Indoor Vegetable Garden with Topsy Turvy Planters and Window Boxes
Food Plants - Annual, Food Shortages, Nurseries & Propogation, Urban Projects — by Matthew Trotter March 10, 2010
One cool product that I’ve had the pleasure of using is the Topsy Turvy Upside-Down Tomato Planter. (Note: I’ve since stumbled up on DIY version of this product made with 5-gallon buckets. How cool is that?) It’s kind of an experimental product as is, and I was using it in an even more experimental way. I got the Topsy Turvy so that I could utilize the vertical space in my indoor container garden. Not being able to grow a garden would have been the bane of my college dorm room existence…. but I wasn’t about to let someone tell me that I couldn’t do it.
Comments (4)Life at Zaytuna: Closing the Loop
Compost, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Rehabilitation, Soil Conservation, Urban Projects, Waste Systems & Recycling — by Lindsay Dailey March 4, 2010
In a world where less than 1% of the planet’s fresh water is available for human consumption, it is curious to notice how people in overdeveloped countries choose to utilize precious water resources.
I often wonder what our grandchildren’s children will think of industrialized cultures; it is hope that inspires me to imagine them laughing. “Can you believe it?” they’ll say, holding their bellies and bursting with amusement at the ridiculousness of their elders. “They used our precious fresh water to flush their SHIT away!”
Over 884 million people globally lack access to safe water supplies – that is approximately one in eight people living on the planet whose water has been contaminated, generally by human excrement. In fact, over 5,000 people die worldwide everyday from drinking or bathing in water containing contaminants. [1] And we in the U.S. use over 5 million gallons daily just flushing away our waste.
From a health and a resource perspective, it’s hard to imagine a more inefficient system than a water flushing toilet. It contaminates water, and wastes our “waste.”
Anyhow, I digress. This blog posting was inspired by the chore of the day at the Permaculture Research Institute.
It was time to empty the composting toilet system, and I eagerly participated, curious to see how human “waste” could be utilized as a resource – quite a feat for our fecophobic world.
Comments (6)Jawaseri School Garden Project, Jordan
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Conservation, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Eco-Villages, Education Centres, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Food Shortages, Irrigation, Land, Nurseries & Propogation, People Systems, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Trees, Urban Projects, Village Development, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh February 6, 2010
Just as I was leaving Jordan, after making the Greening the Desert II update video, another little project was just getting underway – the Jawaseri School Garden project. A few people have emailed pictures of progress over the last few months and I’ve combined these with Geoff’s narration from the PRI home base in Australia, to give you all a bit of an idea what’s happening there. May it inspire you to do similar where you are!
Permaculture education should be in every school, everywhere. If it was, I believe most of the world’s problems could be solved within a decade.
Comments (5)PRI-De: A Detroit Story
Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Economics, Education Centres, Urban Projects — by Killian OBrien January 28, 2010
 Detroit: time to turn the problem into the solution |
Permaculture in Detroit seems like a bit of an oxymoron, but urban agriculture is blooming all over the city. From the city-wide efforts of The Greening of Detroit in educating people on gardening techniques to the smaller-scale efforts of individuals such as Kate Devlin and her Spirit of Hope garden to groups such as the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network and their 2-acre D-Town Farm and the Georgia Street Community Gardens/Collective, community gardens are being sown on vacant lots dotting this city of nearly a million, filling the holes left by the loss of nearly half its peak auto industry-driven population. Photos of the streets of Detroit from eras long past and rusted nearly away show tightly packed, neat homes. Today, half those homes have devolved into ruins or grassy, often debris-filled, lots. Estimates on the number of lots range from 60,000 to 80,000. Those numbers don’t include the many parks now being left largely untended by the city government.
Comments (10)Hope for Detroit
Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Urban Projects — by Nichole Ross January 26, 2010
 Mark Covington (left) & Killian Obrien |
Whenever I mention I’m taking a trip back to Detroit, I always seem to get at least one “why would you go there?” To those unfamiliar with the City, the word “Detroit” often conjures up the negative image of a city gone wrong. Crime, poverty, blight, unemployment – all terms synonymous with Detroit’s reputation for so long. Fortunately, I’m here to inform you that Detroit’s image is undergoing a major makeover, thanks to people like Killian Obrien and Mark Covington. These are two amazing men who are working to bring positive change to one eastside neighborhood. Hope for Detroit also means hope for many other forgotten cities.
