First independent permaculture job
In June Jon and I started our first independent permaculture design. We are designing a large circular key hole garden for some neighbors and additionally have plans to create permanent beds where we will plant berries and other edible shrubs and just north of these we have plans to plant several fruit and nit tree species. The “garden” will incorporate edible food forest systems as well as permanent beds that will support diverse concentrations of perennials and annuals. Our goal was to design something that was permanent and accessible, while being something that two people, who aren’t farming for a living, can manage on their own. Below are some pictures of the project in motion.
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New Farmers
It’s been one month since Jon and I started working at Earthlands and in this month we’ve planted over an acre of vegetables and herbs to feed the Earthlands community. We had been training to be farmers for months and now we are putting what we learned into practice and feel pretty good about it. It’s not brain surgey, it’s growing food, plants want to grow. Someone said that to me once and while it does seem like a daunting task, growing enough produce to feed yourself and ten others, jumping right into the thick of it as we have done was probably the best solution to our fears.
We started everything there is to do with our small farm operation, and I mean everything just four weeks ago. In that time we have worked out the general planning; how much to plant of what, where and when, starting seeds, prepared beds using the no-till method and built up the soil with compost and sheet mulch as well as organized a small community csa-like structure. I am super excited to see what comes of our many hours spent in the gardens at Earthlands, but even more excited for next year becuase by then we will have learned what was done right and what needs to be done different and we will actually get to start our plants early and give away spare seedlings to friends as friends did for us.
Me weeding
A Friend wears his weeds
Jon praises the sun in the Porcupine Garden
View of Sun Ray Garden and Y2Y Garden
Jon brews Earthlands first batch of Rhubard Wheat beer on a rocket stove
R2R Day 8
This day (as in this past Friday) marked the end of the first full week of the course and the end of our first focus area: Permaculture. We wrapped up discussion on agroforestry and visited the Analee Tide Pools to look at patterns in nature and enjoy the beach. As I mentioned before this has been my third permaculture course experience and I think it’s finally sinking in! But the real reason I can say this is that I am going tgo directly apply the learning to a project here on the farm. I’ve heard people say that it takes doing whatever it is that you have learned within the first week, maybe a month, in order to know how to really do and keep on doing it better. I really believe in this and want to take it to heart if you will and always try try try to apply my experiences to my daily life in a meaningful way as soon as possible; there is no sense in wasting knowledge for another day.
Looking forward to next week as we continue on in the course with Natural Building.
R2R Day 7
Today we worked with Jay, one of the farm manager’s here in the morning to talk about agroforestry and the importance of trees in the landscape or on your farm. Jay explained the difference between annuals, perennials, and bi-annuals, monocots and dicots. We learned how some plants only grow sexually by a seed and others asexually by cutting for propagation. We also discussed silvopastures, or pastures that incorporate trees and managed fallows, a slash and burn concept to build up soil nutrients and introduce diverse plantings.
Did you know that there have been 15,000 recorded edible plants That only 150 are highly cultivated today? And that only 20 crops account feed the majority of people on this planet? We’re looking at a lot of diversity and it’s minimal use. It’s time to start taking advantage of what mother nature has to offer.
After going over plant taxonomy we talked about how you can start a new tree from an old tree. We looked at stem propagating, grafting, and air layering. Then we went out and applied each technique.
In the afternoon we worked with Ben, the farm’s holistic animal husbandry manager, who explored the world of animal husbandry. The farm is host to chickens, donkeys, sheep and rabbits. These animals live the good life here as they are raised organically feeding on grass and for the most part range free. The animals have a beneficial relationship to the farm. They act as fertilizers to the soil as well as maintain the fields by cutting back the brush. While I have never thought about working with animals today was inspiring and I think I would one day like to start off by working with chickens.
R2R Day 6
Today Jon and I got to spend some time working on our project: hashing out the details, creating weekly goals and choosing the site we will work with on the farm property. We are both very excited about the potential the project has for both the farm and beyond. We are also somewhat overwhelmed with all the work we need to get done in the next six or seven weeks.
