Design Methodologies

1. Thoroughly review the information provided in Appendix Three: Design. Essentially this information provides examples of some of the information you would be required to supply for either a client of for yourself. At this time please choose a site for your own project. It may be your current dwelling or a proposed one. You might even use a friend’s property. Choose something close and accessible, as you will need to return to it to complete additional assignments. A quarter acre site (1000 m²) will be more than ample for your first project!

2. Produce a preliminary map of the site – show all permanent features. Use grid or graph paper. Send in a copy of the map and retain the original for later use. Discuss the plan in a manner similar to that in Appendix Three. Be aware of your responses to this method of design.

We have selected a site on Whitehawk Hill in Brighton, East Sussex. The site is currently part of a collection of council allotments for residences to grow their own fruit and veg. We physically lease a small portion of the 1000 m² (around 200 m²) and the rest of the site is taken from the surrounding area. It is situated on the eastern slope of Whitehawk Hill, the top of which reaches 250 metres (see Map 3 below) and slopes reasonably steeply down to one of the numerous valley’s (Deans) that the Brighton and Hove area are famous for.

The entire site is a simple rectangle(ish) shape. It is bordered to the south by residential housing, the north, east and west by productive allotment plots. Due to its location it has excellent access from the south east corner that travels west 2/3 of the way up the 1/4 acre site then turns 90 degrees to the north. The under-lying geology for this entire area is predominantly chalk (see Map 2 below), where drainage is pretty free. The summers in the Sussex area are warm averaging 19 degrees Celsius and the winters are very mild averaging 7 degrees Celsius. The average annual rainfall is 715mm with November through January being the wettest months with 91mm, 71mm and 71mm respectively. The moderating effect of the South Downs to the north of this area coupled with its close proximity to the sea keeps the entire area free of weather extremes, for the most part.

Planting guide - evergreens to the north for wind, privacy and frost protection and deciduous to the south for summer shade and winter warmth.

Much of the 1000 m² site has benefitted from cultivation and continues to be somewhat utilised in the production of a range of fruits and vegetables. More details pertaining to this can be found in the inventory later in Design Methodologies. Although it is on the east slope of Whitehawk Hill, it still benefits from good exposure to sun from sunrise to mid-afternoon at all times of the year, a more detailed look at this follows on the sector map.

An easterly slope is actually quite good – the ground warms up early in the spring and the slope is good for drainage. Westerly slopes can get VERY hot in the afternoon in the summer and northerly slopes are often damp, wet and unpleasant places to spend a lot of time in.

Map 2

Map 2 illustrates quite clearly the above mentioned composition of the whole of the Brighton area being dominated by chalk.

Map 3

Map 3 illustrates the topography of the site and surrounding areas.

3. Produce a preliminary sector and zone plan of the site – show major information. Send in a copy and retain the original. Discuss the plan in a manner similar to that in Appendix Three. Be aware of your responses to this method of design.

Sector Map

In order to draft a highly accurate sector map, we would need to observe the sunrise and sunset angles not just times throughout the year. We can certainly update this though as we progress through the course. With that in mind, we have included 6 readings of sunrise and sunset times and the angle of sun in the sky; we will add the relative “compass” position of both sunrise and sunset later.

(www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/sunrise.html)

We usually tend to look at spring/autumn solstices but the real question is often “where is the sun rising/setting on the last day of killing frost in the spring and the first day of killing frost in the autumn (assuming that you have frost). These will be the dates that matter most for the property.

Zone Map

Zone 0
The residence in this instance is fictional as there will be no house built on this site. We will for the remainder of the course though assume there is a small two bedroom, one-storey property as indicated in the above zone map. For the exercise we have decided the best location was at the end of the top portion to provide good views and easy access. There will be a living (centre of activity) area, two sleeping areas, a parking area and food processing area.

Zone 1
This area is closest to the house to make easy access to the vegetables and herbs that we will use on a daily basis. Closest to the main dwelling on the shady side will be a storage area for bikes, gardening equipment, wood etc. There will be water collection points from the house and storage shed. We have also deemed swales necessary to help prevent too much surface run off of water. This will also be a recreation area along with herbaceous border and our own special thing, a bee garden.

Zone 2
This area is furthest from the home but is driven past to get to house so can keep an eye on it. This area will be orchard containing a variety of fruit trees, fruit bushes, nuts and some wild flowers. There will be some vegetables planted here like melons, corn and things that once planted won’t need much attention and usually have only a short harvest time. The fruit trees will be toward the furthest point as not to block sun from the main house. The wild flowers will draw in bees and other insects to the native plants to help then pollinate the garden. We also intend on introducing at this point our first animals, chickens.

Zones 3, 4 & 5
These areas all fall slightly outside our modest 1000m². But the majority of the land surrounding ours is mainly of Zone 1 and Zone 2 style. We have seen wild snakes, lizards, hedgehogs, frogs and toads and will offer any assistance to grow or at least maintain their habitats.

4. Begin inventorying your site. Use one sheet for plants, one for animals, one for structures etc. Bullet or point for is fine. Send in a copy and retain the original. Be aware of your responses to this method of design.

