Permaculture Design Exercise

  These are the images and a short description of my final design exercise in my certification course. I am hoping that I don't get an email from the institute telling me that I have issues with my design. The way I understand it, if I don't hear from them, I'll have my certificate within a couple of weeks.

  I chose a piece of property that I may one day be able to develop, since it is family land. It belongs to my grandfather.

  The total property is 40 acres or about 16.5 hectares. The boundaries form an upside down L shape and there is a small creek that runs through the middle of the property year-round. There is a house on the site, along with several outbuilding structures near the main road. There is a small marshy area in the NW corner of the property and lots of wooded land around the borders.

  I chose to place a new house site in one of the empty grassy fields, SW of the existing house, because of the contours within that field and the access to water and other resources. Building an earth-sheltered house into the side of a hill works better because you can add features to the house using the elevation change of the hill that help with the natural cooling and heating cycles of the year. being on a hill also provides me with a much broader sun exposure during the winter months and that is important for both the greenhouse and the solar array I will be implementing to provide power to the house and outbuildings.

  My current design establishes an approx. 2000 sq ft house, a 625 sq ft animal shed, a 150 sq ft blacksmith shop and a small chicken coop near the house. The house itself will be earth-sheltered and be made of primarily wood harvested from the property and cob or cob mixed with other recycled materials. This is kind of the way they build earthships, except earthships are way more extravagant than you need for everyday living. The other outbuildings will use either timber and cob or timber, cob and recycled bricks. The only thing I would build using newly acquired materials is the blacksmith forge, which would be composed primarily of refractory bricks, surrounded by cob.

  There is a 625 sq ft (these numbers are not set in stone and only came from the fact that I used a specific scale on the grid paper to make sure everything would fit to scale) kitchen garden just outside of the house to the West, with an herb spiral next to it. These will supply the house with all sorts of everyday needs in both herb and vegetable produce. The main crop garden is in Zone 2 and measures about 10,000 sq ft. This is where you grow all of your crops needed for year round living. huge amounts of root crops for winter root cellar storage are grown here as well as the long germinating varieties of beans and corn and tomatoes and squash...etc. The kitchen garden is composed of a lot of greens and small everyday meal plants, where the main garden grows the large plants that we harvest and preserve or freeze.

  There are several food forest sites all over the property where we grow fruit trees along swale mounds and understory berry bushes and other edibles. I have designed 3 dams on the property as well to attempt to harness the water on the site so that I can pump some to the house and use the rest for irrigation and possibly even aquaculture (fish) one day. The stuff in the bottom of a fish pond is about the most amazing fertilizer you can find anywhere.

  I think that about covers it. There is plenty more that I could say, but I'll just post the images and you'll get the point I think.

From Permaculture

This is an actual topographic image of the site with the boundaries superimposed.

From Permaculture

This is my design. It is definitely subject to change since this is my first attempt ever.

From Permaculture

An image of the house site with the outbuildings. Hopefully it isn't hard to understand.

From Permaculture

Finally, some of that food forest I was talking about. This picture also shows one of my designed dams.

  With any luck, I'll be doing this kind of thing for a living within the next year or so. The design aspect is only one of many in permaculture. I also get to go out into the field and survey and move earth to build dams and swales. There is home design and building. And, of course, I'll also be doing some blacksmithing and selling my products to people online and locally.

Make your own dirt...

In this post I am going to be discussing a few different methods for composting, listing some of the steps to each method, but mostly going over pros and cons of each method. I will cite some sources at the bottom for further reading. If more information is required, use the comment section to ask questions.

Composting is something I've become quite interested in lately. I've found many different sources on how to do it, using many different methods. It seems to me that, depending on what your overall goal is, you may need to choose a specific method of composting, rather than just setting up a heap and throwing all of your organic waste into it.

For instance, a heap made from all sorts of food and yard waste may not contain the proper nutrients your soil needs when it comes time to introduce your compost to your garden. Plant yield can vary greatly, depending on the organic matter in which it grows.

I was always under the impression that taking compost from your heap and establishing it as the primary soil in your garden was a top-notch idea. According to one of my books, I was dead wrong. Compost on its own only plays a fractional part in the production of food. Adding compost to the soil that already exists, and introducing other materials as needed seems to be the ideal way of growing. In fact, the Biointensive method only asks for a 1-2 inch layer of compost on the very top of the garden at the beginning of the season, meaning that the other parts of the soil are just as, if not more, important for the proper propagation of species.

