Carbon Sponge is a multi-site series of gardens in collaboration with Brooke Singer, built to measure carbon sequestration – a process where carbon accumulates in soil instead of being released into the atmosphere. Since 2018, I have collaborated with Brooke, a team of scientists, educators, artists and a lot of glacial sand from Jamaica, Queens to create a garden at the New York Hall of Science; selecting and growing plants, setting up a drip irrigation system and designing a study to measure carbon intake in soil. The project seeks to explore how small scale urban gardens might become carbon positive, since soils that store more carbon than they release can help to maintain and better yet, reduce atmospheric carbon. Project partners include the New York Hall of Science, the Advanced Science Research Center at The CUNY Graduate Center, the NYC Urban Soils Institute, the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Brooklyn College, the Jacob Riis Settlement House at NYCHA Ravenswood, the NYC Compost Project hosted by Big Reuse, the NYC Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation, La Casita Verde and Patagonia.
Links: carbonsponge.org