I was born into a Polish-Hungarian community on the South Side of Detroit, known as Delray. My great-grandparents made the area their home in the early 1900s. Most of my family continued to live and work in the close-knit community for many years. They were very self-sufficient. They planted food gardens, raised chickens and made their own beer to earn money. They had to be. They were poor.
Comments (0)Permaculture in the West Bank
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Urban Projects — by Sakina Grome
A spotlight on Marda Permaculture Farm, Palestine
Marda Permaculture Farm, Palestine
Olive trees, some over a thousand years old, grow in the shadows of the settlement on the hillside above, their gnarled old trunks spiraling towards the open sky. Tended through the generations by local farmers in a once verdant countryside, they stand as a testament to human and ecological resilience in an occupied land.
The village of Marda (pop. 2,600) is located about twenty kilometres south of Nablus in the Salfit District in the West Bank of Palestine, beneath one of the largest illegal Israeli settlements, Ariel.
Comments (4)Micro-Hydro for a Slovak Village
Community Projects, Energy Systems, Urban Projects, Village Development, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh January 23, 2010
A turbine with a 21 kWh generating capacity is the centrepiece of
a little village in the mountainous north central region of Slovakia
The village of Necpaly sits at 510 metres above sea level, on the eastern edge of the Necpalská Valley, in the Turiec region in the mountainous north of landlocked Slovakia. The area is filled with rolling hills and cascading valleys framed by mountain ranges peppered with deer, wild pig and bear. And, noteworthy for this particular article, the area boasts abundant flows of crystal clear water.
Comments (7)Permaculture Master Plan: Planting up the Global Garden
Aid Projects, Bio-regional Organisations, Commercial Farm Projects, Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Development & Property Trusts, Eco-Villages, Economics, Education Centres, Ethical Investment, Networking Sites, People Systems, Project Positions, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development — by Andy Homer January 20, 2010
You’re trying to say that you can live in the modern way and continue to think in the traditional way. That’s not true. The way you live affects the way you think. – Danny Billie, Traditional Seminole
I’d like to recount here my impressions of the PRI, and how different it is from many other organizations. We (Tribal Networks) first came across them when looking for solutions to problems we found in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, where we were starting a project to bring in a school and an internet / community centre. Searching for "dry land permaculture" soon found Geoff’s "Greening the Desert" clip, and things progressed from there.
In Transition – the Movie
Alternatives to Political Systems, Community Projects, Consumerism, DVDs/Books, Eco-Villages, Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, People Systems, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh December 15, 2009
In Transition 1.0: from oil dependence to local resilience, available now!
The title says it all. Sit back and enjoy the latest work from the Transition Towns movement. You can watch in parts via YouTube below, or if you prefer, catch the whole thing in one hit on Vimeo.
‘In Transition’ is the first detailed film about the Transition movement filmed by those that know it best, those who are making it happen on the ground. The Transition movement is about communities around the world responding to peak oil and climate change with creativity, imagination and humour, and setting about rebuilding their local economies and communities. It is positive, solutions focused, viral and fun. – TransitionCulture.org
Part I
Comments (4)An Urban Gardener Feeds a Community
Bird Life, Commercial Farm Projects, Community Projects, Consumerism, Eco-Villages, Food Shortages, Markets & Outlets, People Systems, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development — by Sarah Gorman December 10, 2009
Bronwyn’s urban backyard is teeming with diversity. It is providing local families with nutritious food through her Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), but she doesn’t think she is doing anything exceptional. Students from Mulloon Creek Natural Farm’s Permaculture Design Certificate course recently visited Bronwyn Richards’ home in Braidwood, NSW, Australia. They learnt how an urban gardener manages to provide a constant supply of organic vegetables not only for her own family, but five others.
