Photo courtesy the Tree Doctor.

The arborvitaes above have been damaged by drought, but don’t wait until your trees look like that to take action. Our spring has been dry enough that you should already be watering your trees, especially young trees and old trees, said Jeremy P. Sayers, president of the Tree Doctor and a board-certified master arborist.

Conditions in 2013 are already dry

We all remember last summer’s drought, but you may not realize that we’ve been experiencing dry conditions for 20 years now, said Sayers. Check out these maps at the U.S. Drought Monitor  that show dry or drought conditions going back to 1999– You may be surprised at how how many dry periods we have experienced in Western New York. This year is starting out dry, too.

“We’re averaging less rainfall than is considered normal and healthy for trees,” Sayers said.

Over the winter, our precipitation was only 65 percent of what we normally receive, and the dry winter impacts the amount of water available to trees in the spring.

Spring is a crucial time for trees because they need lots and lots of nutrients because they’re expending lots and lots of energy putting out leaves, Sayers explained.

A burning bush shows damage from lack of water. Photo courtesy the Tree Doctor.

Making matters worse, we have had a dry spring, too. At the beginning of May you could see cracked earth in Western New York. This spring we’ve had a rain event once a week or once every other week and that’s not enough, he said. Two or three nights a week we should get 1/4 inch or more of rain. At least the cooler temperatures we had in April and earlier in May helped keep moisture in the ground.

In general, we want a moderate amount of rain every few days over a long period of time, Sayers said. Instead, our rainfall has become more sporadic. And when we do get rain, it can be heavy, and heavy rain just makes things worse.

Heavy rain can run off rather than soaking into the soil. Heavy rains can also flood areas, so you have several inches of standing water in your yard. When the soil gets super saturated like this, air is forced out of the soil. The result is that trees can’t absorb nutrients or release gasses.

“Too much rain is as bad as not enough rain,” he said, adding that drought followed by heavy rain is just a bad situation on top of a bad situation.

These weather patterns with drier conditions and more fluctuations in weather are part of the new normal for Western New York, he said.

What are the symptoms of drought stress?

While there are ways that a tree can show you it’s thirsty, a tree can also be suffering from drought stress without showing any symptoms at all.

When trees don’t get enough water, the fine hairs in the root system die. With damaged roots, the tree can’t draw up nutrients.

The tree can live off stored energy and look fine for now, he explained, but the tree may fail one or two years down the road.

When a tree does exhibit symptoms of drought stress, those symptoms can include curling leaves, leaves with burnt edges, wilting leaves and premature dropping of leaves, especially interior leaves.

These symptoms could be signs of other problems, such as insect damage. However, that could be tied back to drought stress, too, because drought stress can leave trees more vulnerable to insect damage.

What should you do about drought-stressed trees?

To keep your trees healthy, water them.

“People should already be irrigating this year,” Sayers said.

The rule of thumb is that if you have gone three days without a good, soaking rain, you should irrigate, he said.

He noted that sprinkler systems are fine for grass but they’re not great for trees because they don’t allow enough water to soak deep into the soil.

Trees need moisture four inches below the sod. That’s not four inches from the top of the grass; that’s four inches from the bottom of the grass roots.

For deeper watering, take the nozzle off your hose and run the water at moderate speed. Soak the root zone of the tree. You can also use a soaker hose.

How do you know if you’re watering effectively? Dig a hole four inches below the sod. If the soil is damp, you’re in good shape, Sayers said. If it’s powdery dry, you’re not getting enough moisture into the soil to help the trees.

Remember that much of the water will be absorbed by the roots at or beyond the drip line, not at the base of the trunk. The root system of a mature tree can spread out one to three times the width of the canopy, so that’s the most efficient area to give your trees a drink.

When it comes to newly planted or young trees that have yet to attain much of a canopy, water needs to be applied closer to the trunk area. New trees need more water than established trees. As the tree matures and the canopy spreads, widen the watering area. Once a tree is established, reduce the frequency of watering.

Get more tips on watering trees at the Tree Doctor website.

Fertilizing can help a drought-stressed tree, but you must use the right kind of fertilizer. You don’t want a high-nitrogen fertilizer that will encourage leaf growth, but a fertilizer that is high in potassium and phosphorous and will stimulate root growth, Sayers said.

The Tree Doctor has a new kind of fertilizer developed especially for drought-stressed trees. It helps the trees bounce back if they have already been damaged and makes them more drought tolerant, he said.

