Raised Beds Research Articles

Greening of historically formed recreation areas in small towns of Russia on the example of Udmurtia cities

The preservation and popularization of the historical environment of the city represents the involvement of open spaces in social turnover. The purpose of the work is to characterize the floral design of historically developed urban gardens and parks of Udmurtia cities: Izhevsk, Sarapul, Glazov, Votkinsk. A brief history of the studied objects of culture and recreation is presented. The most important component of the aesthetic appeal of gardens and parks is floral decoration. The emotional state of citizens depends on the quality and decorativeness of the floral decoration of recreation areas. 404 objects of floral decoration were examined using the route method. There are 15 types of floral decoration in the studied area. The features of the typical composition of floral decoration of gardens and parks of Udmurtia cities are noted. A brief description of the qualitative and decorative condition of flower beds is given. The disadvantages of floral design were revealed: poor quality care of plants, flower beds without using the laws of composition, abandoned flower beds of perennials. The positive side can be considered the extensive species composition of perennial flower and ornamental crops. In total, 98 species of ornamental herbaceous plants have been identified and identified in gardens and parks. Annual crops – 27 species, perennial – 71 species. Highly decorative flower beds are marked, only in gardens and parks of Izhevsk. There are 23% of flower beds in the Kirov Central Park and in the Summer Garden named after Gorky's 19% of flower beds have a high decorative rating (4 points). In second place are the flower beds of Glazov gardens and parks. The city parks of Sarapul and Votkinsk have remained at the level of previous decades in terms of their level of well-being, they need to be revitalized in accordance with new concepts of the organization of city parks. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time an assessment was given of the quality and decorativeness of the floral decoration of the historically formed recreation areas of the cities of Udmurtia.

Full vs. Empty

Full vs. Empty

Analysis of the Prospects of Perennial Herbaceous Plants in Urban Landscaping for Creating Sustainable Floral Compositions

The authors of the article considered a relevant problem of using perennial plants in landscaping Russian cities in connection with their unique climatic conditions, existing traditions in landscaping and bad environmental conditions. For the natural and climatic conditions of the forest-steppe zone of the Russian Federation, a selection of perennial flowering plants that are resistant to the urban environment according to the criteria of low maintenance, shade tolerance, drought resistance and undemanding soil fertility has been carried out. When choosing perennial plants, the preference was given to the representatives of the local flora, large in height and stable for a long time in decorativeness. In this case it is possible to use the developed assortment when creating sustainable floral compositions in cities, meeting modern requirements of aesthetics, environmental friendliness and economy of the landscape objects. The design projects developed by the authors provide with the creation of modular flower beds of round, triangular, square shapes in the form of mixborders combined of large-sized flowering plants that easily fit into any configuration of the existing flower garden and are assembled by rhythmic repetition of the modules or their combination.

Excess fertility in residential‐scale urban agriculture soils in two western Oregon cities, USA

AbstractSmall‐scale, residential food gardens are arguably the most common form of urban agriculture (UA) in the world. Despite their ubiquity, we know relatively little about the characteristics of UA soils, in general, and of residential food gardens specifically. We thus sampled soils from 27 residential‐scale vegetable gardens in two western Oregon cities to describe the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of residential‐scale UA soils. We distinguished growing sites by bed type: in‐ground beds (IGs) and raised beds (RBs). We assessed the proportion of soils that fell within published recommendations for vegetable production for various soil parameters. We found residential‐scale UA soils frequently exceeded recommended ranges for many fertility parameters. We also found differences in carbon/nitrogen ratio, active carbon, and sulfur, with RBs significantly higher than IGs. The excesses likely are due to routine overapplication of compost, soil amendments, and fertilizers by growers across their intensively managed urban spaces. Such overapplication and excess is likely to be exaggerated in RBs compared with IGs.

