Urban Sustainability Open House -209 47th St NW. Abq 87105

 

Backyard April ‘07

Backyard Summer '08

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

     For seven years, my husband and I studied and practiced sustainable living methods, but always on someone else’s property.  We work and traveled through America, western Australia and western Africa, seeing how different people in different climates lived off the land. Our favorite pass time then was visualizing how we would do it on our own property one day.  I suppose that’s why when we finally got our own place in South Valley, Albuquerque, we exploded into a furry of project activity.  First motivated by a coming baby, and then despite it, we dumped all our experience and ideas into our 0.18th of an acre, striving to make our home ”sustainablish.”      

     We can’t live as islands.  We will always depend on our local and global community.  However, as oil scarcity promises to increase the price of everything, we must shift our focus to what we can produce at our feet.  For Mother Nature Gardens, sustainability begins when people connect to the cycle of giving and receiving with the land on which they live.  Typical households out-source everything  and then export large amounts of trash and waste water.  Instead of this single direction flow through our home, from somewhere else to somewhere else (see link: the Story of Stuff), we try to make things we bring into our home cycle through our home many times.  In this way, “waste” becomes, well, something else.

Hummingbird & Hyssop

     The cycle of give and take with our land demands we give first.  Building soil is priority in every home we work at in this relatively barren climate.  On our property, we have brought in numerous truck loads of mulch and compost, used from local, recycled materials from Soilutions compost site (see links).  These organic materials insulate the sun-baked ground, help collect and retain soil moisture, repress weed growth, and give the soil something to break down in order to make more soil.   Other methods of giving to our land, recycling what we can on sight, additionally act to lower the amount of exported waste .  For example, grey water from our kitchen sink waters the beds closest the house.  We bury bags of collected junk mail near plants.  The paper acts as a below ground sponge, collecting and holding water near the plant’s roots.    We give all food waste to our chickens who in turn make great fertilizer.  We have built up pathways around the garden beds with old clothing and collected cardboard and paper board.   Having given so much to our land, we can also expect to harvest a great deal. 

Eggplant

     Just what can we get from a small piece of land?  On our small city property, we have planted eleven different types of fruit-producing trees, shrubs, and vines, 6 perennial herbs, and 15 different vegetables have produced in our garden this season.  We have chickens for egg production and meat production and a beehive for honey production.  We also use what Brad Lancaster calls a “solar arc of trees” around the house to cool it in the summer and welcome the sun in the winter.  This lowers our dependency on out-sourced natural gas and electricity needed to keep the home comfortable.  A 2900 gallon cistern catches rainwater from the roof to lower dependance on a depleating water source.  With an average yearly rainfall of only 7 inches, we grow our vegetables entirely with rainwater. 

         With Permaculture techniques, logic, and effort, we can make even a tiny parcel of land surprisingly productive.  As homeowners and as a community, we can lower our dependency on out-sourced products when our cities come alive with innovative gardens.  Please, come and visit our home, Sunday September 21st, 2008, 12-4pm, for ideas and inspiration of urban sustainability.  209 47th St NW; Albuquerque, NM 87105.  View and learn about:

• Strawbale shed
• Rainwater harvesting cistern
• Vegetable production on 100% rainwater
• Passive rainwater catchment
• Permaculture-designed garden beds
• House-cooling shade structures
• Cob grotto
• City chicken production
• Bee production
• Edible landscaping
• Permaculture vegetable production methods

 

Bee pollinating sunflower

Strawbale Shed Construction

Plastered strawbale shed with porch

   Upon moving into our new home, our first project priority became clear: we needed a place to put all our tools.  Bard wanted a low-impact, high character structure so he chose to build a strawbale shed.  The high R-value of strawbales insulates indoor space, making it slow to heat up in the summer and slow to loose heat in the winter.  Strawbales are relativiely inexpensive construction matterial and have a low environmental impact.  Bard used recycled windows and doors for further savings.      

 

Strawbale foundation

     After initial planning, Bard began construction by laying the foundation.  To stay within city codes without needing to apply for a building permit, the inside floor space measured 10 feet by 20 feet.  The shed was properly aligned to maximize passive solar heating and cooling capabilities.  The structure faces south, with windows on the south and east side.  This way, the hot rays of summer do enter the building from the east or west (a shade structure shelters the eastern window from direct rays).  Southern windows welcome in winter sunlight when the sun stays low in the southern sky, but is sheltered from summer rays as the sun move more directly overhead at that time.  Bard dug an even 18 inch foundation, filled it with cement blocks.  To reduce the amount of cement needed (a high-embodied energy matterial), we fill space with beer bottles. 

Making the foundation level

  

Wood frame

          Next, with the help of his father and brother, Bard built the framework for the walls.  Strawbale walls can bare the weight of the roof or a builder can erect a wood frame that takes most of the weight.  He chose to build a post and beam structure due to the fact that he could not find proper bles for a load bearing structure.  Post and beam turned out to be a little more forgiving to the first time builder since the walls are not supporting the weight of the roof.

 Next, the exciting part came: a barn raising party!  Thanks to many friends drawn to learn about strawbale construction and to good food and drink, the majority of the shed went up in an afternoon.  The bales were tied tights and then pierced onto rebar embedded to the cement.  The bales were stappled together with 3-foot rebar staples.