It must be applied by the company’s professionals, but it’s not as expensive as lawn fertilizing treatments, Sayers said. It costs $5 to $50, depending on the size of the tree. Since trees are expensive plants, it may be a good investment.

The fertilizer can be applied now through mid-June or in the fall.

You can contact Sayers at the Tree Doctor if your tree is showing symptoms of drought stress or disease, but he emphasizes that you should begin watering your trees before they begin to have problems.

“You can hire the greatest arborist in the world, but all that money goes right out the world if you don’t tend to the tree’s water needs,” Sayers said. “It’s like a person–You can give them the greatest medicine, but it’s not going to help if they’re not drinking fluids.”

Question #2: Can you save a rose that was damaged by bleach?
Here’s a question from Charlotte Luksic:
“I sprayed my roses with water and bleach. Is there anything I can do to save them? I had two bottles. The one was marked, so I thought the one I had was just soap and water– wrong. Very foolish mistake. I was using the soapy water to get rid of pesky bugs. So sad.”

Jeff Lokken is different. He embraces his canopy of trees. The result is a forest-like retreat from the noise of the city.

We visited Lokken last year during Garden Walk Buffalo at the home he shares with Rebecca Bish at 170 Prospect Ave., Buffalo. This year Garden Walk Buffalo will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, July 27 and 28.

“This was all grass 15 years ago,” he said as we looked around the yard. “It’s becoming more and more grassless.”

Many people have grassless yards, but the yards are generally filled with perennial flowers.

As you can see in the photos above, Lokken’s yard is filled mainly with trees and bushes. The ground is covered with wood chips and mulch to give it the feeling of a forest floor. This greatly decreases street noise and lends a feeling of calm to the yard.

The trees keep the house cool in the summer, as you would expect, but Lokken said that because they act as a wind break, they keep the house warmer in the winter, too.

Despite the many trees, there’s enough sun in one part of the yard to keep a huge butterfly bush happy. Above right you can see a butterfly visitor.

Lokken is growing figs, which you can see below left. You can do that in Western New York, but you’re supposed to bring the plants inside in the winter.

“I had them in a container, but I lacked the alacrity, constitution and room to put them inside,” Lokken said.

He has the fig plants in a garden bed that is next to the foundation of the house and near the house’s boiler. That helps to protect this marginal plant.

His worry-free attitude extends to the entire garden.

“We have two hunting dogs, so our backyard is very Darwinian,” he said. “Things have a 50 percent chance they’ll survive.”

The yard also features a lovely pond filled with 40 large fish. While some homeowners invest hundreds of dollars to buy koi,  Lokken stocked his pond much more cheaply. Fourteen years ago, he bought a dozen feeder goldish for 10 cents each. He also got some neat crayfish at a bait shop.

Tip: To overwinter the fish, make sure you have a bubbler to keep a hole open in the ice, he said. Decaying vegetation in the pond gives off gas that can create toxic buildup. A hole in the ice allows the gas to escape.

A bubbler will work well to keep the ice open– you don’t need a heater, he said. A heater costs $15 a month to run and a bubbler costs only 50 cents a month to run.

The National Garden Festival Directory & Open Gardens Guide is just $8 and gives you all the information you’ll need to plan trips to fabulous gardens that are open– for free!– to visitors on Thursdays or Fridays from June 27 through Aug. 2.

Nearly a quarter of the 85 Open Gardens are new this year, so even if you’ve visited Open Gardens before, you should do it again this year, noted Sally Cunningham, director of the National Garden Festival.

New clusters of Open Gardens are located in Lockport & Lewiston as well as in Holland & East Aurora, she said.

The Open Gardens are clustered into 12 groups: Niagara Trail, Northtowns West, Northtowns East, Buffalo– Delaware District, Buffalo– Parkside, Buffalo– Elmwood Village & Allentown, Buffalo– Cottage District & Kleinhans, South Buffalo, Lancaster, Hamburg, Southtowns Bouquet and East Aurora & Holland.

Cunningham noted that people enjoy visiting the Open Gardens on a girlfriends’ day out or on a date. She suggests seeing clusters of gardens in one area, having lunch, then moving on to another area.

In some ways, the Open Gardens are even better than garden walks. Some gardens are open later in the afternoon and into the evening when the weather might be cooler. The gardens won’t be as crowded as they might be during a garden walk. Plus, you have more dates to choose from, so you can go whenever it’s convenient for you.

