lots of places have ad-hoc pots and planters outside themselves already. It just isn't seen as automatic.
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