Structure Inventory

Existing
Main house with two bedrooms, open plan kitchen/diner, bathroom, utility/food processing area
Small outside shed for storage for tools, bike, and wood
Small poly tunnel for seedlings
Water to be heated by a solar water heater (http://www.reallygreenheating.co.uk/solar.html)
Heating by ground source heat pumps (http://www.reallygreenheating.co.uk/ground_source.html)
Wood burning stove (http://www.albioncanvas.co.uk/c44822/Wood-Burning-stoves.html)
Grey water collection system (http://www.greywater.com/treatment.htm)
Water collection from roof to be diverted to water containers, collection pond and swales
Fences are mainly natural hedgerows so will be mainly untouched

Composters are placed near to building
Wish list
Chicken pens
Worm bed
Beehives

Plant Inventory

Keep these lists handy and keep adding to them as you find new things of interest. Even if you haven’t got the resources to acquire them it’s a good idea to plan for them and leave space for things (animals, plants, facilities that you will want later).

Existing
Trees: Sycamore, Leylandii, Elder, Chestnut
Climbers:
Shrubs: Blackberry, Rose hip
Perennials:
Vegetables, Onion, Kale, Brussel Sprout, Garlic, Tomato,
Herbs: Rosemary, Lavender
Wish list
Trees: Apple, Hazelnut, Plum, Pear, Walnut, Quince
Climbers:
Shrubs: Mulberry, Goji Berry, Raspberry, Blackcurrant, Gooseberry, Tayberry, Loganberry, Hawthorn, Blueberry
Perennials: Strawberry, Grape
Vegetables:
Herbs:

Animal Inventory
Existing
None
Wish list
Chicken
Ducks
Geese

Animals are always a big issue – particularly if you have no prior experience with them – fowl are a real handful! Usually we add them to the mix last unless you are going to need them to condition the soil (such as using pigs to turn the soil over).

5. List your general observations and feelings about the site. Again, send in a copy and retain the original. Be aware of your responses to this method of design.

Initially it should be pointed out that we are imagining an accommodation structure on site as one does not exist. The biggest problem with living in an urban setting here in the UK is space. Over 60 million inhabitants on an island smaller then New Zealand (which incidentally only has about 4.5 million inhabitants) means that few are in possession of any sizeable piece of land. The only hope for most is to be allocated a local authority owned gardening allotment, the standard size of which is 250m². Compounding this is the fact that the Sussex coastline is a hugely popular place to live or visit. All available land is already owned, ear-marked or protected.

Most of the eastern end of Brighton, which encompasses our site, is made up of Deans (valleys) with predominantly chalk geology. Our site is located on the eastern side of one such dean which does in general offer a considerable amount of protection from the prevailing weather conditions, which in this part of the world are typically South-Westerly. The slope offers challenges, especially as far as water retention goes, but other than the slight inconvenience of this, it makes for a healthy workout getting to and from the site.

The entire area from the southern end of our site to the far northern end of the allotment complex benefits from years of diligent care and attention from allotment holders. Although a lot of the allotments have been utilised in a simple monoculture type approach, there has been attempts to add to the biomass of the site. There is certainly a need to continue with this pattern, as the under-lying chalk does not offer productive or fertile growing soil. An area of possibly one third of our site, to the eastern side, could benefit from the addition of biomass/soil as previously this has been scraped clean of soil in order to build up raised borders on it; which, quite frankly, was not the best idea by the previous allotment-holder.

The hedgerows to the western end of the site and along most of the northern border are not only edible landscapes, with blackberry and HUGE rosemary bushes, but offer habitat for a number of beneficial creatures (birds, hedgehogs, lizards, toads) that will add to the bio-diversity of our site. We have a number of mature trees which are not fruiting plants but will offer additional habitat for birds. There is reasonable access along a track on the eastern end of the site and another access track that follows the southern boundary and cuts across the site. This access is plenty big enough for a car to navigate.

With some attention this site I believe could be made extremely productive. Careful attention is needed in order to manage the water run-off in such a sloped location. But I think that with good composting technique and sourcing of other biomass sources, such as the local stables for horse manure can quickly improve the entire site into a viable and productive Permaculture venue.

Save Farming?

Well it's certainly an interesting question. Many permaculture practitioners don't see themselves as farmers, but as gardeners. Modern farming has moved towards monoculture on an industrial scale for what economists call "economies of scale". To support this method of farming though requires huge amounts of man-made inputs, in varying concentrations of Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium... unless that is of course, you can find natural replacements for these much needed mineral inputs! (see forest gardening diagram below!)

So, production of food is of utmost importance, that's a gimme, but how are we going to provide for ourselves let alone our extended communities, counties, regions, countries or continents? If these fossil-fuel inputs are reducing, FACT, and monoculture farming is dependent upon these reducing inputs, FACT, why save farming?

"It’s probably too late to prepare for peak oil, but we can at least try to salvage food production." - George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 16th November 2009

http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2009/11/16/if-nothing-else-save-farming/

What is Permaculture?