In addition to the Open Gardens, the directory lists information on the garden walks, bus tours, educational events, the Buffalo-style Garden Art Sale, LEAF a Legacy Project, public gardens and other local events.

Proceeds from the sale support the National Garden Festival. You can  buy a digital download of the directory instantly online.

The print version of the Directory & Open Gardens Guide will be available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, May 25 at the Master Gardener plant sale at 1071 Amherst Street (between Delavan and Colvin), Buffalo.

The print version is also available at these locations:

• Mischler’s Florist and Greenhouses, 118 S Forest Road, Williamsville
• Lockwood’s Greenhouses, 4484 Clark Street, Hamburg
• Visit Buffalo Niagara Visitors Centers
• Market Arcade Building, 617 Main St., Buffalo
• Buffalo Niagara International Airport
• AAA offices throughout Western & Central New York
• Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy in Parkside Lodge, 84 Parkside Ave., Buffalo
• Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens Gift Shop, 2655 South Park Ave., Buffalo
• Queen City Garden Town Nursery, 4000 Harlem Road, Buffalo
• Everything Elmwood, 740 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo
• Omega 3 Restaurants at 739 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo and 4445 Main St, Buffalo
• Parkside Community Association Offices, 2318 Main Street, Buffalo
• Masterson’s Garden Center, 725 Olean Road, East Aurora
• Spring Lake Winery, 7373 Rochester Road, Lockport

Image courtesy National Garden Festival

Plant exchange at Audubon Center and Sanctuary in Jamestown in 2012. Photo courtesy Audubon Center and Sanctuary.

Plant exchanges set

Plant exchanges give you an opportunity to trade those extra plants you have in your garden for new varieties that you don’t already have. (I got my first sunchoke at a plant exchange.) If you’re a beginning gardener and don’t have plants to trade, you can still participate in these two plant exchanges.

The Samuel P. Capen Garden Walk will hold a plant and seed exchange from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, June 1 at the University Community Farmers Market, Main Street at Kenmore Avenue, Buffalo.

There is no cost to participate and you do not need to bring a plant in order to take one. Plant and seed donations are happily accepted.

The Audubon Center and Sanctuary will hold its annual plant exchange and sale from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 18, at the center, 1600 Riverside Road, one-quarter mile east of Route 62 between Jamestown, NY and Warren, PA.

Take plants in pots (no plastic bags) or take money, and exchange or buy plants.

Please label the plant with the name of the plant, sun/shade preference and the color, if you know that information. Audubon reserves the right to refuse invasive or ill-looking plants.

Plants are priced based on condition, species and size. Donations from local nurseries provide some in-demand plants; those will be cash only. Plants donated by individuals are available for exchange.

Past years have showcased heirloom vegetables, shrubs, perennials, annuals, butterfly plants and more. A special for this year is a pollinator seed mix developed by Audubon to attract and support the pollinators in your yard. There will also be information and displays on pollinator gardens and other eco-friendly gardens.

If you are interested only in donating, plants can be dropped off at the Nature Center on Thursday or Friday, May 16 or 17. If you are interested in volunteering, Audubon can use volunteers on Friday, May 17 and Saturday, May 18 for repotting, set up, answering questions and clean-up.

The plant exchange and sale benefits Audubon’s gardens. To volunteer or for more information, call Audubon teacher/naturalist Sarah Hatfield at (716) 569-2345.

Many gardening groups are holding plant sales at this time of year, too. Check out our Upcoming Events Page to stay on top of all the local gardening events.

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Can fresh pine chips be used on a garden?

Sometimes readers contact me with questions that I can’t answer. I’m not a gardening expert– I’m a writer by profession. I interview knowledgeable people in order to provide you with great articles on Buffalo-NiagaraGardening.com.

So when someone asks a question I can’t answer, I post the question and rely on my readers to share their expertise. If you have advice for Dorothy, please leave a comment below. If you want to know the answer to this question, check back later to read the comments.

Sending a question to me to post can be helpful if you’re looking for a wide range of opinions and don’t mind waiting for the answer. If you want to try this route, email the question to me at connie@buffaloniagaragardening.com and I’ll pose it to my readers in an upcoming issue.

A more efficient route for getting your questions answered is to turn to Master Gardeners with Cornell Cooperative Extension or to turn to your local garden center.

