We're trying to start a GreenwayV. We're going native, planting food crops, and creating an interconnectable greenway of homes, businesses, parks and community property.
We're using native plants, and planting crops, to protect North America's biological heritage, and our food supply chain.
You can join us in promoting sustainable lifestyles on myspace (http://groups.myspace.com/masterkudzugardeners) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=40783738010)
Sustainable Chattanooga is designed to plug eco-active individuals into a number of great green initiatives around Chattanooga, and the region.
One very ambitious initiative we are involved in affects every green group and project in the region.
The work of the 17 action groups of the city's Chattanooga Green (part of Chattanooga's Climate Action Plan) will no doubt influence city policy and direction for decades to come.
Please join our members in one of the groups, based on your interests and strengths.
Our membership includes representatives of Chattanooga's Eco-Landscaping Committee, Global Warming Task Force, Cherokee Sierra Club, SVI, Urban Century Institute, Crabtree Farms, Reflection Riding, Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition, Williams Island Farms and Urban Sustainability Project.
To help determine the direction of our city on one of the Chattanooga Green action groups, which will start meeting soon, contact Brad McAllister at [email protected].
You can also sign up with him through Facebook in the links to the right, and at http://www.chattanooga.gov/ChattanoogaGreen/ChattanoogaGreen
_CGC_GetInvolved.htm
But while you're here, check out our slide show of the Chattanooga-area's low-maintenance, sustainable yards, the good, and the bad.
The photos were mainly taken from the street.
We also added some attractive non-local examples of no-mow, low-maintenance gardens, as well as city plantings in Renaissance Park.
Despite the grass-intensive lawn policy here in Chattanooga, the concept of a meadow, even a yard full of plants instead of grass, is not unusual around town.
Nor, apparently, is landscaping with kudzu in the front yard, or having a vegetable garden.
There's a wide variety of gardening tastes and work ethics. However, low-maintenance yards can be very attractive.
For example, on Signal and Lookout mountains, and in the Fairview area, having a lawn comprised solely of native Appalachian woodland plants, is common, with no grass, ornamental plants or structural landscaping devices.
Many Chattanoogans aspire to that look, especially those of us with steep and uneven slopes in poor soil or light conditions.
The sustainable gardening techniques used on the mountains and in Fairview, would lower our use of gas, oil, water, pesticides, fertilizer, herbicides, labor, etc.
The city's formative EcoLandscaping Committee is discussing under what circumstances you can landscape your property sustainably. It's members are expected to issue recommendations to the City Council soon.
Please feel free to send Sustainable Chattanooga your own examples of low-maintenance gardening.
The members of Sustainable Chattanooga are dedicated to promoting sustainable landscaping, construction and city planning in Chattanooga. Join us! Our group includes experts in landscaping, gardening, construction, engineering, conservationism, journalism, and photography, as well as residents, who are actively engaged in sustainable practices.