Integration of raised beds, mulching and stem training for weed management in tomato under mid-hill conditions of Himachal Pradesh

A field experiment was conducted at the Research Farm of Vegetable Science, DR YSPUHF, Nauni, Solan (HP), India to evaluate the effect of polythene mulches, planting methods and training systems on weed control and yield response of tomato crop. The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design with twelve treatments and replicated thrice. The consortium effect of raised bed (RB) + black polythene mulch (BPM) + two stem training have recorded less weed density (142.00/m2), greater weed control efficiency (64.64%), less fresh (82.00 g/m2) and dry weed biomass (13.00 g/m2) and higher yield (100.12 t/ha). The dominance of Cyperus rotundus, Echinochloa crus-galli and Galinsoga parviflora weed species was also less with the integration of raised bed, black polythene mulch and two stem training system. This practice helps in the tomato production with better water conservation; weed management and improved tomato yield under mid-hill conditions of Himachal Pradesh.

Моделирование движения воды во вращающихся дождевателях широкозахватных дождевальных машин

Russian and foreign researchers have accumulated considerable experience in the design of various types of sprinklers and sprayers working both on wide-cut irrigation equipment and when spilling flower beds and lawns. The choice of design parameters and modes of operation, as a rule, was based on experimental studies. The dependencies obtained on the basis of this were for specifi c operating conditions, operating modes and the design of the sprinklers themselves. Until that time, there was no generalized calculation methodology, and, consequently, clear recommendations on the applicability of sprinklers in various conditions. The purpose of the study is to simulate the movement of water in rotating sprinklers in order to optimize the design parameters and modes of their operation. The article simulates the process of interaction of the water flow with the elements of the sprinkler having a rotating deflector. The effect of fluid consumption on the size of the drops is presented. An increase in fluid flow leads to an increase in the median diameter of the droplets, which is explained by an increase in the thickness of the liquid film coming off the deflector. The density of irrigation can be adjusted by the width and number of grooves on the deflector, and the size of the irrigated surface by the height of the grooves and the angle of the solution. The trajectory of the grooves on the deflector has a signifi cant impact on the formation of the speed and flight path of water droplets. The analysis shows that water acquires the highest speed when leaving a rotating deflector having grooves of 3-5 mm in size with a fl ow rate of 2-3.5 l / s and small grooves of 1.5-2.5 mm, occupying the area of the entire deflector with a low flow rate of up to 2 l / s. The studies carried out made it possible to simulate the process of interaction of the water flow with the structural elements of the sprinkler and to develop a generalized method of calculation. The obtained dependencies and values of the given parameters were used in the design of the nomenclature series of sprinklers for wide-cut irrigation machines.

5G 무선국 전자파 강도의 측정지점 및 설치 높이별 결과분석

Since 5G services were commercialized in Korea in December 2018, concerns about electromagnetic waves have been spreading along with the increase in the number of base station equipment. Accordingly, this paper analyzed the Sub-6 GHz 5G (3.42 GHz to 3.7 GHz) electromagnetic intensity measurement data measured in the second half of 2020 divided into 12 sections (10 m units) from less than 0 m (underground, tunnel, etc.) to more than 100 m based on the total height of the building height and antenna installation table. Consequently, a total height of 50 m or less affects the electromagnetic wave intensity, but it is judged that the influence of the surrounding radio environment is greater afterwards, and the average measurements for each section are very low compared to the human protection standard. In addition, the maximum value of the measurement point was measured in the flower bed close to the antenna, and both the total height and the result value according to the measurement point were lower than the human protection standard.

Дифференциация приоритетных экосистемных услуг в зеленой инфраструктуре города Кировска Мурманской области

Various combinations of green infrastructure ecosystem services in Kirovsk (Murmansk Region), which included a city park and squares, are considered. These combinations differ depending on the local geoecological characteristics of green infrastructure elements. The following characteristics were considered: area, position in relief, nature of vegetation cover, surrounding residential areas, location of highways, etc. Depending on the combinations of these characteristics, priority sets of ecosystem services that form a comfortable living environment were determined. The traditional range of ecosystem services was typical only for the city park, where it included not only supporting, regulating, informational, but also provisioning ecosystem services—rare for urban green infrastructure. The identified combinations of ecosystem services were shown on the map. At the same time, the structure of information ecosystem services, which turned out to be among the priorities for most of the studied elements, was presented in detail using indexes. The conducted differentiation of ecosystem services enables to develop priority economic measures to maintain the most important ones that ensure comfortable living. For the city park, they include the largest list of activities: sanitary logging, removal of shrubby undergrowth, laying glades to enhance the aesthetics of landscapes and create viewpoints, laying ecological trails, etc. For small squares in the city center with priority information services, the first measure will be the arrangement of social space—lighting, benches, colorful flower beds, snow removal, etc. For squares with the priority of regulatory services management activities include the selection of wood species with the greatest noise and dust suppressing effect, windproof and anti-erosion functions.

