GreenBlue Urban

Road Salt Damage: A Tree-Friendly Guide to Winter Protection

Kaitlyn Carmichael — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 07:00:56 +0000

Every winter, cities face a challenging trade-off: maintain safe roads and sidewalks with deicing salts, or protect the long-term health of urban trees and infrastructure. While road salt effectively keeps surfaces ice-free, its environmental impact—particularly tree damage—raises serious concerns for urban forest management. UNDERSTANDING THE DAMAGE Road salt’s effects on trees extend far beyond […]

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Who Will Maintain Green Infrastructure, and at What Cost?

Kaitlyn Carmichael — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 19:57:45 +0000

Maintaining green infrastructure (GI) involves several stakeholders and can vary significantly in cost depending on the type and scale of the infrastructure. Here are some key points: WHO MAINTAINS GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE? Local Authorities: Often responsible for public spaces, they rely on tax-payer dollars or donors to cover long-term maintenance costs. Private Developers: In some cases, […]

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How to Avoid Root Heave & Pavement Damage Caused by Urban Trees

Kaitlyn Carmichael — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 15:44:06 +0000

It’s important to have trees in cities for so many well-proven reasons. Without adequate consideration, however, urban trees can cause costly damage to surrounding infrastructure. Pavement damage is among the most common issues, caused by the occurrence of root heave. What is Root Heave? Root heave, sometimes called pavement heave, is triggered by tree roots […]

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How Much Do Soil Cells Cost?

Kaitlyn Carmichael — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 20:29:11 +0000

It can be frustrating for landscape architects and designers not knowing the approximate cost of soil cells before specifying the system. This can lead to designs exceeding budget constraints, potentially resulting in value engineering later in the project. While the importance of proper tree planting techniques is widely recognized, balancing this with client budgets remains […]

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Reducing the Risk – Successful tree establishment, every time!

Kaitlyn Carmichael — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 12:38:25 +0000

Over the past 30 years, urban tree mortality levels have fallen dramatically, and GreenBlue Urban is proud to have been involved in this transformation. But the levels are still too high – in some places almost half the trees planted in hard surfaces fail to reach their first birthday, and far too many do not […]

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Open Planting Areas for Urban Trees: Not What They Seem?

Kaitlyn Carmichael — Fri, 16 Aug 2024 18:04:34 +0000

While soil cells are most often installed under pavement when there’s a lack of green space, we’ve lately seen an uptick in projects specifying soil cells under grassy areas as well. Leading to the question, are there advantages to using soil cells under open planting areas? Historically speaking, open planting areas have been regarded as […]

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Are We Providing Mature Street Trees for Future Generations?

Kaitlyn Carmichael — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 15:44:00 +0000

The canopy cover of many cities across Canada and around the world is made up of large, mature trees. In North America, most of these trees were planted in the late 1800s to early 1900s, making them well over 100 years old. Thankfully, our grandparents and great grandparents understood the value of trees and had […]

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Maximizing Your Return on Investment in Urban Trees

Kaitlyn Carmichael — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 15:31:06 +0000

Money doesn’t grow on trees. Or at least, it doesn’t grow on trees that are planted haphazardly and die in the first year. Trees are well-known for providing many amazing economic and social benefits in urban areas. However, when planted without proper knowledge of best practices, the costs can far outweigh the benefits they provide. […]

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Comprehensive Testing of RootSpace Airform®, Enhancing our Urban Infrastructure

Kaitlyn Carmichael — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 16:57:02 +0000

As part of GreenBlue Urban’s commitment to continually improve products and solutions, we recently commissioned Lucideon, an independent material testing and analysis laboratory, to investigate the structural properties of the RootSpace Airform® soil cell system. For testing, Lucideon was supplied with RootSpace Airform® soil cell components assembled into various module sizes, as outlined in Table […]

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Comparing Tree Planting Media: A Comprehensive Overview

Kaitlyn Carmichael — Fri, 31 May 2024 13:38:58 +0000

Tree planting is a crucial aspect of urban development, offering numerous environmental, aesthetic, and health benefits. However, the success of tree-planting initiatives heavily depends on the choice of planting media. In this blog, we will delve into various tree planting systems, including soil cells, gravel-based structural soil, and sand-based structural soil, comparing their features, advantages, […]

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