One method of composting is the "rapid" compost method. This is a simple formula which requires more work from you but yields much quicker breakdown as a result. Using something like 2/3 brown and 1/3 green ingredients, you monitor the moisture on a daily basis and turn the compost everyday as well. Within 2 weeks you have a fully composted heap, ready for use. The major downside to this method, based on the reading I've done, is that when organic material breaks down that quickly, a lot of the vital nutrients are released in gas form from the pile. Turning the heap causes air to get to the nitrogenous "green" material faster. This is why the pile converts quickly, but the problem comes from the fact that much of the important microbial life in the pile, the stuff that helps strong root growth in the garden, cannot survive in the high-nitrogen environment and the resulting compost is of inferior quality.

Now, there are 2 somewhat opposite techniques which both yield highly nutritive compost, but each has benefits and flaws. These two are the "cold" and "hot" compost methods. "Cold" composting consists of getting the proper mixture of brown and green materials, as well as a small amount of garden soil introduced to the pile. Ordinarily, one would loosen the base of the heap about 12 inches down and then place a layer of sticks on the bottom to provide a solid base for the pile. You then add the brown (dead leaves and plant matter), followed by the green (fresh grass clippings, leafy vegetation), and you top it off with some soil from the garden. The major downside to this method is the final step...in which you leave it alone for 4-6 months. The description of this method mentions potentially turning the heap once, about 2 months in, but otherwise this pile sits and works over time. As long as you have no urgency for compost, this seems to be the best method to get the most out of your compost. Not only does "cold" composting provide more useable compost for the material you put in, but it also provides compost with the most nutrients and microbial life.

"Hot" composting is somewhat opposite from cold, in that you turn the pile infrequently and maintain it more often. This method is necessary for breaking down items like "compostable plastics" made from vegetable materials and larger sticks and twigs. The heat required to consume a compostable bag of chips is upwards of 140-170, which you can achieve through "hot" composting. There are drawbacks to this method. First is the amount of human energy required to maintain the temperature. Second is the fact that, despite normal claims that a hot pile will kill weed seeds and small insects like aphids, the truth is that in order to actually be 100% effective, temperatures have to reach above 200.

I like to "hot" compost because it allows me to compost in the winter in Michigan. It also lets me throw things like compostable forks and coffee cup lids into my heap. There are a lot of places in the Detroit area using these materials now and, on the rare occasion that I purchase something that comes with vegetable-based plastics, I have a hot heap at home to biodegrade these items.

As I mentioned in my last post, I plan on expanding my garden and composting operation this summer. This plan includes trying each of these composting methods first-hand. I plan on using images, as well as updating with blog entries step by step as I go to find out just how well each method actually works. With any luck, they will all work well and I can send soil samples to the MSU extension office in Lansing to have the nutrients in each heap tested.

And that is my diatribe on composting. Obviously, there will be more compost conversation coming this summer, so if you love organic matter, keep checking back.

More info/citations:
Rapid Composting
Ecology Action: GROW BIOINTENSIVE method

Spring already?

Is it spring already? It sure feels like spring with the warm weather that we have had lately. While I'm concerned about the crops up north and other things that happen in Michigan when the weather is poor, I am also very excited about the possibility of starting the garden early this year.

I have been reading a new book called How to Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought Possible On Less Land Than You Can Imagine. Long title, I know. But the title says exactly what the book is about. This summer I'm going to use the technique in this book, called Grow Biointensive. This method, unlike other methods I've used in the past, focuses almost entirely on soil health. Yield is considered a byproduct of healthy soil. This all makes a lot of sense and of course that is partially why I've never heard of it before.

Anyway, the Biointensive method is a long term commitment kind of thing, so I will have plenty to blog about in the coming months. I'm very excited about getting started with this new plan, especially with the other ideas I'm putting into the works with the city soon. I'm working on getting a lot of support from all sorts of people and so far, everyone I've pitched my ideas to has been overwhelmingly excited about the concept of inexpensive, quality food availability in Ferndale.

My home garden is also going to expand this summer. Basically, I am going to be working all day every day to accomplish all the goals I have in mind for this endeavor. I addition to the beds I have already built, in order to get to my golden 100 sq ft number,  I will be expanding one bed to 4x6 and adding another bed of the same size. This will give me a total of 102 sq ft of soil to cultivate.