Project Spotlight: Concrete flower bed springs from park along the Hudson

Little Island at Pier 55 uses precast concrete tulips manufactured by the Fort Miller Co. Inc. to create a new whimsical park in New York, N.Y. Because of their large size, the precast concrete pots were delivered by barge.

Mulching with almond hull and olive leaves for weed control in fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) and flower beds

Weeds are a major problem in cropping systems and in urban areas. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of organic mulching with olive leaves and almond hulls to control weeds in fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) and in flower beds (urban areas). A 3-cm thick layer of olive leaves or almond hulls was applied as mulching material in fennel. Control consisted of both an unmulched treatment and a weed free control. Moreover, in a flower bed of a railway station, plots mulched with 3 cm layer of olive leaves and almond hulls were compared with an unmulched treatment. Weed infestation was evaluated and the weights of the whole plant and of the marketable part of fennel (grumolo) measured. Mulching with olive leaves and almond hulls reduced weed infestation in both vegetable crop and flower beds. However, olive leaves reduced the weights of the whole plant and of the grumolo. The adoption of almond hulls and olive leaves as organic mulches could be an effective strategy for weed control. Further investigations should be carried out to assess whether the effectiveness of these mulching materials is mainly due to a mechanical activity or allelopathic compounds also play a significant role in weed suppression

Assessing the Adequacy of Aesthetic Nature and Maintenance of School Grounds of the Lagos State Public Schools: A Step Toward Sustainable Development

The purpose of this study was to assess the quality of aesthetic nature of school grounds of Lagos state public schools: a step toward sustainable development. Two research questions were raised for the study. Multi-stage sample was used, where forty-six schools were purposively selected from two districts to participate in the study. A descriptive survey design was adopted, and checklist and questionnaire were used to collect data. The reliability coefficients of the instruments were found to be 0.85 and 0.84. The findings show that Lagos State Junior Secondary Schools did not regard the major relevance of the aesthetic nature of school grounds, such as good quality hedges; walkways, flower beds, ornamental trees, grassed fields, car parks and assembly grounds, therefore they do not have quality aesthetic designs for school grounds. On how schools were maintained with regards to floods during the rainy season, results show that the following categories of these agents participated in controlling flood: 22 (48%) schools enjoyed government intervention; 13 (28%) schools made use of students to control flood and 11 (24%) enjoyed no assistance from any quarters. None of the schools received parents’ intervention. It was therefore recommended that government should ensure that school grounds should be given special attention and should be designed to add befitting attraction to the school environment.

Садовая терапия в ботаническом саду ВИЛАР: использование, возможности и проблемы

The results of studying the number of microorganisms in the air above various species of aromatic plants, elements of flower bed and landscaping in the VILAR botanical garden are presented. It is shown that there are less microorganisms in the air above a flower bed created from aromatic, medicinal and ornamental plants than in the air above the lawn by 1,4 times, and by 1,7–2,5 times than above the dirt and asphalt paths. The greatest antimicrobial effect was observed for Hyssopus officinalis L., Origanum vulgare L., Thymus serpyllum L. Due to the lack of specially trained personnel, mainly passive garden therapy is carried out.

Annual plants in the floral design of the exhibition areas of the National Dendrological Park "Sofiyivka" of NAS of Ukraine

Aim. The National Dendrological Park "Sofiyivka" of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine is an example of the tandem of nature and human creativity, where a significant place in the formation of landscapes belongs to floral design. It is one of the most colorful architectural and artistic elements of landscaping. The aim is to describe and to define the main features of flower beds of the Dendrological Park “Sofiyivka”, and to describe the range of annual plants used in flower arrangements. Methods. The study was conducted in the dendrological park during 2019-2021. Examples of flower design have been described according to the classification of flower beds by V. V. Pushkar. Latin names of plant species were given according to “The Plant List, 2013”. Results. The analysis of flower design in the dendrological park “Sofiyivka” using annual plants was carried out. The features of flower beds are clarified by: shape and location, duration of their existence, flowering period, location of plants in the vertical plane and the type of plant combination. Conclusions. Five exhibition areas in “Sofiyivka” park have been defined. They are decorated with 12 flower compositions. This floral design belongs to the landscape and regular type of planning.