Not being the most organised person, i could personally benefit from having an everyday PA. So this little blurb possibly should've been the first posting on this blog. Nevermind, sack the literary agent! I know that many of you (because so many of you read the rantings of this maniac) would like to know more about the principles behind Permaculture. Until i have a really good grounding in it, i will leaving the explanation to the godfather of Permaculture, Bill Mollison. He's an Aussie, which is a shame, but we will let this one by... just this once;~)

'Even anthropocentric people would be well-advised to pay close attention to, and to assist in, the conservation of existing forests and the rehabilitation of degraded lands. Our own survival demands that we preserve all existing species, and allow them a place to live. We have abused the land and laid waste to systems we need never have disturbed had we attended to our home gardens and settlements. If we need to state a set of ethics on natural systems, then let it be thus:

Implacable and uncompromising opposition to further disturbance of any remaining natural forests, where most species are still in balance;

Vigorous rehabilitation of degraded and damaged natural systems to stable states;

Establishment of plant systems for our own use on the least amount of land we can use for our existence; and

Establishment of plant and animal refuges for rare or threatened species.

Permaculture as a design system deals primarily with the third statement above, but all people who act responsibly in fact subscribe to the first and second statements. That said, I believe we should use all the species we need or can find to use in our own settlement designs, providing they are not locally rampant and invasive.

Whether we approve of it or not, the world about us continually changes. Some would want to keep everything the same, but history, palaeontology, and common sense tells us that all has changed, is changing, will change. In a world where we are losing forests, species, and whole ecosystems, there are three concurrent and parallel responses to the environment:

CARE FOR SURVIVING NATURAL ASSEMBLIES, to leave the wilderness to heal itself;

REHABILITATE DEGRADED OR ERODED LAND using complex pioneer species and long-term plant assemblies (trees, shrubs, ground covers);

CREATE OUR OWN COMPLEX LIVING ENVIRONMENT with as many species as we can save, or have need for, from wherever on earth they come.

We are fast approaching the point where we need refuges for all global life forms, as well as regional, national, or state parks for indigenous forms of plants and animals. While we see our local flora and fauna as "native", we may also logically see all life as "native to earth". While we try to preserve systems that are still local and diverse, we should also build new or recombinant ecologies from global resources, especially in order to stabilise degraded lands.'

Bill Mollision, Permaculture: A Practical Guide for a Sustainable Future, p.6

Anthropoclastic Climate Change

Yes i'm a fan of Dmitry Orlov. Yes i believe that we are experiencing catastrophic climate change. There's no debate to be had. Most of the sceptics argue about whether it is man-made or natural; what a pointless discussion, it's happening NOW. Easily observable dramatic changes in our climate. The ramifications are beyond terrifying. We all need to be considering keeping a diary of changing patterns we see each day, week, month, if for no other reason then to learn when conditions are right for sowing, growing and cultivating food. There is nothing else to really think about other then food security. That's my rant part over with, i'll share with you, Dmitry's take on this...

"Anthropoclastic climate change" is reminiscent of "anthropogenic climate change," which is a theory that climate change is being triggered by human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas), agriculture (through deforestation, bovine flatus and so on), cement manufacturing, leaking or flaring gas into the atmosphere, chemical manufacturing... the list is very long. Anthropogenic climate change is the theory that these human activities are highly disruptive of the climate. Anthropoclastic climate change is the theory that a highly disrupted climate, which is what we already have, is highly disruptive of human activities, and, in consequence, highly destructive of human life. The anthropogenic theory is a case of man pointing the accusatory finger at man, while the anthropoclastic theory is a case of man pointing the accusatory finger at nature. I will leave it up to you to decide which of the two gestures is the the most futile, but, futile gestures aside, I believe that there are steps to be taken to let us survive climate change, and that these steps should be given due consideration before too long."

http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2009/11/anthropoclastic-climate-change.html

Forest Gardening

So for those of you that are interested i thought i would keep you updated as to what our current thoughts are on the allotment. Still trying to work out how to upload photos of it, so you'll get to see it eventually.

Two weekends ago, the Giant Kiwi and i went to a farm field in deepest darkest Findon to retrieve a large amount of Horse poo. Diligently we dug and dug and dug filling a trailer to drive back the 30 minutes to Brighton. Within about 2 minutes of getting out of the field and onto the Farm road the bottom fell out of our world, well the trailer at least!

Luckily the Giant Kiwi's lady-bint, Vicky, was nearby with a horse-trailer. She drove that over and we dug and dug and dug again transferring all the poo into the trailer. Off we set again to the allotment. Once we arrived, we realilsed that we wouldn't be able to get close to it, so had to wheel-barrow loads upto the allotment.

This will certainly keep us fit. Shandy had graciously prepared the ground for us by covering a corner of the garden with cardboard which we dutifully covered with poo. Quite a few loads later we had a chance to sit down and camp-styley have a nice cup-o-tea!

During the next week, Shandy went up solo and dug a swale not far above where the poo was placed. I'll have him explain in a posting what the purpose of the swale is and provide pictures, if he ever gets online and posts to this blog (incompetent boob!).

The next stage is to plant some fruit and/or nut trees just downslope of the swales as a starting point for a kind of bastardised permaculture/forest-garden set up. The principle of which is explained briefly like this...

Forest gardening is a food production and land management system based on replicating woodland ecosystems, but substituting trees (such as fruit or nut trees), bushes, shrubs, herbs and vegetables which have yields directly useful to humans. By exploiting the premise of
companion planting, these can be intermixed to grow on multiple levels in the same area, as do the plants in a forest.

