Starting a Backyard Permaculture

March
8th: (early morning to 4pm) plant indoor plants: Vegetables: broccoli, gourds, tomatillos, tomatoes; Herbs: Alpine strawberry, basil, lavender, oregano, rosemary, thymes, yarrow; and flowers.
Plus, outside planting: Vegetables: beets, broccoli, carrots, chard, kale, leeks, lettuce, onions, radishes, spinach; Herbs: Arugula, chamomile, chives, cilantrol, dill, parsley, watercress; flowers.
Also, sow fruit and nut trees for a mini-nursery & herbs for the spiral
Plus: Soil test! (2 hours)
Boulder Valley Going Local’s Food Summit @ 7pm, Boulder Outlook
Class: Vegi. Planting
13th: (early morning to 4pm) Community Outreach in the neighborhood: resources & interest
* If you and/or your roomates could join me?
Class: Wildlands Restoration @ 7pm, RIE (conps.org)
15th: (early morning to evening) Collect supplies for 22nd….
21st: (all day…spend the night?) Work on ponds, water tanks, shower, mini-greenhouses (3′ x 8′), swalls, and an herb spiral, and sheet-mulch!!!
* If you and/or your roommates could join me?
22nd: (early morning to 10:00am)
Vegan Meetup/potluck at noon.
27th: (early morning to 4pm) Finish work from the 22nd & plant pees.

If you could?
* Collect all organic material, sorted into worm food (most all food scraps except meat (for the compost) and not. & Take care of my worms! (It’s very easy…once a week, 2lbs of food).
* Collect the stuff needed to sheet mulch: 3′ stack of newspaper, 6-8 cubic yards of bulk organic matter (straw, yard waste, leaves, ground bark, wood shavings), 6-12 cubic feet of compost, 1/4 to 1 cubic yard manure, 2-4 bales hay, sawdust, or pine needles.
* Get me two or three “trashed” tires? Plus, save any and all of the plastic bottles ya’ll use (Reduce, reuse, and THEN recycle ….. (*~drool~*)
* To help keep my costs down, do you, or someone you know, have any useful tools: Shovel, gloves, etc?

Please get back to me ASAP. Let’s talk sometime Wednesday or Thursday before I start buying seeds and other supplies on Thursday and Friday (6/7th).

I have about $200 I can spend for this week. You?

My initial guess is that it will cost:
$160 for 20 x $2/20 vegetable plants plus 10 seed starters
$10 for wildflowers: 2 x $5/10′x10′;
$15 for native (drought tolerant) grass, 1,000 square feet;
$15 fruit & nut birdseed;
$6 clover.
TOTAL SEED COST: $200
$30 Flexi-Fence for dog, 2 x 25′x2′
$50 soil fixin’s (potting soil and compost)
$50 greenhouse material
$30 sprinkler
$15 for trellis netting, 3 x 6′x12′
TOTAL EXPENSES: $375

If we want to implement a more complete permaculture design, it will cost more to include:
$30 for dwarf fruit and nut trees;
$40 for two water tubs for ponds; (or plastic…)
$150 for a water storage tub (500L)
$350 bee-hive
TOTAL: $570
TOTAL TOTAL: $945

Observation: Research

THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF BOULDER:

Animal Species:

Plant Species:

Community Resources:

Temperature: Hi _____, Low ________

First Frost: _______, Last Frost: __________

Rainfall Amounts and Seasons:

Snow: ____________, Hail, ____________
Utilities: power: _____________ sewer: __________ gas: __________

Water:

Homeowners associations:

Government activities: recycling: _______, Yard waste:_________,

Herbicide spraying:___________, Zoning:______________,

Structures:

History of the land:

ALLENSPARK:

Animal Species:

Plant Species:

Community Resources:

Temperature: Hi _____, Low ________

First Frost: _______, Last Frost: __________

Rainfall Amounts and Seasons:

Snow: ____________, Hail, ____________
Utilities: power: _____________ sewer: __________ gas: __________

Water:

Homeowners associations:

Government activities: recycling: _______, Yard waste:_________,

Herbicide spraying:___________, Zoning:______________,

Structures:

History of the land:

The People’s Republic Meetups

I would like to extend an invitation to everyone in the People’s Republic of Boulder. Please join me in changing the world, one Meet Up at a time. I will dedicate myself to making all of these groups successful.

I will support everyone in any action take, as long as action is taken.