A City of Promenades

Studying old maps showing the transformation of Mexico City can unveil possible footprints of historic facilities and utilities that have disappeared in the process of urban modernization. The objective of this exercise is to uncover the location of old structures of Pre-Hispanic and Colonial Mexico City as a basis for creating a new footprint of urban memory and identity. A city of promenades proposes the remembrance and use of public space, such as the recuperation of lost cultural and geographic landscapes. It takes the routes and paths, the aqueducts, the roads, the moats, the ramparts, the gates of the historic city and its connections to other villages, which now conform this great metropolitan area and it revives them in order to bring communities together. Inhabitants experience a sense of belonging to a meaningful place, while looking back to the past of a growing city. These paths will serve as initiators of projects and actions which will improve patterns of use and sense of identity, offering landmarks, establishing linear parks as connectors of different scales of existing parks and, through modern design, creating a rediscovered footprint of monuments, landscapes and infrastructures long gone. This proposal is an integral project for the Mexico City Metropolitan Area. It begins at the neighbourhood level and forms part of an urban park system; connecting the surrounding natural landscapes and woodlands, the urban parks, sports clubs, neighbourhood parks, squares, bridges, central reservations, sidewalks, tree and flower beds, chapels, rights of way, unused railways, roads, avenues, greenhouses, agricultural trails, cemeteries, brooks and waterways, ravines, canals, terraces, balconies, cloisters and convent patios, archeological sites and unbuilt urban block cores. The city of paths and strolls, of boulevards, of old roads to haciendas and convents, of dikes, gateways, old custom house gates, water fountains and springs, canals, causeways, watermills and aqueducts is an academic exercise with students and teachers to find a meaningful representation of the layers of history that builds a city and creates identity.

New variety of the Lychnis coronaria (L.) Murray Ex Desr. Malinovy Rassvet selected by FSBSI FSVC

Relevance and methodology. Lychnis coronaria is a perennial herbaceous plant with high decorative properties, with prolonged flowering in the second or third year of vegetation. The pubescent leaves form beautiful rosettes. The plant is undemanding to the growing conditions. The research material was the varietal population of Lychnis coronaria. The study was carried out in the open ground of the Moscow region (2014- 2021) on experimental plots of the flower crops sector of the FSBSI FSVC.Results. The most aligned form according to decorative features was identified – LC 1-21 with high seed productivity of inflorescences, decorative and winter hardiness. A variety testing and preliminary reproduction of a promising cultivar of Lychnis coronaria was carried out. This variety was transferred to the FSBI "State Export Commission" in 2021 under the name “Malinovy Rassvet”. Such signs as "plant height", "bush diameter", "number of ornamental shoots", "flower diameter" had a low or average variation value, which characterizes this sample as the most aligned. Thus, the cv. “Malinovy Rassvet” of Lychnis coronaria is recommended for cultivation and use for decorative purposes. The leaves and the bright color of the flowers provide a contrast to the perennial borders and flower beds. It looks good both in single and group plantings, as well as in cutting. It is grown as a short-lived perennial. The main advantages of the variety are the color fastness of flowers when burned out in the sun, resistance to diseases and pests, high seed productivity.

