Sprout

Wildflowers for South Florida

2011-08-22T13:52:00.004-04:00

Wildflower areas offer an attractive, xeric and lower maintenance alternative to sod monocultures. Native wildflower plantings provide seasonal interest in a variety of colors while supporting butterflies and other pollinating insects. Applications can be purely wildflower seeded areas,a mixture of wildflowers and other herbaceous materials or planted along the edges of woody native plantings. Further experimentation is necessary to determine the best methods to plant and maintain these types of areas considering the type and location of the application. Over the next few weeks, we will be posting information about our wildflower tests at Studio Sprout and visits to other wildflower applications in Broward County. Keep tuned!

Indoor Plants for your Lungs!

2010-12-13T12:01:00.007-05:00

Remember that slimy frog in high school floating in a jar of formaldehyde? Bad news – we’re floating in it too! Formaldehyde is the most commonly found toxin in indoor air. It’s used to treat many common products like garbage bags, paper towels, facial tissues, fabrics and floor coverings. Formaldehyde causes many adverse health problems such as eye, nose and throat irritation, and asthma. House plants can remove formaldehyde along with other toxins that emanate from office equipment and paints and including xylene, toluene, and ammonia.

There are a variety of plants that are expert formaldehyde removers to fit every taste:
Boston ferns, Florist’s mums, Dracaenas,Bamboo palms, Rubber plants, Weeping fig, Peace lily, Areca palms, and Corn plants

Interestingly enough, these plants can remove toxins without reaching a maximum toxic capacity which would result in the plant dying and then releasing toxins back into the air. Instead, they remove the fumes from the air and deliver the airborne toxins to microbes in the roots which use the broken down toxins as sustenance.

This short video shows how to install a "Wally" , see December 10 entry "Green Wall Sprouts up at Studio Sprout" so that you can improving your indoor air quality now! We planted a Boston fern in our wally and it's doing great!

Woolly Pocket - Instant Living Walls with the Wally modular living wall system

Green wall sprouts up at Studio Sprout!

2010-12-10T09:27:00.006-05:00

On a dare from a LEED EBOM (existing buildings operation and maintenance) colleague who said "Don't design Green Walls in South Florida - they will cause mold and air quality problems." - I thought I would try this little unit from Flora Grubb. I placed it over my desk and check periodically for any little fuzzies that may want to take up residence on my pristinely white wall. It is called a "wally" or a "woollypocket" The outside is a wool felt - which is all you need for an outdoor unit, for indoors they recommend the plastic lined model. I installed it over three weeks ago and so far so good. Watering is easy, it doesn't overflow or need much water - and - I get the benefits of growing my own fresh air, absorbing many unwanted chemical residues that are a result of office equipment. This is what it looked like pre-planting:

Try one and let me know your results - http://www.floragrubb.com/

This is their picture of Wally3 - three units stacked on top of each other:

Thanksgiving Harvest at Studio Sprout!

2010-11-24T12:17:00.003-05:00

Who says you can't grow anything in South Florida over the summer? We have watermelon all over here at Studio Sprout. It was incredably easy - seeds from a local hardware store (nothing special), minimal (who are we kidding - none is more like it) fertilizer and the seedlings thrived on rainwater. The vines, flowers and fruit are fun to watch as they take of in every direction , Try it! It's easy to get your own bountiful harvest! Happy Thanksgiving!

Green Wall in Palm Beach County!

2010-11-16T17:40:00.004-05:00

Hurrah! If you haven't seen it yet - head over to Worth Avenue to see the HUGE! Green wall installed on the western elevation of Saks. It is not only environmentally friendly but also beautiful, well thought out with textures and varieties of greens to truly make a work of art!

Help your local butterfly!

2010-11-12T12:03:00.002-05:00

The University of Florida publication on Community ButterflyScaping is now published! This new and unique concept helps to envision large scale butterfly habitats. The techniques can be used by developers, community associations and large commercial campuses.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/EP/EP42000.pdf

Warning: Pesticides May Harm You Before those Scary Insects

2010-11-08T08:28:00.001-05:00

Maybe it IS worth having a pet spider to get rid of those unwanted insects!
- In the year 2000, poison centers in the US responded to 86,880 poisoning incidents related to pesticides and half of those incidents involved children under six years old.
- Pesticides and chemicals used on a lawn can be absorbed by your bare feet or carried into your home on your shoes.
- Most pesticides can’t tell a bad bug from a useful one. They are toxic to birds, bees, and other insects which help pollinate flowers.
- Approximately 90 percent of all households in the U.S. use pesticides.
- Improperly disposed pesticides can move through the soil and reach drinking water supplies.

DIY - The Oil Spill Stops Here – Car Free Friday

2010-07-01T12:35:00.000-04:00

During a debate about offshore drilling right after the oil spill began, the proponent for offshore drilling made a good point: better that we drill here where we have regulations. The problem isn’t drilling per se; it is the American people’s demand for oil. If we don’t drill here, the demand will be met by drilling off the coast of Africa where there are no regulations. He said that there are major oil spills off the Coast of Africa EVERY year.
OK so it’s not BP it’s not Exxon, it’s us. We have to change. We must make it less profitable for the companies to go out and cause large scale environmental calamities. Thus Car Free Friday is born as an effort to both get cars off of the road and to get people to be aware of how and when they use their cars. Think about this – there are 1,000 seniors at Jupiter High School, the majority of them drive. If a little over a third of them didn’t drive on Fridays that would be like taking a car off the road for a whole year! And that’s just one Friday at one high school. Multiply that across Palm Beach County, the state of Florida, the United States. Spread it to government offices, power companies, hospitals. And the beauty of it is, once you start doing it, you become much more conscious of how to be efficient in your car use and you talk about it, it’s contagious.
The sole purpose of this blog is to encourage, support and celebrate participation in a positive action to stop oil disasters. We will give tips to help you participate; we hope you will share your experiences and tips to help others participate.

2009-06-17T16:13:00.000-04:00

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