1. Green rooftops
It couldn’t be simpler. To carry out this project the roof can even be flat, provided there is a slight slope to favour water drainage. It’s necessary to ensure that the roof beams are suitable to support the weight of a small amount of soil. Cover the surface with old carpets or moquette and fix them with boards. Fix the edges that must contain the soil, but leave one side free for drainage. Lay a pond liner and pin it to the boards. Prepare the cultivation soil which can consist of earth mixed with compost of plant origin, expanded clay granules or brick dust. The reason why earth is mixed with one of these materials is obviously to lighten the load. One can then proceed to plant drought-resistant plants and fill the empty spaces with bark-based mulch. Now all that remains is to watch the plants grow and bloom giving life to a true paradise for bees. Alternatively one can purchase Sedum mats. In countries like Germany, which have been pioneers in its use, there are some wonderful hi-tech examples of sedum roofs on large buildings. However, this DIY method for creating green roofs is equally effective and can cost a fifth less compared to conventional materials for roof covering.
2. Edible balconies
Window sills are excellent places in which to grow aromatic herbs and sprout seeds and grains. Even balconies can become productive spaces. If they are sunny, some trellises on the walls can favour the growth of plants such as green beans. Pots and containers on the ground, on walls, hanging from the ceiling and from grates can allow the cultivation of a variety of edible plants, from annual vegetables to fruits such as blueberries and strawberries. It’s possible to cultivate even figs and varieties of dwarf apple trees in pots, although they need pruning and nourishment. The most important aspects of container cultivation are to nourish and water plants regularly and ensure that the balcony structure is suitable to support the weight of pots and containers. More shaded balconies can be the ideal environment for plants such as wild garlic, lettuces and rhubarb. One can also consider arranging some logs inoculated with the mycelium of mushrooms such as oyster mushrooms and shiitake.
3. Food Forest
Food forests (edible forests) have existed in tropical and sub-tropical regions since time immemorial. The idea is to cultivate mainly perennial plants filling all possible spaces: from roots to ground cover, from the shrub layer up to small and large trees. It was Robert Hart who had the inspiration during a trip to Kerala and brought the idea back with him to Great Britain. Robert dreamed of an edible forest that could satisfy the need for medicinal herbs, food and other useful resources. However, it’s one thing to build these systems in regions of the world that enjoy much sunshine all year round, and another is to try to replicate them in the temperate climates of Europe and North America. Fortunately the author and horticulturist Patrick Whitefield appeared on the scene who wrote precisely about the design of temperate edible forests, taking into consideration shorter growing seasons and lesser quantity of sunlight. For example, leaving more space between one fruit tree and another one can fully exploit the “margins” of cultivated land which are the places where the earth is more fertile and soft. In this way the idea took hold that perennial food forests could also be adapted to cold climates.
4. Community gardens
Being multiple plots in the same area, people can share work and production. In some gardens even more has been done and ponds, compost toilets, shelters and even structures for cleaning dishes have been created. These places are also used for educational visits in order to show the variety of existing techniques such as straw houses, composting and rainwater collection systems. Although it’s not always allowed to plant fruit trees in these gardens, in others it’s possible. This has encouraged the creation of community food forests and orchards.
5. Rainwater harvesting
There are many ways to collect rainwater. Placing an 80-litre barrel at the end of a downpipe is the simplest. Why therefore not plant some watercress at its feet? When the barrel is full, the water will end up in the drain anyway, but not before having watered the watercress and given us an extra harvest. It’s possible to collect even more water by installing a 3,500-litre cistern underground. In this way one can collect up to 90% of the water for annual use, the remaining 10% is used to clean the system. The water is destined for all uses that don’t require drinking water and channelled into the house by a small electric pump that activates automatically when, for example, the washing machine is turned on.