Comments (3)BK Farmyards – a Subversive Urban Farming Concept
Commercial Farm Projects, Community Projects, Urban Projects — by Craig Mackintosh November 22, 2009
Here’s a worrying trend – people growing food in back yards! Whatever next!?
Stacey Murphy is obviously an enemy of all that is good in our consumption-oriented world. Almost certainly a deceptively slippery character, she positively oozes with dangerously contagious enthusiasm in this clip about her Brooklyn based urban guerilla BK Farmyards network, who, like the Portland, Oregon YourBackyardFarmer people I wrote about last year, are growing food for urbanites right in customers’ own back yards.
NYC’s Cool New Backyard Farms: Growing More Than Just Produce from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo.
Don’t let that smile and the gorgeous back yard greenery fool you. Let’s face it, this just plain doesn’t make sense. We, the human race, persistently tried backyard farming for thousands of years. We grew food right where we lived and laboured. It didn’t work, of course, and we headed into the bright new age of the ‘Green Revolution’ instead. How do I know it didn’t work? Well, it’s obvious. It’s because we’re not doing it any more – duh!
Comments (2)Permablitz Gold Coast – Saturday 21 November
Community Projects, Developments, News, Social Gatherings, Urban Projects — by Leah Galvin November 17, 2009
We are having a Permablitz this weekend here on the Gold Coast, below are the details.
Event: Permablitz Gold Coast
Date: Saturday 21st November
Time: 9am onwards
Venue: Ingleside State School, 893 Tallebudgera Creek Road, Tallebudgera Valley QLD (15 minutes drive from Burleigh Heads Beach).
Details: Come along for a morning of gardening. We will be revamping the school’s existing garden beds and replanting. The school is super keen to get their veggie garden going! If you have any manure, compost, tools, and a plate of food to share… bring them along! There will be morning tea provided!
If you need more details, please contact me on leg30 (at) hotmail.com
Comments (0)Tigger Does Mullumbimby Community Gardens
Comedy Break, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Swales, Urban Projects, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh November 13, 2009
Regular readers will have noted a couple of posts – here and here – covering the new and developing Mullumbimby Community Gardens project underway not so far from Zaytuna Farm (about half an hour east, if travelling by car, or a day’s ride on horseback).
Readers of those posts will have seen the panoramas I took to try to keep track of progress. Well, despite clambering up onto their shipping-container-come-tool-shed to take those shots, I always thought that I wasn’t quite high enough to really do the place justice.
So, this time I thought I’d go along with a pogo stick in hand! I had to use a super-fast shutter speed, as travelling at these heights does make for shaky hand-holding of the camera. After several attempts, and not a few bumps and bruises, I managed to get a couple of publishable shots.
Taken after the fifth bounce, when I had a bit of a rhythm going
Letters from Melbourne – Cam and Jesse’s Urban Retreat
Conservation, Demonstration Sites, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Soil Conservation, Structure, Trees, Urban Projects, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh November 10, 2009
An urban hideaway managed by Cam, Jesse and Yarrow Wilson
(Yarrow was taking a break for this shot)
All photographs © Craig Mackintosh
On my recent trip to the Bill Mollison/Geoff Lawton course in Melbourne, that I forced myself to miss so I could go on site visits in the area, Cam Wilson kindly offered to be my guide – giving me very knowledgeable insights into the places we visited. As well as the Dalpura Farm site we just posted about and giving me the heads up on Angelo the Wizard, covered in this post, Cam took me to see the very cool stuff he’s doing on an urban block currently under his expert control in the ‘burbs of Melbourne.
Comments (8)Build it Up – Permaculture Mound
Land, Urban Projects — by Sarina Kilham October 4, 2009
Editor’s note: This story comes to us from the black sandy soils of NSW’s mid-north coast, about 10km outside Forster.
For several years, I looked at the scrubby bit of grass on our sloping black sand back yard and imagined the amazing garden that could be – if only we had a bit more cash to buy the sleepers for raised garden beds, if only I could build a nice flat terrace, if only I was a big strong capable builder, instead of a student who has trouble hammering a nail in straight.
So the garden stayed in my imagination until last year when our permaculture guru friend Tiny came to stay.
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