After our last post about green roofs at the University of Ottawa, I got a lot of questions about why we can't have green roofs everywhere on campus. If the answer was simple, I wouldn't have to write a entire blog post about it... but since I am writing a post... you can probably take the hint that this is a bit more complicated then a yes/no kind of thing. As a quick reminder, the University has a design imperative in place that implies green roofs will be installed in any case where the building can take the weight without a new support system, that the building is still going to be around in 20 years, or if the roof wouldn't serve better as a place for solar panels. Photo credit - kingcounty.gov HOW MUCH CO2 COULD WE SEQUESTER? First thing people were asking me about was sequester CO2. If roofs can take carbon out of the air, why not do more of this? Of course all plants sequester CO2 but a green roof can't do as much as a tree and certainly not as much as a peat bo...

So I know a guy, well actually he is a friend. And if you need the sweet stuff, he's got you covered. Last year Vince decided to start an apiary. He did some online research, spoke to a couple of people, and decided to order up some equipment and get going. Fast forward to last week and there I am paying a visit to Vince's bees. I learned a couple of really interesting things about bees including one important thing that I didn't know: bees don't usually sting you unless you are directly in their flight path. (Also, they will attack you if you threaten them, try to kill them, or try to steal their honey, etc.) This was a profound moment for me because I have always wanted to have an apiary on campus. But of course whenever someone brings up the idea of an apiary in a dense urban space, the first thing that comes to mind is the dreaded bee sting. I watched Vince as he inspected the hive and added a bit of smoke to scare away some bees so he could open up the box...

A very interesting workshop organized by members of the Learning Garden took place on campus last Monday night : Wanted alive!  Appreciating and recognizing insects in the garden. First, I must confess: in everyday life, I simply abhor insects and bugs of all kinds. It's not very original, but spiders are really my worst nightmare. But hey, I still spent my evening in a workshop on insects and, what's even more amazing is that I really enjoyed it! The animator, Keith MacCallum, volunteer at the Learning Garden and 4th year student in biology at the University of Ottawa, first introduced us to various insects’ categories. We then went hunting in the gardens of the University! Here’s a little rundown of what I learned Monday: Nnative North American bees don’t produce honey at all and don’t even live in huge colonies. There's even one in the community gardens that made a hive for herself only!  The mystery of the wasp waist was also resolved last week: it allows the w...