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COMMUNITY GARDENS
At the heart of Lowell Village is healthy and sustainable living. Edible landscapes and a proposed community garden, complete with a greenhouse, will be a part of balanced living in your new community.
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Community gardens have a powerful cascade of positive impacts, such as a sense of neighborhood well-being and the ability to draw people together around two common focal points: beauty and good food.
Fruit and nut trees will provide color, shade and meaningful food at harvest. The gardens will produce red ripe tomatoes, peppers, squash and the smell of fresh basil in the warm sun will fill the air.
Environmentally Sustainable Development
The community will be built upon a foundation of Permaculture concepts. Food will be integrated into the common landscapes and gardening will be a central focus of the outdoor spaces especially near the homes. Fruit and nut trees, perennial shrubs and herbs, and annual vegetables will be grown and available to the residents.
If organic gardening and edible landscaping is your thing, this will be the community for you, and the best part is you won’t have to do it alone! Food harvested here will be as fresh and local as you can get, without the use of toxic pesticides, herbicides, and genetically modified organisms. If you only want a small private garden or none at all, your private courtyard is there to use as you desire.
Storm drainage will be diverted into “bioswales” designed to filter unclean water biologically and return it back into the groundwater table. By combining this practice with annual mulching, the soil over time will become more fertile and hydrologically stable reducing the need for large applications of water in the landscape during the dry months. Rainwater from roofs in the community will be stored in rain barrels and will also be diverted into a central holding pond that will be used to irrigate the community gardens.
Multiple strategies to achieve an energy efficient community will be implemented such as photovoltaic roof panels and window awnings, hot water solar panels, passive solar architecture, tree-lined fruit and nut trees for food, shade, and wildlife, super-insulated airtight buildings, micro wind generators, energy recovery ventilation systems, and green roofs or rooftop gardens to help cool summer building temperatures.
