As proposed, the existing 4,642 square foot nursery within San Francisco’s Botanical Garden will be razed and a new 9,830 square foot nursery and Center for Sustainable Gardening will rise to the west.
The new Nursery: Center for Sustainable Gardening, if approved, will replace the existing antiquated nursery with a state-of-the art facility targeted at the LEED Platinum level and constructed with renewable materials that will have a living roof and a rainwater collection and recycling system involving gutters to collect the rainwater and rainwater barrels to hold it. The gutters will be maintained and cleaned by a professional company like Clean Pro Gutter Cleaning Bergen County so that the rainwater collected is as clean as possible. It will serve as a teaching tool for the City’s maintenance staff and residents interested in sustainable building and gardening practices. It would also prove a good grounds for people to learn basic garden upkeep, such as how to use an electric lawn mower on an uneven or unusual surface.
Elements will include a greenhouse, headhouse and shadehouse as well as outdoor growing grounds and an outdoor learning area. The Center will also include public restrooms, office and meeting space for Botanical Garden staff, City Gardeners and volunteers.
The site of the existing greenhouse will be replanted as an extension of the California Native Plant Garden and comments on the proposed development will be accepted by Planning until 5:00 PM on September 16.
No word on whether the new Center will offer courses on trimming palm trees as well.
? San Francisco Botanical Gardens Nursery: Center for Sustainable Gardening [sfplanning]
? SFBGS’s Nursery: Center for Sustainable Gardening Project [sfbotanicalgarden.org]
? For The Love (And Hate) Of Palm Trees In San Francisco [SocketSite]
I hope instead of rainwater collection their design can extract water from fog instead. That’s much more appropriate to the location.
Are you being serious? Those things are huge nets, used in desert climates, and they don’t really catch that much water. http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/04/26/fog.harvesting.mit/index.html Meanwhile it rains here during six months of the year.
I am serious. Though a fog catcher doesn’t yield much neither does a rooftop collection system. But you have a good point about the huge net. That could be a little ugly for the middle of a park.
With the Arboretum pleading poverty, and charging admissions for the first time in it’s history, I have to ask: where did the money for this come from?
Wouldn’t it be 100% sustainable to just leave the park as it is naturally?
^Um, the “natural” condition of the park was sand dunes. So, unless we’re going to let it go back to that…
Though a fog catcher doesn’t yield much neither does a rooftop collection system
Yeah right.
The new nursery will be paid for by the nonprofit Botanical Garden Society and donated back to The City once it’s completed. The Goldman Fund gave the Botanical Garden Society a $1 million grant for the new nursery.
http://www.sfbotanicalgarden.org/news/pr/csg.htm
The current nursery is in the coldest microclimate at Strybing and was not supposed to be permanent. It’s not ADA or fire code compliant. It will include new public meeting rooms and restrooms, as well as modern facilities like staff showers and staff restrooms. It will also be harder to see from the surrounding neighborhoods.
This new nursery site was identified back in the 1990s as part of long-range planning for both Strybing and Golden Gate Park.
Anon – yup, sand dunes! I always tell folks to visit the dunes at Abbott’s Lagoon if they want to see what the western half of San Francisco looked like before Europeans arrived:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericinsf/3711979988/
Trivia: the ubiquitous Myoporum street trees from New Zealand were the first trees planted to stabilized the dunes in Golden Gate Park – they grow anywhere and in salty conditions.
Thanks Eric, that’s some interesting information!
Of course I know GG Park was sand dunes, I’m not an east coast transplant. I actually think sand dunes and their flora are quite beautiful.
Greenhouse with a dirt roof. OK…