Boulder Climate Smart Meetups: to help the city reduce our climate footprint by 400,000 tons CO2-eq; to participate in mass-media opportunities to raise local and national awareness. We should have group meetups:

1. March 18th: Congressional Debates on Energy and Climate Change at CU’s Wolf Law at 6pm, to hold signs that say:. “I AM CLIMATE SMART.”
2. April 25th: ARBOR DAY.
3. August 25-28th: Democratic National Convention
   

To do public outreach to make climate change and peak oil mitigation and abatement information and local and national resources available.

The People’s Republic Meetup: to help catalyze change by reducing our climate footprint, compared to the average American, by 75% by April 22nd, Earth Day.

EcoArts Meetup: to get the community to perform poetry, street theater, and participate in national and global climate change awareness campaigns, like at the the 2008 DNC Convention.

Vegan (Potluck) Meetups: The quality of a society–their justice and equality–is directly related to how their agricultural system is organized. We have a black box. We need a change in culture that is founded on conscientious eating. Raw foodists are encouraged to join and enlighten us!

Neighborhood Permacluture Meetups: To lobby the city for public areas to plant fruit and nut trees for future permaculture projects. Help raise money for herb greenhouses.

First Meetup: April 25th: ARBOR DAY!

Neighborhood Backyard Gardening Meetups: to connect people who have backyards that they are willing to donate to community supported agriculture (CSA) programs with people that are willing to tend to these gardens for free food and housing (or other arrangements).

Boulder Valley CSA Network Meetups: to connect people who can work at and/or financially support locally produced food. CSA shares range from $20 to $3,000.

5 Ideas for Boulder Groups

While at a self-defined Climate Smart campaign meeting with the Sierra Club, we came up with a number of awesome projects that could be implemented immediately and have enormous impact. Boulder will once again be the true People’s Republic.

The Boulder Group spent 20 minutes to talk about what should happen next? How do we get others involved? What are the most effective things to prioritize?

At the regional scale, the biggest problems in Boulder is home inefficiency, electrical use and transportation. At the global scale, it is Boulder’s food consumption and land-use decisions. There is a huge list of things people can do to address the problems of climate change and peak oil, and all changes should be encouraged.

1. Create Meet-Up groups dedicated to a specific campaign. Who wants to be part of the Model Citizen Meetup (to help implement this change and reduce our climate footprint, compared to the average American, by 75%–immediately), the DNCC Greening Program Meetup (to help EcoArts in a community event during the convention), the Vegan (Potluck) Meetups, Neighborhood Permacluture Meetups, Neighborhood Backyard Gardening Meetups (to connect people who have backyards that they are willing to donate to community supported agriculture (CSA) programs with people that are willing to tend to these gardens for free room and board), and Boulder Climate Smart Event Meetups like the March 18th Congressional Debates on Energy and Climate Change at CU’s Wolf Law at 6pm, to hold signs that say:. “I AM CLIMATE SMART.”

2. We should organize around being part of Climate Smart.

3. The minimum standard required for membership should be a 2% reduction in our personal climate footprint by August 2008 (This is the Sierra Club the Kyoto Goal, but this is a joke and we need to make sure the world knows we take this crisis serious, and dedicate to a 75% reduction).

We should want to tell the world at the Democratic National Convention that Boulder will be the first GHG neutral city in the world by 2012. We want to tell the world that the People’s Republic has unanimous support for Barack Obama. We are united. We will redifine what liberalism means in a People’s Republic and present it to the world. With 75% of Boulder Resident support for the 2012+ Climate Smart campaign, we will dedicate ourselves to a $50 per ton CO2-eq tax!!! (Vision: $100/ton CO2-eq by 2020 and a $350/ton by 2050, as recommended by the IPCC.)

4. Climate Smart Boulder residents should change our culture to include norms like (1) 75% of residents having backyard gardens, (2) bikes for 75% of the population, (3) a 75% reduction in cars, and (4) public fruit and nut trees on 75% of public land because these plants will take three years of continual care to get established and on which permaculture designs are based on. (5) Boulder will have trees covering over at least 30% of our community, plus our greenbelt and a (6) new Light Rail between Denver and Boulder. (7) We all agree to limit our meat and dairy intake because it is the number one priority in addressing global warming in industrialized nations, along with education and overall conservation.

5. Residents should adopt a parking spot and dedicate that plot of land to a resident who has donated their car.

6. Businesses and individuals who are able should implement composting programs and help create soil for public permaculture projects or gardens. It is one of the most RESPONSE-able things to do.

WHY SHOULD WE DO THIS?