For Master Gardeners at Cornell Cooperative Extension Erie County, call (716) 652-5400 from 9 a.m. to noon weekdays or email them at mgeriecce@gmail.com. For Chautauqua County, email your question to CCEMGCC@gmail.com; call the Helpline at (716) 664-9502, ext 224, or stop in to the Ag Center, 3542 Turner Rd., Jamestown,  from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays.

There are helpful Cornell Cooperative Extension offices in other counties, too. Find contact information here for your county’s Cooperative Extension office.

The shops that support this magazine have very knowledgeable staff. Click on an ad and you’ll be taken to their website or Facebook page to get their hours, address and other important information.

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Thought for the day

“Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot to put a soul into.”

Henry Ward Beecher, social reformer and abolitionist

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Yes, you can just visit our website to get tips about gardening that really work in Western New York. But when you subscribe, you get notified every time new content is posted. That way, you don’t miss a thing! All we need is your email address and Zip Code.

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Blueberry ‘Top Hat’. Photo courtesy of W. Atlee Burpee & Co.

You don’t need a lot of space to grow fruit bushes or even fruit trees. New varieties have been developed to be smaller, more compact and more attractive in the landscape, according to Fred Safford, who is in charge of trees and shrubs at Lockwood’s Greenhouses.

‘Raspberry Shortcake’ raspberry. Photo courtesy Monrovia.

Safford will discuss how you can grow your own fruit and berries at home in a class at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, May 19 at Lockwood’s, 4484 Clark Street, Hamburg.

He will explain how to grow blueberries, raspberries and goji berries, as well as pear, apple and peach trees.

The cost of the class is $10. There will be special one-day pricing on all plants covered in the lecture. You can sign up online.

Fruit bushes that have been developed to grow well in containers include blueberries and raspberries. The Top Hat blueberry, seen at the beginning of this article, can be grown in a pot on your patio, he said. It’s self-pollinating, so you don’t need to have two bushes in order to get fruit.

In the spring it produces beautiful white blossoms; in fall, the foliage turns a pretty glowing orange. The fruit is ideal for baking.

The ‘Raspberry Shortcake’ raspberry plant, seen above left, doesn’t get lanky canes like other raspberry bushes do, Safford said. It is shorter, fuller and denser. You can grow ‘Raspberry Shortcake’ in a container or you can plant it in your landscape.

Even though these are food plants, don’t relegate them to a corner vegetable patch. They’re lovely enough to mix in with your flowers.

“You can put them in your front yard,” he said. “They’re attractive.”

Another more compact fruit plant is a cherry bush. The fruit is easier to pick than when it’s on a cherry tree, Safford noted. The bush is vase shaped and grows 5 to 6 feet tall and 4 to 5 feet wide.

A fruit tree well suited to containers is the columnar apple tree. It doesn’t branch out; it grows straight up.

Above right is a columnar apple growing in a pot placed on the driveway of Walter Kozlowski, who also grows a peach tree in a garbage can. We saw his container plantings during the Black Rock & Riverside Tour of Gardens in August 2012.

‘Sweet Lifeberry’ goji berry. Photo courtesy Proven Winners.

In addition to fruit plants that grow in containers, Lockwood’s also looks for plants that are new, unusual or hard to find, Safford said.

One example is the goji berry, which you can see at left.

“It’s called one of the most nutritionally dense foods on the planet,” Safford said. “It’s very high in antioxidants.”

Goji berries grow on a shrub that gets 6 feet tall.  ‘Sweet Lifeberry’ is a new variety that is sweeter than the traditional goji berry.

Think beyond tomatoes and peppers as you plan your summer garden. New varieties of fruit plants can be attractive in your landscape while providing delicious and nutritious food.

It may look like a pretty flower, but you should dig up and get rid of this invasive plant called lesser celandine. Photo courtesy Mike Fabrizio.

Mike Fabrizio, a reader, recently sent along this photo and asked this question:

“Just wondering what this weed is called and how to treat it on my lawn. Thanks!”

This particular plant has special interest for me because it is growing in my neighborhood. When I first noticed it growing on my neighbor’s lawn a few years ago, I thought about  digging some up and planting it my garden because the flowers are so pretty. But I hesitated– If that plant just showed up in the lawn, maybe it’s invasive, I thought.

Boy, am I glad I reconsidered and didn’t encourage this plant!

The short answer to Fabrizio’s question is that the plant in the photo is lesser celandine. Dig it up and get rid of it. It’s bad for your lawn and it’s bad for the environment.

