10,000 sunflowers sucking up heavy metals in St Louis

On a long-abandoned lot in St. Louis’ near north side, 10,000 sunflowers are sucking up the heavy metals that have helped stall development there http://ht.ly/EjK4F

The project is called Sunflower+. It’s one of the winners of St. Louis’ inaugural “Sustainable Land Lab” competition, which was organized by Washington University in St. Louis and city officials. Over the next two years, the design team will cultivate and harvest four rotations of summer sunflowers and winter wheat on the vacant lot, hopefully preparing it for redevelopment in the future.

November 27, 2014 | Categories: Best Management Practice, BMP, Green Infrastructure, Green Space, Groundwater, Innovation, Landscape Maintenance, Local, Public Works, Soil Food Web, Stormwater, Stormwater Quality, Sustainability, Urban Planning, Water, Water Pollution, Watershed | Tags: City, Community Garden, compost, Environment, garden, Gardening, Green Infrastructure, Heavy Metals, Landscape, Landscape Maintenance, Landscaping, Renewable, St. Louis, Stormwater, Stormwater Quality, Sunflower+, Sunflowers, Sustainability, Sustainable Land Lab, Urban planning, Urban Stormwater, Washington University, Winter Wheat | Leave a comment