From Australia to Ontario, cities are taking up unnecessary stretches of concrete and asphalt, allowing nature to take hold in their place.
  • Track_ShovelEnglish
    40•9 months ago

    This is a really good idea. That said, depaving is not easy. Anything paved will have compaction issues and lack any sort of organic matter. On top of that you need to check for contaminants.

    The crux of getting the movement going is this:

    Without planning and private land owner buy in it’s hard to get rolling.

    E: someone ask me how I would go about this all - fair warning I’m a mega nerd on this stuff

    • @[email protected]
      4•9 months ago

      That last point about investment is key. This is a great idea, but without continuous maintenance the risk is that any planted areas get overgrown, damaged etc. Still a great idea, though and I’d still prefer to see some weeds and grass than more tarmac, tbh.

      • Track_ShovelEnglish
        5•9 months ago

        continuous maintenance

        Not necessarily. If you get your revegetation prescription and seeding/planting rate right, you can be maintenance free relatively soon, with ‘on-demand’ maintenance required only if you get a bunch of noxious weeds starting to creep in.

  • @[email protected]
    9•9 months ago

    We’ve done this to a point in Montreal (parts of alleyways that were deemed unnecessary were de-paved, and small plants planted there. We don’t grow food there, but it looks nice, reduces traffic in alleyways and should help have less paved surfaces for heat in hot summer days.