The Providential Gardener

The Mannahatta Project ~ and, Perhaps, The Mooshausic Project?

The New Yorker Magazine's October 1, 2007, issue has a wonderful article, The Mannahatta Project: What did New York look like before we arrived? Work is underway to develop views of the lay of the land, the ponds and springs, and the vegetation of the island of Manhattan as accurately as possible ~ "down to the varieties of moss."

The Mannahatta Project is lead by Eric Sanderson, a landscape ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society. The project has two phases:

• Establish geographical models for Manhattan based on historical records, descriptions, and maps.
• Outreach and public education through posting of signs around the city explaining the natural history of, say Times Square, "to help New Yorkers learn about their forgotten, wild past."

The project will be one highlight of the 400th anniversary celebration of New York City in 2009.

Reading the article made me wonder what the original name of Providence was. It is not mentioned in most recent Rhode Island histories I have at hand here. A little web research, plus a little knowledge of the geographic characteristics of the land where the first English settlement was (i.e., North Main Street just south of Smith Street) indicates it would have been called by the name of the river that entered The Great Salt Cove, the Mosshasuck, which means "Great brook in the marshy meadow; great fish; meadow." Providence was Mooshausic in a document quoted in The History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, p. 115, by Thomas Bicknell in 1920. This first settlement was at a crossroads of what are now Routes 1, 6, and 44, and it was not inhabited by Narragansetts, I believe, but was used as a meeting place for trading among different tribes in the area. If anyone has more accurate historical information, I'd be happy to have corrections.

Now, if you have ever wandered around downtown Providence, especially on a Waterfire night, you may realize that we have already compiled similar research for what Providence looked like before the English arrived. In the passage under Memorial Boulevard, between Waterplace and the plaza where Union Station Brewery is, the walls have several maps of how the city used to be. In fact, the Mall is sitting in what once was The Great Salt Cove. Take a look at them the next time you are at Waterfire (the next ones are October 6 and 27, 2007).

The New Yorker article has an accompanying slideshow of 11 renderings of such places as Tribeca, Murray Hill, Times Square, and the southern tip of Manhattan, which was originally much smaller than it is today. Boy, did people move a lot of earth around, and probably mostly with horses or oxen and carts.

Providence already has its posted historical illustrations, for instance, of the ford over the Providence River at Weybosset (which means "narrow place or crossing" in Algonquin). You'll see several of these posters on downtown bridges in the Waterfire area. Stop and think about them. 

It's probably a deep-set Rhode Island trait to try to see everything "the way it used to be." I always find it intriguing to imagine how quiet the land once was, but how difficult it must have been to live here; and what vistas there were, and how the landfill wasn't visible from Providence once upon a time (which it now is, folks)! Maybe some creative ones among us will learn from the Mannahatta Project how to do a full-blown Mooshausic Project to help Rhode Islanders understand our state's ecology and our place in it. 

Landscape Institute and Other Arnold Arboretum Programs

Word comes today from Sanne Kure-Jensen, a landscape designer and consultant in Portsmouth, of the summer landscape design courses being offered by Arnold Arboretum beginning in July. The Landscape Institute, which is appropriately located on Garden Street in Cambridge and not at Arnold Arboretum itself, offers certificate programs, and because it is only about an hour away from Providence, adventurous Rhode Islanders may want to investigate their course offerings and take some courses or earn a certificate.

Arnold Arboretum, located in Boston's Roslindale, is well worth exploring. They also have an adult education program, a "Field studies for children" program, and family activities.

This post is about Arnold Arboretum, but several Rhode Island organizations offer similar programs as well. Look through the long list of organizations in the Providential Gardener's side bar and the list of Events links for Rhode Island groups.  Blithewold in Bristol, for instance, offers an extensive range of similar activities. 

Thanks, Sanne, for this info! The Providential Gardener welcomes all news and updates about what's "growing on" in and near Rhode Island. Any Rhode Island groups offering similar activities ~ add my email to your distribution list!

Something Old, Something Green

Sustainability was a major theme at the 22nd Annual Rhode Island Statewide Historic Preservation Conference, held in Pawtucket on Saturday, April 14, 2007. The session on Sustainable Historic Landscapes especially interested the Providential Gardener. What a privilege it must be to work on Boston's Emerald Necklace, Westerly's Wilcox Park, and a village walkway in Guilford, CT.  Landscape architects with such assignments described recent plans and developments for these public spaces, which present many challenges that taxpayers and visitors don't usually consider.

