Indoor Vegetable Garden with Topsy Turvy Planters and Window Boxes
Food Plants - Annual, Food Shortages, Nurseries & Propogation, Plant Systems, Urban Projects — by Matthew Trotter
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 (0)Posted on: March 9, 2010
PRI-De: A Detroit Story
Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Economics, Education Centers, Urban Projects — by Killian OBrien
 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 (1)Posted on: January 28, 2010
Hope for Detroit
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centers, Urban Projects — by Nichole Ross
 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 (4)Posted on: January 26, 2010
Permaculture in the West Bank
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centers, 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.
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Micro-Hydro for a Slovak Village
Community Projects, Energy Systems, Urban Projects, Village Development, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh
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 (0)Posted on: January 22, 2010
Permaculture Master Plan: Planting up the Global Garden
Aid Projects, Alternatives to Political Systems, Bio-regional Organizations, Commercial Farm Projects, Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Eco-Villages, Education Centers, Ethical Investment, Networking Sites, People Systems, Project Positions, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development — by Andy Homer
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.
Posted on: January 19, 2010
In Transition – the Movie
Alternatives to Political Systems, Bio-regional Organizations, Community Projects, Consumerism, DVDs/Books, Eco-Villages, Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Peak Oil, People Systems, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh
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 (0)Posted on: December 14, 2009
An Urban Gardener Feeds a Community
Bird Life, Community Projects, Consumerism, Eco-Villages, Food Shortages, People Systems, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development — by Sarah Gorman
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 (0)Posted on: December 9, 2009
BK Farmyards – a Subversive Urban Farming Concept
Commercial Farm Projects, Community Projects, Project Positions, Urban Projects — by Craig Mackintosh
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 (1)Posted on: November 21, 2009
Magic in Melbourne
Courses/Workshops, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Medicinal Plants, Plant Systems, Trees, Urban Projects — by Craig Mackintosh
There’s alchemy and magic afoot in Melbourne, where we take a look at Bill and Geoff’s PDC and the garden of a certain urban magician called Angelo.
 Bill Mollison at Trinity College, Melbourne All photographs © Craig Mackintosh |
I had never been to Melbourne before this week, but from my very short exposure to it over the last few days, I can already sense that it is a very strange place….
Take yesterday for example. I was in town, and noticed someone had dropped their purse on the sidewalk. There was a lot of foot traffic, and so, standing at a distance, I watched to see what people would do – you know, once they noticed it. Would they pocket it and hurry off? Would they look around for its owner, or maybe a policeman to hand it to?
Comments (0)Posted on: October 2, 2009
Project Thoreau: June-July-August Updates
Urban Projects — by Ezanee Cooper
Editor’s Note: Ezanee keeps us posted on his latest efforts with ‘Project Thoreau‘.
Wow! I never realised it has been three months since my last update. First of all, a big thank you to everyone who contributed suggestions as to how to use Nasturtium leaves in cooking etc. I am pleased to say that I am now a regular consumer of Nasturtium, and don’t appear to have developed any adverse affects or grown any unusual appendages as a result. I mainly use whole leaves as a convenient base in sandwiches or on pancakes, upon which I can load whatever I want without fear of anything spilling over the edge, much like a natural saucer. The taste is certainly unique, with an aftertaste resembling wasabi, but without such a violent kick. Once again I am extremely pleased to have secured another reliable and prolific food source which can regenerate itself without much effort or maintenance.
Posted on: September 12, 2009
In the Transition to Self-sufficiency, Suburban Food Gardens Have a Role to Play
Food Shortages, Society, Urban Projects — by Karen Sutherland
In all my 25 years gardening and landscaping, I’ve never seen anything like the interest in food gardening of the last year or so.
About 18 months ago I changed the focus of my gardening and landscaping business from ‘ordinary’ gardening to produce gardening, and started Edible Eden Design. I had realized that I was happiest working with edible plants and decided to try to make them the focus of my work. I wanted (amongst other things) to promote the idea of using edible plants in an ornamental way. I had no idea at the time the changes that were happening in society and the interest it would generate.
Comments (0)Posted on: August 30, 2009
Convert Your Eco-Unfriendly Swimming Pool into a Biologically Active and Attractive Fish Farm!
Animal Forage, Aquaculture, Biological Cleaning, Fish, Food Plants - Perennial, Food Shortages, Natural Swimming, Plant Systems, Urban Projects — by Craig Mackintosh
Could converting swimming pools into fish ponds be another way to increase food security as we head out onto peak oil’s downhill slope?
A Permaculture fish pond in development
Swimming pools get a bad rap in enviro-circles, and for good reason. They cost a great deal to construct – using a lot of CO2 intensive materials in the process – they waste huge amounts of water and energy for maintenance, use chemicals to keep them clear and ’safe’, and they take up a lot of space that could be utilised for more productive purposes (like growing veggies!). Many people also just find them a lot of work to look after, which is especially annoying when their usage is often only seasonal at best.
But, what if you’re already lumbered with a pool and are trying to make the best of the situation? Maybe it came with your property, or hindsight has kicked in after you’ve shelled out thousands to install something you almost never use…. What then?
Comments (2)Posted on: July 21, 2009
Permablitz Hysteria – Bring it On!
Community Projects, Urban Projects — by Craig Mackintosh
A resurgent community spirit combined with modern Permaculture techniques is systematically transforming Australia’s back yards into edible landscapes – so why not the world?
I haven’t watched television for a really, really long time, so can’t be sure if it’s still the case, but I do remember that, for the ladies at least, shows featuring average looking people getting drop-dead gorgeous ‘makeovers’ by professional make-up artists were once pretty popular. Transfer the thought of a facial renovation over to a backyard transformation, and you get Backyard Blitz, a popular Australian television show that ran from 2000 – 2007. Now, some more eco-savvy people – like Melbourne’s Dan Palmer and some South American friends he met by chance one evening – took this concept a little further…. The result being to take useless, high maintenance, no- or low-yield cookie cutter back yards and turn them into high yield, low maintenance edible landscapes, all in one day! The name for the concept ultimately, and logically, came to be: Permablitz!
So, how would you like to see a small army of people arrive at your house one morning, not to make trouble, but to get busy turning your back yard into an aesthetic and edible oasis? And, no, don’t worry, they won’t charge you a cent! All you need to do is spend a couple of fun and educational weekends being part of this same small army – and then it’s your turn to have your yard transformed as well!
Comments (0)Posted on: July 12, 2009
Rosina Buckman – Living Smart on the Sunshine Coast
Demonstration Sites, Urban Projects — by Craig Mackintosh
Rosina Buckman tells me she’s 72 years old. She looks honest enough, so I’ll take her at her word, but her youthful spirit and energetic stride did give me a moment of pause. And more than that – her urban homestead was overflowing with clear evidence of passionate and fruitful labours that belie her age. I’m not the only one that’s impressed either, as the Sunshine Coast Council have just presented Rosina with one of their 2009 Living Smart awards – she’s their ‘Edible Landscape Winner’.
Rosina, a New Zealander by birth, lives in Tewantin, a small suburb on the fringes of Noosa – a tourist hot-spot on the Sunshine Coast in south-east Queensland. This is a land of ululant lorikeets and cackling kookaburras. The bird life in particular seem intoxicated with life, and nature in general seems jubilant – either optimistic, or just plain carefree, in the face of all we humans are throwing at it.
And we are throwing a lot at it.
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