Sprouted in the patio behind the Art League Houston building at 1953 Montrose, home of the Inversion Coffee House: 3 giant mushrooms, built out of rebar, soil, and moss by artists Nicola Parente and Divya Murthy.
And how are they doing? Not so well, reports the Chronicle’s Molly Glentzer:
One is planted with herbs; one is planted with Texas natives; and the third is planted with non-native ornamentals. They’ve pretty much been left to survive or thrive on their own through next year, and the artists are perhaps expecting that only the native-planted mushroom will survive.
Just one catch. When we looked on Saturday, they all needed water.
Nothing lives in a black plastic pot for long without a little help from the gardener. And biodegradable brown pots would’ve been more environmentally friendly — not to mention better-looking.
Inside the Art League building: the second part of the installation, which Parente and Murthy put together from debris they collected from the surrounding eight-block area.
That 1916 house on Teas Nursery property at 4400 Bellaire Blvd. — now home to the company’s landscaping business — was his birthplace. He died yesterday. “His grandfather, Edward ‘Papa’ Teas, Sr., whose family had been in the nursery business since 1843 starting in Indiana, moved his family to Bellaire from Missouri in 1910 to grow and sell produce, but turned to landscaping when a freeze in 1913 wiped out his business. He was responsible for introducing azaleas and crepe myrtle to the area, so legend goes, and for planting some of Houston’s enduring natural beauty, including Rice University’s oaks. John Teas helped plant the oaks along the Rice campus on Fannin Street as a boy. The family’s nursery businesses extended from Fort Bend County through Conroe, but the roots were sunk the deepest in Bellaire, where the nursery and landscaping business continue to this day.” [Bellaire Examiner]
Reader Jeromy Murphy sends in this photo he took this morning along the banks of Buffalo Bayou, from the jogging path in Buffalo Bayou Park under I-45. What’s going on over there across the water?
While walking back to my office from a downtown meeting, I noticed workers installing new sod along the Bayou. I wonder how long this will last considering the weather report? Anyone along the ship channel need some new sod? It’s probably headed their way.
Scotts Miracle-Gro, which bought the Smith & Hawken chain 5 years ago, is uprooting all 56 of the high-end brand’s stores, including one at the edge of River Oaks and another on Six Pines Drive in The Woodlands. “Apparently the expensive garden and really expensive garden store is shutting down. The website is already closed to orders and store liquidations start today. Should be interesting to see what happens to the store next to Ouisie’s Table on San Felipe.” [Swamplot inbox; more from the Houston Business Journal]
Inspired by a visit to a South Florida demonstration farm that emphasizes resourcefulness — “they’ve built things like a well pump from simple bicycle parts, irrigation systems from cinder blocks, and terraces from old tires,” he notes — summer resident James M. Harrison begins “to notice similar ways that people in Houston’s Fifth Ward are harvesting their own backyard crops. Just up the block, one of my neighbors is growing banana trees on his driveway. He’s been able to do it by building a raised bed from cinder blocks against a fence, and using soil that he composts in his backyard. A couple of days ago, we collected basil leaves from the neighbors herb garden, and used them to make pesto. It went great with the tomatoes from our own back yard. And over the weekend, I snacked on figs, cucumbers, and citrus in a Community Garden on Houston’s south side with some friends.” [Neighborhood //#5]
“‘Over the past month or so you may have noticed a slight farm-like odor on the grounds,’ [Discovery Green] has told supporters by e-mail. ‘In May, DG began a new organic fertilization program that is going to help improve soil biology so that this 100% man-made park can start building a healthier, richer ecosystem. We’re bringing the earthworms back.’ DG’s Claudia Morlan tells Hair Balls they haven’t gotten any smell complaints yet, but wanted to be ‘pro-active’ in addressing the issue. ‘DG will be fertilizing on the lawn spaces every other month with a light layer of organic compost fertilizer made by a company called EarthWorks,’ the announcement said. ‘The park staff will do their best to work around the programming schedule and fertilize on days that have little or no activities.’” [Hair Balls]
The owners of more than 2 dozen properties on the Bolivar Peninsula have been planting grass and shrubs along the edges of the dunes on the seaward side of their land. Why? The General Land Office prohibits new construction beyond the natural vegetation line. “‘The front row (of beach houses) is gone, and they are hoping to establish the vegetation line where it was before,’ said Dan Peck, 54, whose neighbors planted a swath of grass about 250 yards long. . . . Peck’s house in the Singing Sands subdivision near Crystal Beach was in the fourth row from the beach before Ike swept away the front three rows of houses Sept. 13. The vegetation line is established by the General Land Office, but Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said he may wait as long as two years after the storm before marking the formal line that could determine the fate of many Gulf properties.” [Houston Chronicle]
Verdant, fertile Idylwood, where the crops come in like weeds: “Tomato season started early at my house in the East End of Houston this year. It crept in on stealthy little bird feet, thanks to a volunteer plant that chose to sprout next to my veteran Tabasco bush. I was thrilled when I spotted the familiar tomato foliage–as excited as if someone had sent me an unexpected birthday present. The plant soon climbed into sprawly, indeterminate territory, and when a spiral stake proved inadequate to contain it, I just stuck a busted-out old tomato cage nearby. Martha Stewart would not have approved. When the yellow flowers set fruit, I surmised I’d be harvesting cherry tomatoes. Still, it was a surprise when–a little over two weeks ago–I realized the tiny yellow globes were not going to get any larger or any redder. They were the size of gooseberries, ripened to a clear, sunny gold, and they were ready. Each popped with spurt of tart juice and a vegetal aftertaste that seemed to roughen my tongue. At the moment, I was convinced they were the best tomatoes I had ever tasted.” [Cook's Tour]
What’s all that heavy equipment doing on the former Sonoma battleground in the Rice Village? Is the projectback from the dead?
