Operation Breaking Stones

Operation Breaking Stones
You know them: those fully tiled gardens or the path to the front door and for the rest a large gravel pit as if a racing car could fly out of the bend at any moment. All because people want to have a low-maintenance garden.

Anyone with a little gardening experience knows that even with such a stone front yard it is an illusion. At first it goes well, but soon seeds and spores manage to find the cracks and the stones turn greener. With a lot of effort, nature can be controlled again, but it is not beautiful.

Caption: Plants growing in the pavement

Why not opt ​​for more green and colourful, instead of such a concrete garden? It makes people and animals happy and it offers even more benefits. With the right layout, such a garden may even be less labour-intensive in the long run than the concrete version.
Municipalities faced with cutbacks have once compared the costs of constructing and managing various types of surfacing compared to ‘green’. It soon became apparent that paving and its maintenance (including construction and replacement) are a much more expensive option.
In addition, no account has been taken of the fact that all that pavement causes a large peak load of rainwater drainage. In recent years we have regularly been confronted with flooded cellars and streets in the Netherlands. It is expected that these types of heavy showers will only occur more frequently in the future.

Operation Breaking Stones (Saxifrage)
The action “Operation Steenbreek” is named after the small plant Saxifraga (Saxifraga), whose name is derived from the Latin words ‘saxum’ = ‘stone’ and ‘frangere’ = ‘break’. Many species of this genus seem to actually be able to break rock and can be found in crevices and spaces in rocks in mountain areas. In Operation Saxifrage, we also break away rocks to make room for plants!

Caption: Diemerpark at Zeeburg Amsterdam

Green Cities
In the city, all that stone has even more adverse effects. It exacerbates the heat island effect (Urban Heath Island). Temperatures in the city can be up to 7 ° C higher than in the countryside.

A petrified living environment reduces biodiversity. Butterflies, (wild) bees and other insects cannot reproduce and live there. As a result, many bird species, bats and other animals that depend on these insects do not survive in the city.

In periods of drought, all that paving has the opposite negative effect than flooding. Plants and trees cannot benefit from moisture buffered by the soil, because all the water is always quickly drained.

Caption:

Caption: Isala Hospital Zwolle

Green around us provides air purification (particle dust) and reduces stress. Patients who are allowed to heal in a green environment appear to recover faster. Greenery provides relaxation, fun and there is always something to discover. Even particularly busy children (ADD ADHD) can relax or let off steam.

Stone Age
We seem to have entered a stone or perhaps concrete era. To make people aware of this, Operation Steenbreek was officially started on 28 January 2015 in Leeuwarden. Experts held a symposium at Van Hall / Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, supported by studies by students about how our gardens can be made liveable again. They show that a green garden does not necessarily have to be very expensive and that paving is a much more expensive solution to purchase.

The cities of Leeuwarden, Amersfoort, Groningen, The Hague and Eindhoven already have experience with these types of projects. Together we turn the city into a green oasis with living space for people and animals.

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I love the collage, it’s beautiful.

One person that quickly comes to mind is @ErmesT

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Thanks for the tag @Ewaade_3A

Nature is powerful @Erik_van_den_Ham , and is taking his space back, so what you say makes absolutely sense, and working “with” the Nature is incredibly easy than work “against” the Nature.

12 years ago I documented the demolition of an industrial Area, to build a new commercial park. The activity started on June 2008, and due to some issue continued for two years, for being then blocked due to the bankruptcy of the company.

The area still untouched. I took my last photo in there on May 2016 (six year after the stop). Do I need to comment the next photo?

Thanks for this post @Erik_van_den_Ham .

Oh, amazing photos, of course

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Hello and G’morning Queen @Ewaade_3A ( :sunglasses: :cowboy_hat_face: ) an thank you so much I’m happy you like it.

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Hi @Erik_van_den_Ham Thank for the post. I appreciate your exemplary passion for green environment. The message is clear. We will do ourselves for more good if we embrace garden instead tiled floors . I always prefer garden over concrete courtyard , one it is more beautiful and two , it is beneficial to the environment.

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:smile: Erik!

@ErmesT thank you.

Many people do not care to have all of that especially at home because of the money and time it consumes.

I will prefer a Garden any day. If we get to own a home, I would want a Garden and all the Greenery all around.

I would love to take long walks in the garden with him and play all day long with the fragrance of the roses and lilies over having any artificial stuff.

Nature is beautiful, we should nurture it. It’s expensive (time, talent and treasure), but it is worth it.

Thanks for the post @Erik_van_den_Ham

You are gradually filling Connect with all of your sweetness

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Thank you as always @ErmesT for your highly valued contributions. This whole thing here is mainly focused on small private owned gardens. There was such a trent for people to take away all the green in their gardens and replace it by pavement or gravel gardens. Thinking they can keep nature out.
Anyone with some reasonable idea of what nature is capable knows it wont work (in the long run).

Maybe the best protest song ever on this:

"They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin’ hot spot

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got 'til it’s gone?
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot

They took all the trees, put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people a dollar and a half just to see 'em

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got 'til it’s gone?
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot

Hey farmer, farmer, put away the DDT now
Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees, please"

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@Erik_van_den_Ham wonderful album - thanks for sharing these here with us. Your click is superb. Would be delighted to have walk in the green valley!

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Hello @Sophia_Cambodia thank you for your kind comments here. Not sure what green valley you are referring to.

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Hello @Emmik20 I’m so sorry I completely missed your post here. You’re right that’s absolute what this fight is for. So many small gardens were turned in to concrete jungles with perhaps some single plants in pots on it.
So bad as this makes things even worth for city climates. So the battle is on for more greener and colourful flowering gardens.

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