6. Reusing tyres
An initial idea of permaculture was to use tyres for creating ponds. Cut away the edge of one side of the tyre with a sharp knife, a small saw or the metal-cutting blade of a jigsaw. Dig a hole wide enough to contain the tyre so that it’s level with the ground and dig a deeper one below the tyre level. Remove any sharp stones and branches, place a plastic or rubber lining in the excavation and then the tyre with the uncut side in the lowest part. Then add water, and wrap the lining on the inside of the tyre and in the soil at ground level. Cover the edge with earth and stones. The cut side of the tyre lends itself as a useful margin for plant growth. Another idea for tyre recycling is to fill them with earth or plaster to build retaining walls on embankments. An even humbler idea is to grow potatoes in a pile of car tyres. Finally one can take 3 tractor tyres, stack them and gradually fill them with compostable materials. When it’s time to use the compost the pile is removed one tyre at a time and shovelled away. This structure can also be useful for growing tomatoes nearby as it accelerates their ripening.
7. Mulched no-dig gardens
Mulching and no-dig can not be exclusive to permaculture, but certainly permaculturists have adopted them enthusiastically and added their creative talent in design. The idea of not working the soil is simple: healthy soil is in itself an ecosystem, a complex network of microorganisms, nutrients and organic matter necessary for plant life. When one digs the soil one interrupts this ecosystem and reduces fertility. The simplest way to grow vegetables is to do it on raised beds in which the soil is not worked, organic matter can be accumulated and the soil is not trampled. Mulching the soil is the most important starting point. One can use cardboard, newspaper, straw, wood chips, dry leaves, etc. and one can plant through the mulch already from the first year. In humid climates slugs and snails are very fond of mulch and can trigger an explosion of pests. However they can be kept under control through paths made with rough wood chips (they don’t like crossing them), covering seedlings with transparent plastic bottles or putting copper circles around them.
8. Tractor animals
Why plough the soil when a bird or animal (e.g. chickens or pigs) can do it naturally for us? The idea is to create a “mobile chicken coop” in the garden. Chickens naturally scratch the soil, feed on pests and small weeds and leave their manure on the ground. However this doesn’t apply to robust and perennial weeds such as couch grass which have very deep roots. Once the chickens have done their job, the soil is ready to be planted again. The result is a series of functions performed at the same time in line with the best permaculture tradition: weeding, pest control and soil fertilisation in the face of minimal work by the farmer. Chicken tractors (as these “mobile coops” are called) are simple to build, but very effective and obviously can also be made with elegant designs to build real wheeled housing easy to transport. On a larger surface one can resort to free-range pigs to be used to plough the soil and prepare it for cultivation. Pigs can uproot forage and leave the soil bare, but rich with their manure and ready to be levelled and replanted.
9. The chicken greenhouse
Exploiting synergies – the antithesis of monoculture. Chickens are by nature really very useful animals. Not only do they provide us with meat and eggs, but they are also useful for waste disposal since they feed on plant waste and weeds. They produce very rich manure for the garden and are excellent for keeping pests under control. By placing the chicken coop in the most shaded side of a greenhouse one can also exploit the chickens’ heat at night, their carbon dioxide for plants and early in the morning one can take advantage of the heat arriving from the sunny part of the greenhouse to warm the chickens’ environment and stimulate them to lay. One can add a rainwater collector on the roof and a forage system to make the chickens even more self-sufficient. If this system is designed within a productive vegetable garden, perhaps with an orchard, the yield will be even greater. In a battery system the chickens’ carbon dioxide, litter, feathers and heat are considered pollutants, but in a small-scale permaculture system they become precious elements. The key is the relationship between all elements and design so that they become useful resources by virtue of their placement.
10. The swales
A swale is a small ditch that retains water and allows it to penetrate into the soil. Swales are built on contour lines and slow down or even stop water runoff and soil erosion. They can be small ridges in a garden, piles of rocks placed along a slope or holes dug in the ground. It’s fundamental to plant on the edges to stabilise the soil, but above all to avoid salinisation, a major problem in arid climates. The Loess Plateau in China is a good example of swales’ usefulness. The plateau covers a surface equal to that of France in north-western China and is one of the places in the world with the highest rate of soil erosion. In recent years, however, the abandonment of agriculture on steep slopes and the start of large-scale terracing and swales have made a difference and there has been a renaissance of traditional terrace cultivation. Thanks to swales it has been possible to plant thousands of trees that have begun to stabilise parts of the area and provide food for inhabitants and forage for animals. For more information on swales you can consult our article here.
Article translated from: https://newint.org/features/2007/07/01/tips/