If successfully planned and executed, it should look something like this:

Adventures in Boating

Not strictly a Permaculture posting, but it's a very ecofriendly way of living and travelling:

It was a little calm this Saturday, but the Sun was fantastic, i guess it was around 20c (60ish for you yankees):

There was some kind of White Air Festival going on, a rather cheap tacky way of recruiting for the military through fun sports and music. A bit sick really. But Hey Ho!

What a lovely way to spend an early autumnal afternoon, chilling having a cold zzzzider :~)

This is probably the best way to see Brighton:

Design Conclusions, Objects & Functions

Here's the next in our Permaculture Design series. You are all sharing our unedited work, so you can be as judgemental and cruel as our tutor is. We're really starting to think about the impact we have and how we can mitigate this going forward. Pictures to be posted shortly from allotment planning :~)

Natural Systems and Design

1. Consider your current living arrangement. What interactions and processes are occurring that demonstrate the “Design Conclusions, Objects and Functions” discussed?

Multiple objects for a function:
At the allotment we have to consider water collection, as typical Sussex ground is extremely chalky and our particular plot is on quite a reasonable slope (10% gradient). Because of these factors water collection/conservation is very important. We have decided not to depend upon only one method of water conservation. Firstly there is a fixed structure which captures rainfall, which is then directed into double water butts. Any excess is directed into a line of swales. These have been designed to follow the contours of the land so that the water doesn’t simply runoff; we are not looking to irrigate water, we are looking to collect it and force it down to raise the water table, giving the soil a chance to absorb some and help with the prevention of erosion. Fruit trees planted below the swales are able to chase down roots to catch some of the water, with the added function of “knitting” the soil thus assisting in the prevention of erosion. Finally we have designed into this system a small pond to also aid in collection of water, if the swales are bursting then the pond collects the excess.

These water collection methods perform other functions too.

Multiple functions for an object:
Swales perform multiple functions on our allotment. Primarily as a rainwater harvesting device it helps with the process of groundwater recharge. It takes the rainwater that would otherwise simply runoff and encourage it to sink down lower to the water table. Swales can assist in erosion prevention by providing surface runoff barriers and improve the moisture content of the soil, which incidentally allows us to plant moisture needy plants to the downside of the swales, benefitting from the collection of water in the swales.

The pond has dual roles too. Not only does it provide another water collection function, it also encourages wildlife to it, like frogs and birds. Both birds and amphibians assist in keeping our overall allotment eco-system in good running order. The frogs/toads assist with removal of unwanted pests like slugs, birds additionally offer assistance in this area, but also eat and spread seed around the allotment so in effect offering a seeding service. The chalky, down land aspect and the strong prevailing winds can increase the loss of water through surface runoff, rapid, free drainage and wind assisted evaporation. The pond also functions as a humidifier to the surrounding area, allowing plants a greater water capture. More plants in greater variety can function to mitigate the effects of the wind by breaking its flow, preventing damage, rapid evaporation from the ground, and evapotranspiration from more sensitive plants. The humidifying and consequent greater plant density and variety can also assist in mitigating the loss of water due to the topography of our allotment, by holding the soil together through the root systems, slowing soak away and surface run-off and added biomass to the relatively thin soil.

Using cardboard on our allotment has a number of beneficial functions. By covering the ground it retards the growth of weeds, which in turn die and become compost directly into the soil. The cardboard will provide insulation to the soil over colder periods meaning it can be planted through and thus protect plants. Finally it has air pockets in it which assist in the insulation of the soil by trapping air to be warmed from the thermal mass of the ground and from solar gain. When it rots down it will help to aerate the soil.

We utilise all manner of domestic containers to offer us additional usage. Our glass bottles, jars etc we use to pickle the small amount of produce that we can cultivate in our house including but not limited to, peppers, tomatoes and onions. We also use these containers for seed saving too. They can be used to remove the moisture from seeds once baked rice is put inside them and the lid firmly sealed. This ensures our seeds are made dormant for proper storage. The middle of toilet rolls we have become big fans of using for bringing on seedlings. Perfect size and eventually they will rot down and add to the soil.

We use left over coffee grounds in a weak solution to spray on our plants, especially those in our lean-to that seem to get problems from melee bug and green fly infestation. We can also use it on the soil to increase the acidity as our tomatoes do love acidy soil as well as for Jess’s hydrangea.

Natural functions to produce desired results:
Companion planting offers a number of benefits, including for pest control, adding nutrient, bringing in pollinators or structural support. Planting basil within 18 inches of your tomato plant, for example, improves the flavor of its fruit and repels many insect pests. Carrots increase fruit production, because the tomato plant draws nutrients from the carrots (which may grow smaller as a result). Basil also makes a wonderful addition to tomato-based dishes

Planting of corn and pole beans together where the cornstalk serves as a support for the beans and the beans put the needed nitrogen in the ground for the corn. Nasturtium are well-known to attract black flies and caterpillars, therefore, planting them around vegetables such as lettuce or cabbage protects them from damage, as egg-laying insects will tend to prefer the nasturtium. This practice is called trap cropping and it’s something that we are just learning about.

