New Green Dorm

These are photos of dorm rooms in the new green (LEED certified) Langdon Woods dormitory at Plymouth State University (Plymouth, NH). See more photos here.

Now what do these green dorm rooms need when students move in? Hint. I see windows. This compact fluorescent desk lamp would work well too.

Plymouth State University's newest residence hall Langdon Woods will be housing 347 students and be completely air conditioned. The building has taken form over the last few months and is now near completion. Students have begun to move in and it will be open for residents for school opening, though there will still be ongoing work to do in some areas. Check out the huge amount of insulation being used to keep this LEED Certified building nice and warm.

Read more about the new Langdon Woods dormitory.

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Seeing Clearly

Click to enlarge. This is the back-story about the plants in the Greenscaper Lab. Behind the scenes, most of them live in some kind of clear plastic container. In my experience, the best planters for subirrigation (and hydroculture) of indoor plants are food service plastics. Just add an AquaPad (polyester batting, aka backing material) underneath to trigger capillary action.

You’ll find containers like these in your kitchen, or perhaps from the snacks or kitchen departments of stores like Costco, Trader Joe’s, Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond, The Container Store, and many other retail stores. Curiously, the last place I find good planters, either utility or decorative, is in a nursery or houseplant department.

I remove the plant from its opaque grow pot and repot into clear plastic so that I can easily inspect the most important part of the plant, the soil and root system. Opaque plastic grow pots prevent this. Does it make any sense that the most important area of the plant is hidden from your view?

It doesn’t make any sense for other than the greenhouse growers. They use opaque pots to prevent algae from growing in the greenhouse under relatively high light (2-3000 foot-candles) and high humidity. Typical interior light in a building, however, is more in the range of 25 to 200 foot-candles coupled with low humidity.

Algae is not a problem with clear containers if you install them inside a decorative cachepot. It makes plant care much easier and it looks immeasurably better than a plastic grow pot sitting in a saucer. I see photos of these rather homely plants all the time on my travels around the web.

New and recycled food containers work really well. Save and recycle all kinds of clear plastic food containers. All you have to do is drill some small holes at the bottom for capillary action to take place.

You will soon find which ones work best for you. Recycled clear plastics are good for the caretaker, good for the plants and, when recycled, good for the environment. They’re a winner all around!

There are a number of examples in the photo above. Future posts will show photos of the finished products.

1. Microwave food covers – These cost about $2 at Wal-Mart and Target. They make excellent containers for tabletop plants in shallow bowls. Use them in melamine bowls ($6-9) from stores such as Target, The Party Store and Bed, Bath & Beyond.
2. Party cups – 9oz squat, 9oz tall, 16oz, etc. These work well inside tumblers, tall narrow vases, etc. These are available everywhere at retail. Recycle them from your party.
3. Basket liners – These are available in the houseplant or garden department of nurseries and big box stores in 6”, 8”, and 10” diameters. Use them inside various food service and decorative bowls.
4. Food storage containers (Rubbermaid, Glad, etc.) – These are widely available at retail. Cut the upper rim off as you see in the photo.
5. Clear plastic cookie containers – Laguna Bakery Oat Bran with Raisins 98% fat free cookies from Costco are a favorite snack. They’re even more favored because of their 10” diameter x 3 ½” tall clear plastic food container packaging. There are many dozens of them now housing indoor plants in the lab. Trader Joe’s also has many sizes of clear food containers housing cookies and other products.

Most of these containers are made of PET (Poly Ethylene Terephthalate) plastic and although thin walled are as tough as nails. Having accidentally dropped one of these planters from a height of 5 feet with no damage to the plant or container I can attest to their toughness.

6. Plastic Colanders – Although not clear these make excellent planters in certain size bowls. Eight and 1/2" colanders are available at Target for about $2.

Dormscaping News

 
 

 
 

 
Okay, maybe two Lucky Bamboo plants don't qualify as ‘scaping’ but it’s great to see these young women with plants in their dorm design.

The Holy Cross Crusader picked their dorm as “Dorm of the Week”.

Congratulations ladies! Nice Job!

Meg's grandfather's naval trunk is on the floor in front of the futon, and other than the framed black and white Moran family portrait it is the most interesting aspect of the room. The girls use it as a coffee table, and Meg explained that her sister used it in her dorm room at Dartmouth last year. They decorated the table with their matching bamboo plants and two important books: Muhammad and Vogue's 800-page special fall fashion edition.

Dorm Décor Tips from Bowling Green U.

So maybe I was a bit off base about the candles, but not the plants. Read on. Remember that with sub-irrigation and hydroculture there’s no water slopping around and draining into saucers (or on furniture or the floor). Use a closed system and your dorm plants will love it…and so will you. Check it out! Dormscaping...sub-irrigation...hydroculture.

An artsy theme could be the perfect fit for a free-spirited resident. Artwork and accessories like live plants can give a dorm room a relaxed mellow vibe. Useful accent colors like purple and white give off a creative and open feel for a room.

Click for more ABOUT this public service weblog updated weekly when time permits. I plan to return to daily blogging after I find a home for the plant lab and move from San Diego to Brooklyn, my birthplace.

Welcome if you're a newcomer and welcome back if you've been here before. Keep on coming back!

Tell a friend and remember to be a 'Green²' greenscaper!

ALSO VISIT GreenScaper.net, a companion blog.