Everyone stressed Maintenance. After all, that is the old-fashioned word that determines Sustainability. If a landscape has plants that will both thrive without much human intervention and also behave themselves, it is much easier and significantly less expensive and time consuming to keep things looking nice and neat. By working with the maintenance staff before and during a project, landscape designers learn what can realistically be expected, given the actual maintenance budget, from the people who have the ongoing care of their garden visions.

Issues include:

National Invasive Weed Awareness Week

February 25 through March 2 is National Invasive Weed Awareness Week, which is being observed at the United States Botanic Garden Conservatory, and the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior in Washington by a series of meetings and a conference, in fact, the 8th annual such conference. We missed the deadline for the conference, which was February 1st, but check out their activities anyway. Groups involved in this are the Federal Interagency Committee for the Management of Noxious and Exotic Weeds, the National Invasive Species Council, and the Invasive Weeds Awareness Coalition. Some of the events are open to the public. Other background on federal efforts to control invasives, see the Union of Concerned Scientists' Invasive Species page.

Campus Farms ~ A Growing Trend

Colleges and universities are sprouting farms left and right, and I hear that Brown students are hard at work on plans to create a Brown Campus Farm very near the East Side campus in Providence. There is considerable interest in this enterprise, which is rooted in the Sustainable Food Initiative at Brown. For background, see the current article in the Brown Daily Herald, "Organizers cooking up more local food offerings," (October 27, 2006). Also check out these links to the Yale Sustainable Food Project and the Middleburgy Organic Garden.

Planting Peace

Next Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai will speak at the Boston Urban Forest Coalition (BUFC), the first environmentalist and first African woman, to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She will speak about "empowerment and hope for the future through the simple steps of planting and protecting trees in our communities" at Boston's Faneuil Hall, 7:30 pm. General Admission: $75, VIP Reception and Ticket $175. Let's look for news of this event. Perhaps the tickets are already sold out.

Gardening Blogs

There are probably many wonderful Gardening blogs out there besides Rhode Island's Earth Friendly Gardening and this blog, The Providential Gardener, and I'd love to hear of your favorites. While on the Town & Country Tour of the RI Wild Plant Society a couple of weekends ago, I heard of Amy Stewart's blog, Dirt. I was checking it out this evening ~ it has just moved to Typepad ~ and I'm adding it to my BlogRoll ~ blogs that I read frequently related to The Providential Gardener. Get down to Dirt! Note also that Earth Friendly Gardening has a BlogRoll of Gardening blogs in the right-hand column.

P.S. Especially remind me or tell me about Rhode Island blogs in the scope of the Providential Gardener! Many thanks!

Rhode Island Watershed Restoration Projects

They say to follow the money, which is always a good idea, but I also follow the links. Yesterday I got an email newsletter, The Runoff Rundown, from The Center for Watershed Protection (CWP), located in Maryland, but with a national agenda. Usually I will skip the national groups and focus only on Rhode Island activities, but I found some Rhode Island information through this newsletter that I want to share, a list of Watershed Restoration Projects in the works in Rhode Island.

North Burial Ground in Providence Could Use Some Friends...

Why can't Providence's North Burial Ground look more like Mount Auburn Cemetery? That was the question for several of us who recently traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts to walk the paths and note the use of space, the stunning variety of trees and plantings, and the mulch and groundcovers protecting the most vulnerable trees such as the beeches. We talked about how great it would be to have a Friends of North Burial Ground, modeled after the Mount Auburn Cemetery Friends. Mount Auburn has many famous people interred there, but so does North Burial Ground, which is 131 years older than Mount Auburn, dating back to 1700. John Sterling's North Burial Ground, Providence, Rhode Island Old Section 1700-1848, lists names recorded on the actual gravestones in the original section of the burial ground. The book is available in many Rhode Island libraries as well as the Rhode Island Historical Society Library. We could have tours, maps, informational pamphlets, and more people to help plant trees and maintain the cemetery. At least one Brown University course has taken a field trip to North Burial Ground in the fall of 2004. All the oldest Providence families have ancestors buried there (e.g., the Brown Family, Dexter Family), some of Rochambeau's army who fell sick and died in Providence are buried there. It is a fascinating place for Rhode Island history and certainly deserves attention and care. So how about starting a Friends of North Burial Ground?

Rain Gardens

The [Chesapeake] Bay Weekly published a great article in 2002 about the benefits of rain gardens and how to create them. Even in droughts homes with rain gardens don't need to water. They clean the pollutants out of the water - the earth is a natural filter. The details are a little less rigid than the URI recommendations, but these gardens apparently work as well. Rain gardens are sprouting up all over the U.S. A Google search will probably turn up a lot more information.