Marigolds assist crops suffering from aphids through their smell being deterrent to aphids and attractant to hoverflies (a predator of aphids). Marigolds not only look and smell nice, but will keep a whole range of bugs off our plants. Planting several marigolds in our lean-to will help deter whitefly from our tomatoes and chilli peppers. Alliums such as onions, garlic, leeks or chives serve as a deterrent for slugs and aphids so can be companion planted with fruit trees, tomatoes, brassicas peppers and carrots.

Placement of objects:
Our domestic composter is placed near to the garden outside of our house. We have a small caddy that we fill and transport out to the larger composter, which in turn we can process and as required add to the garden. It was originally placed to the front of the house, but we had to transport compost around, so it was repositioned to where it would be more naturally used.

At the allotment we are planning the positioning of both composting and water collection, but have to consider carefully the gradient of the land. We’ve decided to place composters to the west side of the allotment which is the highest point of the slope so it can be transported easily down once well composted. The same with water collection as gravity takes the water eastwards down slope, utilising this slope for ease of transport is essential.

As discussed above, planting fruit trees down slope of the swales will utilise the run off collection and provide much needed water retention for the shrubs in what is a very high drain area.

Efficiency of energy transfer:
Clearly the two most obvious energy transfer vehicles available to us are the composters and the water collection systems. These have been discussed in detail above, but we can add that we must ensure that all of the energy potential from the allotment be properly utilised. Let’s face it this can include any detritus that is placed into the composters, all energy from dead or dying green waste, any weeds removed from the ground, any kitchen waste that we want to add to the composter, all of these will add to the nutrient rich composter, which can be reused over the entire site... eventually.

The water collection being placed at the highest point on the ground will also require little energy to transfer the stored potential kinetic energy of our water butts to the lower reaches of the garden. We have yet to decide whether we will utilise some kind of rudimentary irrigation system, but having the set up in place to utilise gravity will mean that the retrofit of such a system should be easy.

Natural succession/Time:
Due to the “hardy” nature of our allotment soil, we need to develop some techniques to speed up the process of natural succession. We have a number of tools available to us. We could choose to seed bomb a number of areas, introducing clumps of natural wild flowers and plants to help break up the chalky soil. If we ensure that these include self-seeding plants, this will continue to do this for us naturally throughout time. Areas can then be selected for covering with our cardboard boxes, which will encourage the plants to die back, providing nutrients for the soil but also allowing us to plant other varieties of plants that will yield crops that we can eat or store.

2. Identify current sources of pollution in your home environment. Discuss how these yields might be used as resources in the future. Will your solutions reduce your workload?
In general, we can state that anything that needs to be removed from the house post-use can be considered a pollutant. Currently in our home we can clearly identify the biggest pollutant being whatever is found in the garbage bin. We recycle some plastics, glass, paper and card directly i.e. in council supplied recycling bins or we reuse them in our house or allotment. Some of our food waste can be recycled by adding it to our composter, but we must ensure that some foodstuffs are not added to it like meat products as this would encourage unwanted creatures due to the slow nature of protein break down. So whatever remains in the bin are our main pollutants and even a cursory glance on any given day shows that this is made up of non-composting foodstuff and excessive packaging.

All the water that we use in the house too can be construed as being pollutants as they are combined with detergents of different varieties and removed from the house, without much thought for an alternative use, whether it be washing machine drainage, dirty dish water or used bath or shower water.

Finally any by-product of cooking could be considered a pollutant. We often use oils to cook with but any amount that is not absorbed is disposed of post-cooking. This goes the same for any water used to cook rice, pasta fruit or vegetables; for the most part wastefully disposed of without any thought!

Before looking at which of these pollutants could become resources i believe it would be more pertinent to look at which of these could be eliminated. Short of changing our diet, the protein waste will remain for the foreseeable future or at least until we can find a way of completely utilising it. Excessive packaging is really a choice of convenience. We have to ask ourselves whether we have alternative choices for resources that we bring into our household. Can we visit a farmers market, or more traditional green grocer to lessen the packaging burden? Could we conceivably (as suggested by a friend) simply unpack everything that is bought at the point of sale passing on this pollutant to them? This would probably provide food for thought to the supplier if the consumer truly is king and our demand for minimal to no packaging is carefully considered by them. Simply reducing this pointless packaging though surely reduces our workload we would hope. It would certainly produce less trash to take to the side of the road each week.

All the “grey” water that comes from our house should be put to better use then it currently is, that’s for certain. This exercise has definitely highlighted a pollutant that could easily be changed to a resource. Particularly dishwater, that could be used immediately on the garden due to the nutrients present in it especially if we are considerate of the type of detergent used, Ecover (http://www.ecover.com/gb/en/), for example. Our clothes washing could be carried out using Ecoball (http://www.eco-ball.com/) washing kits which are detergent free, meaning this grey water could also be applied directly to our garden and indoor plants. We could conceivably simply divert all grey water straight into the garden using hoses from the outlet, but we would prefer to be able to introduce at least some rudimentary natural filtering in this process.

Finally, food pollutants can be used similarly to the grey water discussed above, simply use the cooking water shortly after cooking, the garden is going to benefit immensely from the high nutrient content. Oils have plenty of uses post-cooking. We could filter and reuse the oil; we could allow it to harden, mix it with seeds and use it as a bird feeder; it could be conceivably used as a coating for recycled wood at the allotment; alternatively it can be used in the production of soap; fortunately we do have a recycling centre close to us that takes used oil to convert into usable fuel.