Making a frame for the window

Proud builders

   The bales were covered with wire mesh and plastered inside and out by a professional plastering company.  Bard finished the roof by laying tin sheets.  He made a porch to the east of the shed that provides afternoon shade.  Bard and friend, Casey Paul layed a paver brick floor that helps regulate indoor temperatures by absorbing heat from the long southern angled rays of winter and staying shaded and cool in the summer.

  

   The finished product was so nice, we only dedicate half of it to tools and a work bench.  It also hosts over-night guests, Three String Bale practice sessions, and football gatherings.  The building adds a tremendous deal to our daily comfort and to the overall value of our home. Our next project involves building an attached greenhouse on the southwest side of the shed.  This way we can start vegetables, grow greens in the winter and also passively heat the shed. 

Double Helix Herb Garden

Kitchen herb garden before

Kitchen herb garden after

  On our property, the original kitchen garden had hard lines in  a narrow space.  In order to maximize edge effect and create visual interest, I mimiced the natural pattern of a double helix, two intertwining lines of brick below the surface and rock above.  The twisting lines create three framed plantings areas as well as room behind them to grow herbs close to the kitchen.  I removed the linear brick walk way and replaced it with crusher-fine, which allowed me to eliminate straight lines even in a space that seemed to demand it.

Cob Grotto

     At the front gate of our urban farm, the arms of an organically shaped grotto pull you towards the cave from which Our Lady of Guadalupe emerges.  She creates a portal between the busy street life and the sanctuary within.  She protects our home by blessing our neighbors.  Whats more, she bridges my devout Pagan following with my neighbors’ dominantly beloved Catholicism.  As the religions bumped together two thousand years ago, the Christian’s Mother Mary took on the same iconic divinity as the Egyptian Goddess Isis.  So the sculpture is accurately dedicated to both Isis and Our Lady of Guadalupe in thanks for the birth of our healthy son.

     I made the sculpture from cob, a versatile material made by mixing equal parts (thirds) of clay, sand, and organic materials (I used straw).  Cob structures are built in layers, 2-4 inches at a time that dry enough to keep its form under the weight of the new wet layer.  This allows builders great flexibility and creativity when using this material (for example, years back, I built a wood burning oven with two pot openings from cob).  Also, builders can gather these simple materials locally at very little cost.  On a less appealing note, cob requires a great deal of labor to mix the materials evenly and at the right consistency so I personally hesitate to plan any large project with cob.  I made the sculpture in winter when it felt good to warm up and challenge my body with outdoor exercise.  It took six weeks of steady work. 

     I used a level to lay an even foundation with bricks.  Then, on my husband Bard’s wise suggestion, I made my foundation in the shape of a mushroom.  Imitating patterns in nature at the foundation allowed the structure to grow very organically.  I set a glass jar into the base so it could hold cut flowers.  I used a large potting bowl to hold the shape of the grotto until complete.  Then I stuccoed the outside and Bard cemented in the sculpture of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  All in all, the completed grotto cost only $80 and lot of labor of love. 

Befriending the Elm

     When we moved into our home a year ago, the only thing growing on the lot where 5 mature Siberian elm trees.  As most know, Siberian elms are an invasive species here in the southwest .  They spread like wild fire; in fact, Albuquerque use to be called “Elm City”.  Their deep, ambitious roots suck down the water table level beneath them.  Conversely, the more shallow rooted native tree species raise the water table with its suction.   Elms are also intensely competitive and quick to travel to and dominate available water sources. 

     I desired immediate removal of the trees.  My husband took his stand in the opposite corner.  They provide the only shade to cool our house in the summer and, in most practical terms, we couldn’t afford to have these giants professionally removed.  So they remain.  Normally a friend to trees, I cursed these residents as if they were a theif in the neiborhood, especially the one that canopies over my meditation garden.  “How could I create a sacred garden at the base of gigantic cancer?” I spat. 

     After many trials and errors developing my healing garden beneath the elm, here are a few lessons I have learned.  Avoid any superfulous digging beneath an elm.  I created raised pathways that shed water into planting areas by digging dirt from the beds and adding it to the path.  Everywhere I broke into an elm root to do that, I created a sucker tree.  Furthermore, all the topsoil (which there wasn’t much) occupies the path instead of in the bed.  Instead, create a change in elevation by building the path up with old newspaper, junk mail, and fill dirt and leave the beds alone.  Top dress the beds with compost and mulch.

     Plant in tight groupings for a dozen reasons, one being that the collective root systems can form an alliance against greedy elm roots.  Elm roots mat under drip emitters, making root success of other plants fighting for that very localized water source very difficult.  Group desired plants so that the edge of their mature roots barely overlap.  This way, root systems insulate each other and begin working collectively.  Then, use in-line irrigation (spagetti tubing with a one-gallon emitter every six inches) around and between the plants instead of two gallon emitters at the base of the desired plants.  This creates a wet area for many plants to thrive and a complex root system that can better compete with the elm.  

    Finally, my permaculture training reminds me the problem is the solution.  Can I learn something from the elm other than what not to do?   The siberian elm thrives effortlessly, something for which I strive.   Maybe if I practice being an open student, I can gain some wisdom from my time beneath the elm.  Of course, I still wait to meet a tree trimmer interested in trading work with me.  Until then, as I plant each new plant in my garden, I pray that it will learn from the elm to thrive effortlessly.  May we all.