No. The West University Examiner’s Michael Reed reports that the fenced-in site of the sacrificed commercial building along Bolsover between Kelvin and Morningside is being used as a staging area for the portion of the Kirby Dr. reconstruction project that stretches between Quenby and Bissonnet. And:
Public Works Department spokesman Alvin Wright said the agreement to use the land was entered into by the Kirby project contractor and Lamesa [Properties], not the city of Houston.
What about those other big ideas for using the liberated land?
Additionally, the Examiner has learned negotiations between the property owner and a residential civic group are under way to make another portion of the property a community garden.
“Kids don’t need yards- not grassy ones anyway. For a 2 year old, concrete is complete perfection. He practices his tricycle riding. He pushes Tonka trucks at near warp speed. We inflate ‘the pool’ with no worries of it killing the grass underneath. Balls bounce and bubbles pop and sidewalk chalk art covers every inch of visible ground. We just had another baby- another boy. Like our 1st, the new one will lay on a blanket on the deck. He’ll be shaded by the car port and we’ll have no fear of accidentally laying him down in a bed of fire ants. We bought our older son a giant playhouse to help occupy him while we are attending to the demands of a newborn. It has a gas station on one side and his little scooter can easily glide down his ‘road.’ The basketball hoop on the other side benefits from a hard bouncing surface.” [The Heights Life]
Spotting the first bloom of the season on the crape myrtle she and her husband planted way back when at their Meyerland home brings up fond memories for homeowner Annie Sitton:
When we planted this tree, it was about ten feet tall with a large root ball. We’ve all seen bad guys in movies digging graves. They make it look so easy. Well, let me tell you…digging even a small hole in the earth is difficult work. When it was my turn at the shovel, I couldn’t believe the energy it took. After about ten minutes into my digging career, my shovel hit something hard…clunk. I screamed, “Buried treasure!” I had always said there was something special about this piece of land.
Last year Transit Antenna, a 7-person “mobile living experiment,” camped out at Joe Nelson Icet’s Last Organic Outpost, did a little farming, and painted the giant “FARMART” mural at the top of the adjacent Comet rice mill. The group, which travels the country on a city bus converted to run on waste vegetable oil, documented its visit — which included a stint in the Art Car Parade — in a series of website posts.
And not long after the rambling group left its urban campground, Transit Antenna’s Seth Gadsden posted this half-hour documentary the group put together about goings-on at the Emile St. farm and its Fifth Ward neighborhood. An HD version is also available.
The Lower Fifth Ward urban farm known as the Last Organic Outpost is set to expand again from its growing campus at 700 Emile, reports founder Joe Nelson Icet:
We are presently working on the Buck Street expansion and hope to get more dirt soon to add to the existing 32 beds we already have growing.
Across the street from the 711 Emile gate, there is a lot up for public auction March 2nd that we hope to farm in the near future. This lot is currently being used for dumping. Also at 4610 Gunter, there is a lot that has been cited by the city for high grass. We would like to take stewardship of these lots for creating a 5th Ward Farm Belt.
Threatened patch of prairie? Shovels to the rescue! “The 90-acre patch at Saums and Greenhouse roads north of I-10 is a subtly spectacular example of what the dwindling Katy Prairie looked like before development spread west out of Harris County. Sometime later this fall, construction on the extension of Greenhouse Road, plus a detention pond, will start there. Folks in straw hats, with shovels, buckets and bug spray, spent several mornings digging up clumps of this mature prairie for transplanting to other sites. . . . Digging up clumps of little blue stem, rattlesnake master and bee blossom gives prairie gardens a jump start they couldn’t get from seeds - and seeds are hard to come by.” [Inside Fort Bend]
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Sprouted in the patio behind the Art League Houston building at 1953 Montrose, home of the Inversion Coffee House: 3 giant mushrooms, built out of rebar, soil, and moss by artists Nicola Parente and Divya Murthy.