The question remains whether these solutions would reduce our workload. Simply stated, yes, minimising garbage removal from our house; reusing more of the packaging that comes into our house as containers (of sorts); channelling grey water directly to the garden, instead of traipsing around with a watering can; maximising the utility of oils also negates the need to shop for product (only as far as the limited examples above highlight though!)

Time's Up

In case you missed it on Dmitry Orlov's blog, i thought i would draw your attention to his latest post, a review on a book by Keith Farnish called "Time's Up". Think it may have to be on the Palmer's reading list.

Excerpt:

"We – all of us – should just follow our genetic programming a little better. As bits of biological hardware executing a genetic program, it is our primary function to pass our genes on to the next generation. This part is not controversial, and there are several billion of us on hand to attest to the program's success. But unlike, say, yeast, some of us also capable of understanding an important principle: that just blindly creating progeny doomed to extinction is not as clever as we like to imagine ourselves to be. If we leave no viable habitat for our children, then we could give birth to countless numbers of them and still fail to reproduce successfully. (Yeast are actually somewhat clever, and when their environment becomes too polluted with their main waste product, alcohol, for them to function, they fall dormant and wait for an improvement, whereas we just kick the bucket.) The key question is not whether to breed, it is where to breed, and just as many animals range far and wide to find a place to breed and rear their young, we need to look beyond the cupcake-and-kitten universe with its plastic baby car seats and baby formula, and reconcile our effort with the big picture, or we are only doing half the job of parenting."

Complete review @ http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/

Permaculture Ethics

So me and Jess have kicked off our correspondence Permaculture course this month and our first submission has been sent and returned by Brian our tutor. For the most part there seems to be no fundamental problems with it so i thought i would share with all. Brave of me i know, but it is the essences of Permaculture principle Care of People. Sharing the knowledge. So in glorious technicolour is Permaculture Ethics as submitted by Tim and Jess. (I have also included our tutor's comments in blue)

Permacutlure Ethics

Interview a representative or individual you admire. Do they have a stated ethical basis from which they make decisions? Try to find someone who does. As many people have no formal ethical structure (a mission statement) be sure to give them time to think about their answer if necessary. Ask them about their ethics with respect to:

Care of earth
Care of people
Surplus and Cooperation
Our interviewee for this is Warren, a 51-year old paramedic living in Brighton. He has, for the past 2 years, lived aboard a 35 foot Warrior class sail boat at Brighton Marina. He has been a dive master in Papua New Guinea and Egypt, also running the boats in those locations too. He is a New Zealand national who has lived in the UK for over 20 years. I asked him to describe his overall ethical outlook and whether he had an informal ethical “mission statement”?

“I follow what could be loosely termed a Buddhist principle generally speaking. They seem slightly cliché but are do no harm, minimize my impact and of course reduce, reuse, recycle. Not being the typical recycler I refer more to things like hard wear and clothing. This could be seen more as a necessity though as I live on a 35 foot boat which requires me to consider carefully what resources are available to me, how much I use, what can I store and whether something has a longer “life” then you would normally consider practicable. The primacy of water is hugely apparent when living on a boat, as the amount you store is finite and you can see it reducing as you use it, making you much more sensitive to your use.”

What about an ethical approach as far as it relates to the concept of “Care of Earth”?

“I am fortunate enough to live a reasonable minimalist lifestyle on my boat. The energy requirement on a single person residing on a low energy craft is very little as evidenced by my total energy bill versus yours for a month £6 versus about £40. As mentioned before my water usage is a brilliant illustration of being acutely aware of how much I use. It focuses the attention on whether I need to keep the tap running, how much I use for cooking and is patently clear from my usage that the average usage MUST be too much.

I currently assist my partner with basic animal husbandry. She keeps horses on shared land which I am keen to help her with. Whether it is basic “mucking out” or keeping feet in good conditions, I feel these are good skills to keep fresh. Especially when you consider that the horses are both still competitive.

Growing up in New Zealand, my father taught me to utilize the entire plant when I bought my first house. He didn’t just teach me to sow, reap and eat, he also taught me to use all parts of your crops for fertilizers or compost. I managed to provide a large amount of food from a tiny 40 square metre plot. Sustainability has become a huge focus more recently in my life. I have been a diver in a number of different locations throughout the world and this has exposed me to some of the worst types of damage being done to our oceans ecosystems. Over-fishing, raking of the sea floor, removal of plants from an ecosystem without really understanding the impact that this will have on the overall system has been awful in my experience.
I do encourage people, including my interviewer to consider what they eat especially as it relates to produce from the sea.”

What about an ethical approach as far as it relates to the concept of “Care of People”?

“As the interviewer is acutely aware, I am happy to share my experiences, stories, skills and pit falls with everyone, or at least all who will listen. This, to me, is the key element of care of people as it is important to pass on skills to others through stories, anecdotes or jokes; whatever is the best way to get the idea across. For my part every year I share the “hangi” experience with my English friends. Basically is a Maori barbecue whereby foods is prepared and then placed in the ground along with super-heated stones and covered for a number of hours to cook. But what I hope this shows people is an indigenous technique for collectively preparing and sharing the bounty of the land. It’s fun, active and of course tasty!