Morphological and biological features of species of the genus Echinacea Moench during introduction to the Southern coast of the Crimea

The paper presents the results of an introduction study of four species of the genus Echinacea Moench from the collection of aromatic and medical plants of the Nikitsky Botanical Garden: E. angustifolia DС. , E. pallida (Nutt.) Nutt. , E. tennesseensis (Breadle) Small and E. purpurea (L.) Moench. Morphological and biological features of these species were identified in order to determine the prospects of their cultivation in the conditions of the Southern Coast of the Crimea. A positive interspecific dependence of the number of inflorescences (baskets) on a plant with the length of the growing season (r=0.92) was established. An intraspecific assessment of the morphometry of inflorescences, such as their diameter, the length of the lingual flowers and the height of the flower bed, showed that E. purpurea has a tendency to negatively correlate these indicators with their number on the plant. Among the studied species of the genus Echinacea, according to the complex of thirteen morpho-biological and economically valuable traits, two species differ in adaptive advantage - these are E. purpurea and E. tennesseensis , and the best samples are No. 15309 and No. 6106 with an aboveground mass yield, respectively, 1.20±0.21 kg/plant and 0.92±0.19 kg/plant. E. pallida is characterized by cumulative signs of drought resistance, it is a short growing season equal to 124±4.1 days and a narrow-lanceolate leaf blade shape (index - 9.6), which allows this species to form a significant yield of aboveground mass (0.86±0.17 kg/plant) in the arid conditions of the subtropical climate of the Southern coast of the Crimea.

Water Quality Monitoring in Inle Lake, Myanmar from the Floating Garden Activity

Inle Lake is the second largest inland lake in Myanmar. Floating gardens, mostly for tomato cultivation, are a unique and profitable method of agriculture used by people living on and around the lake. This study investigated the water quality of Inle Lake and how it has been affected by the different agricultural practices used in tomato cultivation on floating garden beds, by measuring pollution levels. Water samples were collected from the sites representing two types of agricultural practice from four villages. The first was designated as being grown under good agricultural practices (GAP), and the other as under non-good agricultural practices (non-GAP), with this study undertaken during wet season, 2019 and dry season, 2020. Two additional sets of water samples were collected as references. One of these sets was from the center of the lake and the other from an inlet stream to the lake. All water samples were analyzed for physical and chemical properties. The results found that Ca2+, Mg2+ and HCO3- were dominant in the lake surface water. The results showed significant differences in the mean values for some water quality parameters between the GAP and non-GAP of each study sites in both seasons. In particular, nutrient pollution from chemicals such as nitrogen and phosphorus from the non-GAP were significantly higher than those from GAP. Water quality index was calculated to describe the overall quality of lake surface water. It was observed that the water quality was almost threatened in the floating garden areas. In comparison between two practices, the non-GAP gave the higher water quality index value than the GAP. This investigated that poor management of fertilizers usage has had a negative effect on the water quality of the lake. The differences seen in water quality from the GAP and non-GAP areas, point to ways to successfully manage sources of water pollution in order to better conserve the lake by sustainable agricultural production.

Асортимент та стан квітникових насаджень Соборного району м. Дніпро

The assortment and condition of flower beds at the Soborniy district of Dnipro city were researched. 513 flower beds were identified on the territory of 18 objects (10 streets, 4 boulevards and 4 park zones). 151 flower beds, 21 ridges, 322 containers, 5 mixborders, 7 borders, 1 rockery, 6 near-barrel tree circle decorated with flowers were identified. The total area of flower beds is 7844.3 m2, of which almost 80 % falls on flower beds, about 10 % - on ridges, other types of flower beds make up an insignificant part. The assortment of flowering plants is represented by 15 species of annuals and 33 species of perennials. The leaders in the frequency of use in flower beds among annuals can be called brilliant salvia, marigolds erect and rejected, hybrid petunia, ever-flowering begonia. Garden roses, irises, stonecrops, hosts, perennial heliopsis prevail among perennial flowers. Analysis of the flower beds condition showed that landscaping objects located on boulevards look best. More than half of them are in good condition, the rest are in satisfactory condition. Flower gardens located in parks and squares are in poor condition. Only 5,7 % of flower beds were found in good condition - mainly on the territory of Shevchenko Park. Almost 40 % of flower beds are in poor condition, often completely overgrown with weeds. The flower beds located in the highways are also in most unsatisfactory condition due to the lack of regular professional care. Marigolds, ever-flowering begonia, hybrid petunia, rock alyssum retain the best condition among annuals by the end of the season. The most decorative during the season among perennials remained various types of sedum and hosta lancifolia. It is undesirable to use plants that quickly lose their decorative effect: irises, perennial heliopsis, whitewashed cornflower. Combined flower beds look best with the involvement of annual and perennial flowering plants, as well as ornamental shrubs.