More Feng Shui Today

It appears the universe decided to make this a Feng Shui plant day. This situation could apply to a lot of dorm rooms (and students) that's for sure.

Healing greens

Q: The eastern side of our house is completely blocked. We are having a lot of health-related problems in the family. I was wondering if this could be due to the blocked east. If so, please suggest Feng Shui remedies.

Shantanu Banerjee

The Solution: East is the direction from where the sun’s universal life-giving force flows into the house and nourishes the health of each and every resident.

Since you do not have windows in the east, try to create positive energy by putting up wallpaper or a painting that depicts the rising sun with growing trees and flowers.

Enhance the ruling wood energy of this area by placing fresh healthy green plants and flowers, as opposed to artificial silk ones.

Add Feng Shui Color

Click to enlarge.This timely article talks about color and Feng Shui. The novena candles come in all the colors mentioned. This is an easy way to create a "Feng Shui dormscape" combining green plants and colored candles.

Flash...update 08-20-05 Oops, I'm seeing that many (most?) campuses don't allow candles in dorm rooms. Is it okay if you don't light them? They're neat color accents. So what do I know, I went to night school as a commuter dad.

The plants are cuttings of Dracaena 'Janet Craig' Compacta that were rooted in the expanded clay pebble filled glass cylinders.

As in nature, green encourages growth. This color can be quite invigorating when used indoors. A front entryway can be enhanced by the color green, because it invites the visitor to enter and imagine what lies beyond. Green is all about adventure, exploration, growth and change. Introducing green plants, a green vase or even painting a room green can elicit these desired feelings.

Light a Lucky Bamboo Candle

Click to enlarge.When you're finished burning what are called 7-day, jar, or novena candles, recycle the glass cylinders. They make excellent hydroculture rooting cylinders. If you're not familiar with them, they're readily available at supermarkets at low cost.

Installing in individual cylinders means you can easily rearrange them without having to replant. Just move them around any way you like. If you come up with a more artful way of arranging them, grab your digicam and email me some photos. I'll be glad to post them. Should we have a contest?

Not only will you be recycling, you'll be combining Feng Shui plants with lucky or spiritual candles. Don't we need all the help we can get? Pour it on! Perhaps someone knows if novena candles can also be considered Feng Shui candles. Seems to me that spirituality is universal.

Flash...update 08-20-05 Oops, I'm seeing that many (most?) campuses don't allow candles in dorm rooms. Is it okay if you don't light them? They're neat color accents. So what do I know, I went to night school as a commuter dad.

I've used them to luckily root Lucky Bamboo (Dracaena sanderiana), Aglaonema, Dracaena marginata and Dwarf Dracaena 'Janet Craig'. So far, it's worked every time. Lucky me!

Decorative Hydroculture

Click to enlarge. Clear glass (or plastic) containers can make interesting hydroculture planters. Not everyone likes the look of the expanded clay pebbles however.

This Sansevieria is planted with river gravel that is decorative only. The plant is growing in expanded clay pellets. I believe this application has further potential. What do you think?

Dormscaping With Chi

 
 
This is a sketch of Tom's dorm room before help arrived.

Tom was not happy.

 

 
 

 
 

 

You may not recognize it but Tom’s dorm room has been redesigned with Feng Shui in mind. He now has a green plant by his pillow and laptop. He’ll be sleeping and surfing a lot better now.

Tom is now happy.

The sketches are from Katherine Olaksen's "Dorm Room Feng Shui," a handbook about bringing positive energy (that's the "chi") into dorm room living.

Whether you believe in Feng Shui, or not…a healthy plant (or two, or three or more) in a dorm room can help to change an often-sterile environment. The problem is that most students don’t know how to care for ‘houseplants’. Low light, typical of a dorm room, compounds the problem.

Maybe your view is of a brick wall like this. You're probably not happy.

There’s no doubt that the creative application of some dormscaping would improve the outlook in your room.

To encourage healthy dorm plants (and happy, healthy students), I've started a new ‘dormscaping’ category.

It will feature proven low light tolerant plants installed in either soil sub-irrigation or hydroculture. Both of these methods significantly improve the odds of maintaining healthy plants in lower light.

Dormscaping will highlight the methods that professional interior plantscapers use for maintaining plants in buildings. Commercial plant maintainers long ago found that plants installed in sub-irrigation have a greater tolerance for low light conditions. These methods modulate soil moisture resulting in the desired “evenly moist” status.

Drench and drain top watering often results in a wide swing in soil moisture between soaked and dried out. This causes significant stress for the plants. Coupled with low light it can be a killer combination.

Remember too, there’s no ‘stray water’ with sub-irrigation and hydroculture. These are self-contained systems with no need for drainage and saucers. Unlike drench and drain top-watering there is little exposure to water damage. Both you and your school administration will appreciate that.

Further, it's an environmentally sound practice. Since the surface is always dry, there's little or no exposure to the propagation of mold or pests like fungus gnats (Sciarid flies). Your plants can now be classifed as 'sustainable' truely green products in every sense of the word.

Think about it...how can you in good conscience do something as utterly archaic as pouring water on your houseplants when you're listening to MP3's on your iPod and surfing the Internet on your laptop.

It may be in a small way but dormscaping will enhance your college life. Try it! It works. If you need help, just ask...and tell a friend about finding happiness, as Tom did, through ancient Feng Shui coupled with 21st century dormscaping.