As eluded to before I have experience of living in Egypt, around the Red Sea and in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea. These experiences have enabled me to see how others live, off of what, and how they share. I continue to share these experiences, try to remember the lessons learnt, the food stuffs tried and cooking methods undertaken.”

Finally, what are your ethics as far as it relates to surplus and cooperation?

“Growing up whatever surplus we had from our allotment was informally shared amongst friends and neighbours or stored, usually by freezing. A lot of the time this was pretty incidental instead of being organised and planned. Shame really as between 20 neighbours or so we could virtually provide everything for each other if we’d planned better. I also brewed my own beer at that time and would ask those that wanted some to provide me with sterilised bottles to help me with production and supply. My capacity was about four dozen quarts to sell at any time along with four dozen quarts in production. It again, was fun as i had lots of people involved in this informal trading scheme whereby no money changed hands but the understanding that existed between us all was of mutual respect and all working towards a common goal. This was a brilliant community-based activity!”

1. Self-Reliance and Community Self-Sufficiency
What skills, resources and abilities contribute to your own you self-reliance? What community building activities can you participate in to increase the level of your community’s self-sufficiency?
Personal self-reliance is not about being able to supply everything you need but to be part of a sustainable system where by using your skills to produce some of what you need and lean on the community for the rest.

This does not simply mean to grow your own food, but growing some of your own food will help reduce the need to rely on supermarkets who use a lot of fuel to produce and ship their goods. For the parts that you can’t produce then look to community markets or eating locally. Continuously learning and updating gardening skills do benefit our self-reliance for example knowledge of composting and water collection assists in teaching how to properly use resources.

Our self-reliance is still in its infancy. We both bring some skills and experiences from our pasts that will enable us to increase our self-reliance but these are by no means complete. One of us spent two years as a volunteer team leader with the Prince’s Trust, recruiting, organising and delivering twelve-week personal development programmes.

This programme required individual and group community projects to be organised, resourced and project-managed by the team leader.

The skills developed in these two years included:
· problem-solving,
· leadership,
· communication,
· motivation,
· cooperation and
· active listening.

These skills are obviously better served to organise, motivate and manage community self-sufficiency rather than show any self-reliance. The other brings generalist Biology skills with a small focus on botany and teaching. From a young age a lot of time was spent on a farm learning to grow our own food and learnt that home grown seemed to taste better. This then led to a 4 year degree in biology and life sciences which gave knowledge of how we could make a difference and to study further how much harm we had already done. (Personal resources)Then completed a 2 year course on secondary education and partook in supply teaching. The skills developed through these courses and teaching is confidence, problem-solving, sharing information, attention to detail and interpersonal skills. (Personal resources)

Politics and economics (an interest and a skill) are fundamental to our understanding of the coming Energy Descent and the need to equip ourselves better with the skills necessary to cope with the urgent changes that are coming. This also helps with education for the community on the importance of self-sufficiency and the necessity of creating a transition plan to better prepare for an uncertain future. Obviously information is slightly abstract, but the combination of our knowledge along with the people skills provided by the Prince’s Trust and teaching will hopefully help in disseminating essential information to our community.

We are exceptionally lucky to have recently acquired a 180 square metre allotment on Whitehawk Hill. This resource will certainly provide us with a blank canvas on which to practice the skills that this course provides, but will also hopefully be bountiful enough to produce a surplus with which to share. Furthermore, this allows us to form better contacts with the local community garden project and Brighton & Hove Transition group.

Our continued participation on this course will provide us with the skills with which to share knowledge and ideas with these other community groups, especially the community garden as they are trialling a small Permaculture plot on their larger community plot.

As evidenced by our above listing of skills, resources and abilities, we, like many are seriously lacking in the kinds of skills needed to properly prepare for a low-energy future. This Permaculture Design Certificate is just the start of a programme of courses to better arm ourselves and aid our community. We further plan to participate on a number of additional courses following the completion, successful or otherwise, of the PDC. So far we are looking at Bee keeping, a short course introduction to this essential skill, this starts in the autumn. After that we hope to participate on an Earthship design and building course to commence in the New Year. These courses are not to be carried out with selfish intentions, we positively intend to pass on these skills to our wider group of friends and neighbours in order to share the wealth of knowledge that these will provide.

Having the fundamental desire to make a positive change in our life and our community’s life is key. Brighton is a hugely diverse and progressive bastion in an otherwise reasonably conservative country. We are lucky in that respect, as it provides no small amount of community, volunteer and green groups with which to assist. Our only concern would be how to choose and prioritise which community groups we can assist. Some of the geographically close groups are listed here with some information on them, but this is by no means exhaustive. I believe by the end of our course we will be able to lend our skills to any number of community groups.