I also plan on setting up several more rain barrels, building a chicken coop, creating at least 3 compost heaps of varying materials and, if time allows it, still riding my bike with my kids several times a week!

My next post will be all about composting, so stay in touch for that!

I recently came across a periodical that I am now subscribed to. I love print and I really love getting magazines in the mail. Since Readymade folded in June of last year, I've been looking for something new to fill the DIY void and this one really hits the spot for the moment. It also happens to (coincidentally) fall within the realm of everything I'm working on right now.

From Stuff I Found

It's called Urban Farm and it basically guides a person like me through all the best ways to grow a large garden in an urban environment, keep bees, raise chickens and just generally follow a sustainable farming model. While I have many of my implements already accounted for, this magazine has given me some new insights into things I might not have considered before. For instance, this summer I am going to plant all of my root vegetables in pots instead of in the garden. Not only will this save me space, but apparently roots grow tremendously well in pots.

This magazine started in 2009 and is circulated bimonthly, which is a little bit disappointing because I hate waiting, but it is worth it's weight in gold as far as I'm concerned.

I'm still looking for a really good DIY replacement for Readymade. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open.

Rain barrel #1: DONE!

My father was kind enough to donate his old water softener tank to me for conversion into a rain barrel. Since the thing held rock salt and water for the last 10 years in his basement and it still looks like new, I figure I should be able to get a few good rain barrel years out of it! It has taken me a while to finally get everything I need to convert it, but at long last I'm finally done. I just finished about 15 minutes ago, so it's too dark out to photograph, but I will take some good ones tomorrow.

Steve and I also drove to Imlay City and bought a few 58 gallon pickle barrels to convert. Since I had the baby, we could only fit 4 barrels in the van, which means that without the baby we could easily get 8 in there.

The basics of these barrels are these:

58 gallon pickle barrel (or any food grade barrel that has never held chemicals) with (2) 3/4" holes. Bore one hole near the top and one close to the bottom. We are using 1/2" brass faucets and 3/4" - 1/2" threaded hose adapters for the tap and overflow on the barrel. The final piece is the lid. Since the downspout has to run into the top of the barrel to fill it and you don't want debris or bugs to get in, you have to both cut a hole in the lid and seal that hole with screen to keep out the bad stuff. I chose to drill a gridwork of holes in the top of this particular barrel and then place a piece of screen beneath to seal out unwanted pests. The nice part about the softener tank is that the lid doesn't screw on, but it still makes a very nice tight connection. The barrels we bought have screw down lids, making it slightly difficult to open them without anything in them.

I'm very excited to get the other two completed and then I've got to alter the downspouts on my house and install some new gutter for the barrel by the garden. That is going to be the hard part. Mostly because I've only ever once hung a gutter. But that is what this blog is all about, right? Me figuring out how to do this homeowner stuff one project at a time.

More projects complete

I finished the second raised bed for the garden on Sunday. I also dropped the posts for the hanging boxes. After I finished, dad came down and we seeded the back yard. We got a good rainfall that evening and now we have 4 or 5 days of sun, so hopefully we get some grass by the end of the week. I think I may need to water it, but luckily dad also brought me his old water softener tank to use as a rain barrel. I need to get it filled and up on a stand and then I need to get my gutter installed for the kitchen addition.

I decided to only go with 2 raised beds this year and add on to the garden later. This decision has mostly to do with money. It costs me about $30-$35 per bed for the lumber, not to mention the time that it takes to build and level the box. I like spending much of my free time with my family so I chose to be done with what I have. It should be more than enough to grow what we need for this year. After all is said and done, I have approx. 48 square feet of garden bed and I am planting the leafy vegetables in the hanging boxes. This year, from seed, I'm growing:

Roma Tomatoes
Heinz Canning Tomatoes
Cauliflower
Yellow Bell Peppers
Green Bell Peppers
Yellow Banana Peppers
Jalapeno Peppers
Serano Chili Peppers
White Onions
Green Onions
Lettuce
Spinach
Swiss Chard
Brussel Sprouts
Yellow Wax Beans
Snow Peas
Cucumbers (Pickling)
and a few other things I can't remember right now.

We will also have the herb garden out front and Gena is planting a pumpkin patch in the front yard somewhere as well. We also bought a blueberry bush to try to grow in the backyard somewhere.

All in all, we are going to have a huge garden eventually and hopefully we can get to a point where we no longer go to the market for produce. That is the goal, knowing where your food comes from and being self-sufficient.