If you want flowers in the winter in NEO, go to the Flats

Having promised to Susan I would bring more angels and sunshine to REALNEO, I set out today to find flowers, in Cleveland, in the end of November, after first snowfall... so I sought harsh conditions where survival in winter was nothing compared to surviving in day to day environmental crisis... the Flats. It didn't take long to come across some strapping sunflower-looking blossoms still holding the hopes of life at the end of an especially toxic year.

The site - today's header (full sze here [1]) - is under the decaying I-90 Innerbelt bridge over the Cuyahoga River - a place of great manmade waste and stupidity - in a mound of rocks, bricks and assorted toxic bridge debris, likely including lead from decades of falling dust - which makes sunflowers especially valuable, as they are found to extract toxins like lead from soil - a concept called bioremediation [2] we need to discuss here much more.

In enjoying this last glimpse of Summer 2007, in NEO, I suggest one way we the people of NEO can make 2008 a better time in a better place... guerilla bioremediation [3]. 1,000,000s of sunflowers growing all over the toxic fields and yards of NEO would send a powerful message to all people near and far, educate all ages, beautify, and help restore our ecosystem.

The only issue is what to do wth the 1,000,000s of lead contaminated sunflowers at the end of the season. Solutions?

Other bioremediation crops and strategies?

Interest in doing some guerilla gardening here?