“Brighton Permaculture Trust promotes greener lifestyles and sustainable development through design. It raises awareness and facilitates learning in supportive environments. It is an ethical not-for-profit organisation formed in 2000 by people interested in putting Permaculture ‘on the map’ in Brighton and the Sussex area.” (http://www.brightonpermaculture.co.uk/index.html)

“Transition Brighton & Hove Food Group is working to strengthen the resilience of Brighton & Hove in the production and delivery of food. Their aim is to develop relocalised food infrastructure as well as encouraging individual and community action to grow our own food.”(http://www.transitionbrightonandhove.org.uk/2007/08/food-group.html)

“Moulsecoomb Forest Garden & Wildlife Project was set up with the stated aims of reducing anti social behaviour by involving excluded pupils in the running of the garden; improving the health of the community by offering free, organic and locally grown vegetables to low income families and elderly people; enhancing skills and employability by offering practical based training and volunteer opportunities; getting children involved in planting, growing and eating healthy food and respecting nature and the environment; creating and enhancing wildlife habitats, protecting bio-diversity including old fashioned vegetable varieties; promoting sustainable lifestyles, by encouraging and educating people about composting and the benefits of organic gardening and locally produced food.” (http://www.seedybusiness.org/index.shtml)

As mentioned above these are current groups that are active in our immediate community. This does not mean that we would not be prepared to possibly start our own community gardening or composting scheme. We have enthusiasm, energy and the friend’s network to do anything!

Principles

Interpret your own ethics within the structural principles ‘care of the earth’ and ‘care of people’. Provide examples where possible.
Care of Earth
Our ethical principles are born out of 3 main overall concepts;
· compassion,
· empathy,
· education.

These basic principles allow us to “tread lightly” especially as they relate to Care of Earth. This can be seen in multiple ways care for living soil, biodiversity, stewardship to name a few. We will look at a few that we have dealt with. Care for living soil looks at use of soil and how if overused or if technology used inappropriately can cause loss of the lands ability to support life(a). Jessica’s uncle took over the farm that belonged to her grand-parents, he changed a lot of the ways he managed the land. He started using a method of no till farming. He explained about how this helped prevent erosion and help increase the amount of water the soil can hold as it does not run off. Through her studies she learned about microbes and the part they play in helping plants survive and how degradation of soil through tilling can cause loss of organic matter which holds many nutrients for plant survival. Our care of earth ethics also encourage us to share and educate as best we can.

We have limited space in and around our house to grow any large amount of produce, but we can grow seedlings and bring them on; we can pass these plants on to others to grow in their limited spaces too; we cultivate, bag and share the seeds from our plants whilst encouraging others to do the same with the plants we have shared with them. We try not to preach to others but simply set a good example to follow. This spring a couple, who are mutual friends of us both, were resistant to cultivate a tiny piece of land in their back garden, so we organised a team of people to descend on their home for a couple of hours and transform a simple grassed area into a productive vegetable garden in under two hours. Since we have done this they have both enjoyed the limited bounty of this area and their infant child can also enjoy the area as everything is edible.

Care of biodiversity which includes all diverse life forms that inhabit the earth whether they have a current usefulness to us or not is something we believe strongly in. We believe that it is our responsibility to not destroy other species for our own gain. Jessica’s first experience of this was learned from her grandmother. She would take Jessica to the woods and taught about the things we could use like mushrooms plants etc. When picking these or wild flowers she would never let take all in that area or diminish what was there. She explained that we had to leave some there to reproduce or there would be none for the animals or for us next year. This helped Jessica to have great respect for nature and how we could be a part of it as well as having responsibility to preserve it.

We continuously look at our use of resources, whether that be direct energy costs (we endeavour to switch all sockets off at night and only use lighting in the room you are in; swap all light bulbs to energy efficient; reduce the temperature on the refrigerator and only use the cool cycle on the washing machine) or indirect costs (we often reuse the packaging that can be reused; we recycle all recyclable materials and compost all kitchen waste; we often reject products that use excessive packaging as means of protest).

Care of People

Care of people is an ethic that we think runs through our lives. With a mixed cultural background we expose each other’s friends to different experiences that we have had growing up. Jessica brings her holidays (Thanks Giving, Independence Day) and shares those with our wider circle of friends which is not simply an excuse for a party but also a sharing of time, ideas, meals, traditions and most importantly fun! We often find, but don’t let it dent our enthusiasm, that most are a bit resistant to change and the introduction of new traditions. We are both determined to continue to lean on friends, to continue to expose them to and hopefully gain their acceptance of a more cooperative way of living. We understand that people have busy lives; we understand that people have their own day-to-day problems to deal with; but we still want our friends and community to be aware that their impact whether direct or indirect has a huge impact on the wider earth. Inaction is simply unacceptable and without a helpful, smiling nudge this situation will not change. We use our skills in teaching to share our skills with others so they can use the land and others to help build a community who relies on each other to limit our outputs while making sure none of us go without.

Fair Share

Permaculture looks at combining care of earth and care of people to benefit both or at least be compatible and sustainable. To be able to maintain the earth we need to look at not only how much land is needed to grow our food but also the resources to plant, harvest, prepare and ship those foods; what equipment is used and how much energy went into the manufacture of it etc. We then, ideally, need to minimise our impact whilst minimising the effects the changes have on our lifestyle. It takes research and understanding to know how to minimise impact as it may not be straightforward. For example you can lower your use of energy but if you then use those savings to purchase goods which have high ecological impact the overall ecological impact may be the same or even increased. We will use our knowledge and experience to share and educate our friends, family and community to help reduce our overall ecological impact.

References
(a) Permaculture Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainabililty – David Holmgren, Holmgren Design Services 2002