Patchwork: Concentric Zone-Based Region-Wise Ground Segmentation With Ground Likelihood Estimation Using a 3D LiDAR Sensor

Ground segmentation is crucial for terrestrial mobile platforms to perform navigation or neighboring object recognition. Unfortunately, the ground is not flat, as it features steep slopes; bumpy roads; or objects, such as curbs, flower beds, and so forth. To tackle the problem, this letter presents a novel ground segmentation method called Patchwork, which is robust for addressing the under-segmentation problem and operates at more than 40 Hz. In this letter, a point cloud is encoded into a Concentric Zone Model-based representation to assign an appropriate density of cloud points among bins in a way that is not computationally complex. This is followed by Region-wise Ground Plane Fitting, which is performed to estimate the partial ground for each bin. Finally, Ground Likelihood Estimation is introduced to dramatically reduce false positives. As experimentally verified on SemanticKITTI and rough terrain datasets, our proposed method yields promising performance compared with the state-of-the-art methods, showing faster speed compared with existing plane fitting-based methods. Code is available: https://github.com/LimHyungTae/patchwork.

First Report of Binucleate Rhizoctonia AG-L Causing Root and Stem Rot of Wishbone Flower (Torenia fournieri) in Taiwan.

Wishbone flower (Torenia fournieri L.) is a common ornamental plant for flower bed in Taiwan. In August 2018, root and stem rot of wishbone flower occurred on the flower bed in the campus of National Chung Hsing University, Taichung city, with 100% incidence. Symptoms were dark brown discoloration of basal stems and brown necrosis of roots. Lesions from base of stems were excised into 5 mm long fragments, which were then surface sterilized in 1% sodium hydrochloride for 1 min, rinsed in sterile distilled water, dried on filter paper and thereafter placed onto 2% water agar. After 24 h, hyphae characteristic of Rhizoctonia (Sneh et al. 1991) appeared and dominated in every isolation. Hyphal tips were transferred to potato dextrose agar (PDA). After 5 days of incubation at 28°C, characteristic brown colonies of Rhizoctonia (Sneh et al. 1991) were observed. Hyphal width was 4.29±0.52 μm. No sclerotia were visibly present after 21 days of growth on PDA at 28°C. Hyphae were stained by 0.3% safranin-O and 1% KOH. There were two nuclei in each hyphal compartment, suggesting a binucleate Rhizoctonia fungus. ITS sequence has been used as the best tool to identify specific anastomosis group (AG) of Rhizoctonia as shown by Sharon et al. (2006, 2008). ITS sequence was amplified using the primers Bd1a and ITS4 (Goka et al. 2009; White et al. 1990). Blast search analysis of this acquired sequence (acc. no. LC498494) revealed the highest similarity (98.75 to 99.83%) with the reference sequences (acc. nos. AB286934, AB286933, and AB196653) of binucleate Rhizoctonia AG-L, namely Ceratobasidium sp. AG-L. Pathogenicity test was carried out using seedlings of 4-week-old wishbone flower each grown in a pot of 6.35 cm diameter. To prepare the inoculum, a PDA agar block (6 mm in diameter) excised from the growing front of 5-day-old colony was transferred into a flask with 200 ml of potato dextrose broth (PDB) incubated in a shaker at 26°C and 120 rpm for 6 days. The PDB broth was then blended into slurry. Ten pots each with a seedling were inoculated by pouring 50 ml of slurry onto the potting medium. Five pots were served as the controls by pouring PDB only. Pots were maintained in a greenhouse (26 to 33°C). Three days after inoculation, all inoculated plants exhibited symptom of root and stem rot. The same fungus was reisolated and confirmed by sequencing rDNA-ITS. This is the first report of root and stem rot of wishbone flower caused by binucleate Rhizoctonia AG-L in Taiwan and in the world. Although this is the second cases, since Wang and Hsieh (1993), for binucleate Rhizoctonia AG-L to be pathogenic, this study shows that this fungus has the potential to cause damages and is worth of further investigations.