Carol Ann Harlos, coordinator of Master Gardeners in Erie County, knows a lot about lesser celandine and shared information with me that she had prepared for Master Gardeners.

Lesser celandine grows close to the ground, she said. It has heart-shaped leaves and shiny yellow flowers that resemble buttercups.

The plant’s Latin name is Ranunculus ficaria. Ranunculus is Latin for “little frog,” and it got that name because it emerges anywhere from March through the month of May, when one can often hears frogs and toads, Harlos said. She added a bit of folklore: Lesser celandine was also called “pilewort” because it was used to treat piles, more properly known as hemorrhoids.

Lesser celandine is an ephemeral ground cover, which means that after the plant blooms, the entire plant seems to disappear, she said. The tubers or underground stems of lesser celandine wait until late in the winter when they gradually wake, send up new leaves and begin the cycle all over again.

This plant also reproduces by achenes, which are tiny, dry, one-seeded fruits that are spread by birds.

If you have lesser celandine now, next year you will see more of these plants, Harlos said. Their rosettes will be everywhere– in your gardens, your neighbors’ gardens, in your perennial gardens, in your grass.

That’s a problem because lesser celandine, which originated in Europe and Asia, competes with native species in North America.

How does it do this? Lesser celandine completes its life cycle early and thus shades out and steals nutrients from native species in the spring. It does this by getting there first, before bloodroot, trout lily, Dutchman’s breeches, and other ephemerals emerge.

This is a problem not just for your garden or lawn, but for natural spaces, Harolos pointed out.

Birds spread the seeds into forests and other uncultivated places. Lesser celandine will crowd out the native plants.

“Please dig up lesser celandine and get every last piece,” she said. “I know this plant is attractive, but good gardeners must realize that no garden lives in isolation from the rest of the world.”

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Get your questions answered by Master Gardeners or experts at garden centers

When you have gardening questions, you can call the Master Gardeners with Cornell Cooperative Extension.  For Cornell Cooperative Extension Erie County, call (716) 652-5400 from 9 a.m. to noon weekdays or email them at mgeriecce@gmail.com. For Chautauqua County, email your question to CCEMGCC@gmail.com; call the Helpline at (716) 664-9502, ext 224, or stop in to the Ag Center, 3542 Turner Rd., Jamestown,  from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays.

There are helpful Cornell Cooperative Extension offices in other counties, too. Find contact information here for your county’s Cooperative Extension office.

You can also stop at a garden center to get great information. Check out our advertisers, click on their ad and you’ll be taken to their website or Facebook page to get their hours, address and other important information.

Sometimes readers contact me with questions, but I’m not a gardening expert. Turning to Cornell Cooperative Extension or your local garden center is probably the most efficient route for getting your questions answered.

Occasionally I post questions from readers in the hopes that another reader will leave a comment with helpful information. This can be helpful if you’re looking for a wide range of opinions and don’t mind waiting until the question is posted and people respond. If you want to try this route, email the question to me at connie@buffaloniagaragardening.com and I’ll pose it to my readers in an upcoming issue.

Sunchoke or Jerusalem artichoke. Photo by Connie Oswald Stofko.

Surprise– I have sunchokes to share

Normally I don’t share sunchokes until fall when the tubers are ready to harvest.

But I happen to have a few plants popping up in a spot where I’ve decided to plant something else this year, so they all have to find new homes.

I am offering the plants for free, but I don’t want to mail them. If you’d like one, you must arrange to pick it up at my house– I’m in the Eggertsville section of Amherst. You can come in person or send a friend who lives nearby.

Email me at connie@buffaloniagaragardening.com if you’re interested and we’ll make arrangements.

If you haven’t heard of them, sunchokes, also called Jerusalem artichokes, are the coolest plants ever. You can read more about sunchokes here.

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Celery planted in container outside. Photo by Connie Oswald Stofko.

Celery update: The plants are outside

In an earlier article, I told you how to start a celery plant using the leftover celery stump.

The problem I ran into was that I rooted the celery during winter and it too cold to move the plant outside. Even at my sunniest window, the plant died.

I started rooting some more stumps at the beginning of April. This weekend I transplanted them into a huge pot outside. I hope they will continue to grow. I’ll keep you posted.

I’ve also planted lettuce and spinach seeds in the container, so no matter what happens, I should get some vegetables.

Has anyone else tried starting celery plants from the stump? How is it working for you? Please leave a comment.