Our class met to spend some time talking about patterns and how we find them throughout all natural systems and in most of our man-made products as well. Patterns are very important and can be the key to understanding and unlocking everyday design challenges. Below are eight examples of patterns… take a look and see what around you has these patterns.
After a great tex-mex lunch with fresh habanero chilis from the garden we came back together to look into the fascinating world of maps. Permaculturists are particularly interested in looking at topographic maps to see the contours in the land and identify the best place to situate things like roads, homes, gardens and ponds. After examining a few maps courtesy of professional map makers, the Unites States Geological Services, and Google Earth we split apart to look at our project sites and understand where they fit into the greater picture of the VISFI farm map. We loctaed north, looked at boundaries, what was already on the site, both landforms and human made forms, and then charted out how our project will fit into the picture. Since we intend to design and plant a small home-scale garden we are looking at a site that is close to the kitchen and to a small building that students and relax in. The site is ideal in location but has very poor soil and will need a lot of tender love and care to make it work. We are up for the challenge. Off to learn.
R2R Day 5
January 19, 2010, 12:01 PM
Filed under: Design, Education, Food, Permaculture, Projects, Ridge to Reef
Filed under: Design, Education, Food, Permaculture, Projects, Ridge to Reef
Today we were assigned our advisers who will work with us to reach our goals and give guidance throughout the time we work on our final projects. I have been assigned to one of the farm managers, Nora, who has over twelves years experience running a CSA in New Mexico. I’m very happy to have been paired with her. It’s so important to be able to flush out your ideas with someone that has the experience and know-how and I’m glad that the R2R program offers this opportunity.
As I mentioned yesterday I will be working on my project in collaboration with Jon and we would like to create a model garden and hand book that urban and suburban dwellers can draw from to design their own small, bountiful home garden limiting their reliance on chemical-agriculture and bringing greater nutrition to the household’s family. There’s no reason why every household can’t have their own garden even if they have limited space, time or knowledge of how to start.
After working on our swale some more we came back together as a group and continued to discussed permaculture. We went over the process a permaculturist will take when working on a design. These are: Goals Articulation, Analysis and Assessment of Site, Design, Implementation, and Evaluation. After going over these in more details (please see my resources page for further reading) we continued to cover Sectors (such as sun, wind, animals, humans, water and vegetation of site) and zones (such as your home, the area closest to your home where a small herb or kitchen garden may be, the area beyond that where you may have a food forest garden and grazing animals, and the area beyond that which is mostly left wild or untouched.)
Tonight I am going to apply the Goals Articulation to our project and work out exactly what we want to achieve while we are here and how we plan to do that.
R2R day 4
January 18, 2010, 12:28 PM
Filed under: Climate Change, Design, Education, Permaculture, Ridge to Reef
Filed under: Climate Change, Design, Education, Permaculture, Ridge to Reef
This week we begin our introduction to permaculture while participating hands-on projects. I will have now taken part in three permaculture courses which is great because each one makes me feel more confident in the work than the last. We started off the day by giving recognition to the great Martin Luther King and sang Swing Low Sweet Chariot, something I’ve never had the chance to sing and am glad I got the chance. After breakfast and chores (harvesting fresh greens from the garden) the R2R group gathered and started to go over the reasons why we are interested in organic agriculture and permaculture methods.
I think its important to remind ourselves of this. It was easy for the students here to recall the many reasons such as: resource depletion, deforestation, habitat loss, pollution, over-fishing, degradation of food systems, over population, peak oil, the unconscious consumer… But for those of you at home it might be difficult to see beyond climate change, which is also a reason why organic agriculture is important, but not the only reason. After looking at why we are here to learn about creating sustainable, resilient systems we discussed the three permaculture ethics: Earth Care, People Care, Resource Share.
