christopher carl | tread garden
DESCRIPTION
Phytoremediation garden | Grand Prize Selection for Critical Mass Homegrown Raingarden Competition St. Louis, Mo.TRANSCRIPT
TREAD GARDEN | Grand Prize Selection Critical Mass Homegrown Raingarden Challenge
lafayette avenue
26 ft.
tReaD GaRDen is located at the southern terminus of 18th street; parallel with lafayette ave. The garden design encompasses the entire 140’ “bump-out” with a swale that flows east to west. Inserted into the swale is series of check dams and catchment areas. Tire-tread patterning is the graphic starting point from which 3D form is created. A sculptural lattice is built from gabion baskets and mats filled with rip rap. The lattice creates boundaries and enclosures for planting areas. The planting plan would be dominated by equisetum, a structurally intersting and primitive plant which is useful as a phytoremediator.
cuRb cut | WateR Inlet fROM lafayette ave.
WateR flOW tHROuGH GaRDen
PHytOReMeDIatIOn fIlteR netWORK
TREAD GARDEN
1600 SQ. ft
GaRDen lOcatIOn 18tH anD lafayette ave
26 ft.PHytOReMeDIatIOn fIlteR netWORK
PHytOReMeDIatIOn Phytoremediation is the use of plants to remove pollutants from the environment. Equisetum hymale and its close relative Equisetum Averense are known to perform well for this purpose. Tread Garden’s connection to Lafayette Ave. creates the opportunity to capture road runoff and direct it through a pollutant filtering network of equisetum.
TREAD GARDEN FULL SUN
OveRflOW Inlet
GaRDen lOcatIOn 18tH anD lafayette ave
EQUISETUM HYEMALE | scouring rush characteristics
natIve Equisetum hymale or Scouring Rush is native to Missouri, the North American continent, and varieties occur throughout the world. “The horsetails are closely related to ferns and both were common during the Carboniferous period (280-345 million years ago), when tree-sized horsetails and ferns occurred. The coal deposits of Illinois were formed in large part from the ancestral plants of today’s horsetails and ferns.” - John Hilty, http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info
GabIOn baSKet
cROSS SectIOn Of eQuISetuM fIlteR
cOMPOSt | tOP SOIl
ORanGe lanDScaPe MeSH
lafayette ave
WateR PeRMeable lanDScaPe fabRIc
CHRISTOPHER CARL