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Photo courtesy of Mischler’s Florist and Greenhouses.

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People often ask me how I can offer all the great gardening information on Buffalo-NiagaraGardening.com for free.

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Central Terminal with sunflowers. Photo courtesy K. McCormick.

“The National Garden Festival in Buffalo has been known all along for its gardens and beautiful flowers,” said Mary Van Vorst, but she and other organizers have felt that there should be more attention paid to the environment and green movement.

That’s why this year you’ll see a new feature as part of the festival: the Beyond Flowers bus tour to be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3.

PUSH community garden. Photo courtesy of PUSH.

It’s a little bit different than the other bus tours offered as part of the National Garden Festival. Instead of a luxury motorcoach, you’ll ride aboard a yellow school bus.

At $30 per person, it’s less expensive, too. Lunch is still included.

The tour starts and ends at the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus parking lot, 589 Ellicott St. at Goodell, Buffalo, where you’ll learn how a relatively narrow strip of vegetation at the end of the four-acre parking lot can divert 4 million gallons of storm water annually from Buffalo’s sewer system.

The other stops will be at the Massachuetts Avenue Project tilapia farm and compost operation;  PUSH’s new environmentally conscious park and playground and PUSH’s community gardens; the Outer Harbor Parcel including wind sculptures and a natural playground; Riverfest Park on Ohio Street; lunch at Mutual Riverfront Park on Hamburg Street, which has a wonderful view of the world famous grain elevators; an urban habitat at the Buffalo Central Terminal site, and gardens built on the roof of the Broadway Market parking garage.

At each stop, representatives of that community project will be on hand to explain the details of the project.

The folks coordinating the Beyond Flowers tour are Van Vorst, Peggy Dryden and Craig Coyne, who had previously organized the Open Gardens for the National Garden Festival. They are joined by two new members: Jeff Leyonmark, who shared his garden with our readers in 2011, and Neil Carroll.

Outer Harbor Parcel. Photo courtesy of D. Gowen.

The tour focuses on two things: a healthy community and a healthy environment, Van Vorst said.

“Each of the sites addresses these in different ways, but it always comes back to a healthy community and a healthy environment,” she said. “We address it on a very grand scale at the outer harbor.”

The Outer Harbor Parcel is a section of waterfront property along Fuhrmann Boulevard that was a brownfield– garbage was dumped there for decades, Van Vorst said. Now that land is being reclaimed and a natural playground is scheduled to be open by Memorial Day.

Despite Buffalo’s location directly on Lake Erie and the Niagara River, people don’t have much access to the water. We celebrate the Erie Basin Marina, Van Vorst said, but that’s just a tiny spit of land.

“Now we can watch as waterfront property is reclaimed,” she said. “We need to promote the positive things that are important to us. We don’t do it often enough.”

Broadway Market rooftop gardens. Photo courtesy P. Mangus.

Mutual Riverfront Park on Hamburg Street, which opened last year, has a spectacular view of the grain elevators and access to the water. Riverfest Park on Ohio Street opened a couple years ago.

You can visit these public places any time (and you should!), but on the tour you’ll learn how they were reclaimed.

“The educational component for this is huge,” she said.

Other sites on the tour help build healthy communities in other ways. At the rooftop garden at the Broadway Market, anybody in the neighborhood can plant anything they want.

“People tend to take care of one another’s plots,” she noted.

Then there are the PUSH community gardens on the West Side that help many residents, including refugees, who can grow some of the foods they used to grow in their native country.

“It allows people to meet people that they might not otherwise run into,” Van Vorst said, and that helps build communities. “It keeps circling back to that for me. We’ve neglected both these things (healthy communities and healthy environment) for a lot of years.”

At the Central Terminal, you’ll learn how sunflowers can help clean the soil.

Massachusetts Avenue Project tilapia farm. Photo courtesy of Massachusetts Avenue Project.

The tilapia farm at the Massachusetts Avenue Project is especially intriguing– The plants and fish feed each other. Water from the fish pond is used to irrigate the plants. The fish excrement in the water fertilizes the the plants. The soil filters out fish excrement, then clean water is returned to the pond.

“It’s a modest operation, but the benefits and implications are big,” Van Vorst said.

There are only 41 seats available for this tour. The registration form was just activated a couple days ago and people have have already signed up, Van Vorst said, so if this tour interests you, don’t wait until the last minute or you may be disappointed.