PM2.5
Paired fine-particle monitors, one in the yard and one at the curb. Results publish with place and date once a monitored garden is live.
Nowak et al., 2014.
Labs · Methodology
Six lenses we mean to instrument.
Numbers measure one face of a garden. A sensor cannot read what a person who knows the yard reads. But the numbers are still worth having, for honesty, for limits, for the conversation with city regulators and insurance tables that do speak in numbers. These are the six instruments we intend to run, site by site, with the citations and limitations stated plainly; none is running yet.
← Back to the garden of sciences
The methodology changelog. Every version of our methodology and each correction to an impact figure we published, with its date.
The factor tables. The factors every estimate we publish is computed from, by climate zone, with their sources.
M·01
Named data
Every measurement carries its yard, its instrument, and its date.
M·02
Open instruments
Sensors and protocols documented so a neighbor could repeat them.
M·03
Cited claims
Peer-reviewed anchors or named observations; soft claims do not ship.
M·04
Honest unknowns
What we cannot yet say is written down next to what we can.
Labs · Methodology
Surface heat
Surface temperature in the yard against the nearest pavement, same place, same season. Results publish with place and date once a monitored garden is live.
Santamouris et al., 2017.
Sound
Sound level at the front door against a turf-and-driveway yard across the street. Results publish with place and date once a monitored garden is live.
Van Renterghem, 2014.
Songbirds
The published research finds more breeding songbirds where native plants dominate. Our own paired counts will publish with place and date.
Narango et al., 2018.
Pollinators
Distinct pollinator species counted in one yard over a single bloom season. Our own counts will publish with place and date.
Xerces Society surveys, 2024-25.
Infiltration
How fast rain soaks into the yard against the turf beside it, in the same rain. Results publish with place and date once a monitored garden is live.
EPA Heat Island Compendium updates, 2024.
What a sensor reads, and what it misses.
Every tile above is a partial instrument. A particle meter reads particles, not the people who breathe the air. A sound meter reads decibels, not the birdsong in the quiet. The sensor reads what a sensor can read; the person who knows the yard reads the rest. When both readings exist, they will sit side by side, named as what they are.
The open notebook.
Raw data, calibration notes and limitations will be published here from the first monitored garden. We trust what we trust; we flag what we do not; what we outsource to researcher partners, we name.