We then looked at philosophies behind permaculture such as the Prime Directive: ethically take care of your self and your children by taking responsibility for your existence… every decision you make should be a conscious one. This really resonates with me, I want to be fully involved and aware in my decisions knowing that they connect to the great whole that I want to achieve. In addition we discussed the Principle of Coorperation; Positivism- Actionism: creating positive, replicable, shared change; No Box: tearing down the walls we create, that have been created for us; and Diversity which leads to stability which leads to abundance.
We then went over the principles of permaculture as I tried to link these to the final R2R project that Jon will collaborate on with me. For our project we would like to design a small family garden with maximum yield, as a model for people who don’t know anything about growing their own food, who have limited space, and who want to learn organic growing techniques and permacultue systems. I’ll keep you posted on this as we go.
To finish the day the class went over swales and found the contour lines in the land where we wanted to prevent water run-off and started to dig a swale. Love that hard labour. All in all a good day.
Hiatus Part 1
January 7, 2010, 8:25 AM
Filed under: Community, Culture, Design, Education, Food, Living, Permaculture
Filed under: Community, Culture, Design, Education, Food, Living, Permaculture
It’s been quite a while since I posted anything to the blog and my hopes are that this summary of what has happened since the last post will be the first of much more to come.
The last time I wrote I was grieving about Detroit; the misuse of space, the unemployment, the over shopped and under privileged and at this very moment I am back in Detroit having similar feelings. Except this time I’ve taken the opportunity to seek out the city’s developments in sustainable agriculture and community gardens. There has been a lot of talk about Detroit’s future as an agricultural mecca. There have been articles such as these 1 2 3 4 5 that describe the potential for this new green landscape over the industrial city. But, while there have been proposals to makeover Detroit has there been any real activity? I wondered this myself and decided to look into this. As is turns out there are several farms in downtown Detroit that are doing great work as well as organizations designed to assist these farms and make community connections. Take a look at Earthworks Urban Farm , a chemical free farm that serves a soup kitchen and educates its community about sustainable agriculture.
Here are some more links to organizations doing work around urban agriculture.
Greening of Detroit
Hantz farms Detroit
Detroit Black Community Food Security Network
So there’s a start. But what about the suburbs of he greater Detroit metropolitan area? What was once vast farmland and orchards, Detroit’s original breadbasket, has now been converted to strip mall after condo after four-lane highway. The suburbs of Detroit are a sustainability- minded urban planner’s nightmare. There are no sidewalks; you must drive to get anywhere, even to cross the street for a gallon of milk. There is very little food production, but ample lawn space. It’s also not very aesthetically pleasing, as the land is flat and the architecture obtrusive and monotonous, making it rather depressing. However, despite all its challenges these suburbs have potential. Much of the housing is arranged in communal, condo-type settings. Many people are living close to one another as well as to stores that house their needs and places of work too. I’ll even go on to suggest that there are all the ingredients for sustainable communal living space save for a few key elements which are: sidewalks, bike paths, pedestrian walks and lights, community gardens (and lots of them), community centers (within each condo community) and public space that does not involve shopping, redirecting future development upward rather than outward.
NYC Composting
Learn how to reduce waste by composting food scraps using worms right in your apartment! This video was produced by my friend Kris French (a fellow permaculture student) and her husband Pascal.
Post PDC
The first meal I ate after leaving an all vegetarian, organic diet for three weeks made me feel sick. I had a cup of corn chowder and half a tuna sandwich. When I say I felt sick I felt like I couldn’t move around easily, tired with a slow mind. Then I thought, this is how I always felt after my usual meals prior to my three weeks of vegetarian organic goodness. There’s a difference- I’m sticking to vegetarian and sticking to organic.
Then I walked down the aroma therapy isle at a health food store, picked up a pack of cedar incense sticks and thought, mmmmmm compost toilet.
Then I drove a car around to get from point A, the house to point B anywhere else to do anything that must be done, or not. I drove through suburban lots with perfectly trimmed lawns and thought, hmmmm they could use a vegetable garden on that nice south facing lawn.