1. CLIMATE CHANGE

1,200 gigatonnes (GT) of methane (60,000 GT CO2-eq) caused an extra 5°C (23°F) of warming, 55m years ago. The result was 5-12 m (15-40 ft) sea level rise. There is 500,000 GT CO2-eq clathrate in deep ocean reservoirs and permafrost v. 180 GT of CO2 currently in the atmosphere. This is called the Clathrate (methyl hydrates, pronounced like “cloth”) Gun Hypothesis. If this happens, Earth’s carrying capacity would significantly reduce and death would be a common phenomenon. I prefer the Phenomenon of Spirit (see Phenomenology of Spirit by Hegel: My Synopsis). We are experiencing the second greatest die-off in Earth’s History. You don’t think you’re going to suffer? “We’re fucked. But life is great. And we’re fucked. But life’s great.” –Derrick Jensen (author: End Game).

Quick: Go find God, come back, and help me try to reduce unnecessary suffering. It is time to embrace our Sainthood. Embrace the moment. Embrace the problem. Embrace the solutions.

2. PEAK OIL

Our consumption of oil is not sustainable. It takes 45 calories to produce, package and transport one calorie of food. Our food supply is completely dependent on oil, a resource bottleneck that could easily send our community into crisis mode at almost any time. We should become independent of outside resources for essential things like food and water and energy.

Specific Actions for Neighborhood Associations: Top 5

These actions should all be recorded with group break-outs, verified, and tracked for changes by the group’s record-keeper. The group’s HR manager should make sure everyone can fulfill their commitments and membership requirements. Groups should meet at least every two weeks and have 20-50 participants.

1. Get involved with the community Climate Smart campaign and get a free home energy audit and learn how to retrofit your home. It will save you money that should be invested in community greening projects. (This addresses both climate change (CC) and peak oil (PO).)
2. Get involved with either home gardening or public permaculture projects by contributing to composting, eating local, advertising your resources (information and skills) and “trash,” (PO & CC).
3. Shop Locally: We will be less dependent on outside resources (PO).
4. Eat Less Meat: We will reduce our total global ecological footprint by 40% when the vast majority of us become vegetarian or vegan or raw-foodist (CC).

Specific Actions for Group Membership Requirements:

• Bring your own mug and plate if you want to eat our food!
• Take public transportation. If you can’t, keep your car tires properly inflated and carpool (community cars only?)
• Turn appliances off that are on standby
  Turn thermostat down 5°F in the winter
  Turn your air-conditioner up by 5°F in the summer
  Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent
• Recycle
• Wash clothes with cold water
• Plant something

Other Actions for Individuals:

Bank online

Use reusable grocery bags
Work at home
Get lost in nature
Use solar power
Invest wisely

Take shorter showers
Use micro-wind power
Green your roof
Buy Energy Star products
Use public transportation
Bike or Walk

Loose weight
Reduce your air travel
Buy carbon offsets

NOT IN A COOL CITY?

People should organize around the nation for Sierra Club’s Cool Cities training so they can organize about getting as many mayors as possible to sign on with the Kyoto Protocol.

Why? Because then your city will generate about $1 million per year on a marginal climate tax and be able to create the infrastructure your community needs to get subsidized tree nurseries and the local population to implement xeriscape projects, permaculture education classes, and others.

When, What, Why to Plant

Part of Boulder Going Local’s Great Reskilling, with Eric Johnson, February 7th, 2008

• Bulb onions: highly light sensitive
• Choose a variety of long, medium, and short day onions.
• Start onions indoors by seed
• Carrots: 60-70 days: seed to harvest
• Clover is good until late August. Cut it down when its about to flower, in February.
• Spinach: spring, fall: sow in march, in cool soil, don’t sow in June or July.
  • Lettuce is similar
• Reimey Fabric: 70% ligh through, protects plants a few degrees: buy from Eric @ 20 cents a foot. (45 outside, 70 covered)
• Don’t plant beens too early! (by June 1st)
• Tomatoes: April 20-25 with Cover for a month

• Choose seeds based on Latitude
• The growing season is a function defined as the number of days between the last frost in Spring and the first frost in Autumn.
• The average frost dates in Boulder are May 3rd and Oct. 1st, but this varies widely.
  • Therefore, Boulder has a 151 day growing season, on average.
  • Cool season crops (spinach, lettuce, kale, chard, onion, arugula, pear): planting and harvest period: Mid April to mid June, for
  • Warm Season Crops (basil, tomatoes, peppers, corn, melons, cucumbers), plant and harvest mid May to early October.

• Choose seeds based on Latitude
• The growing season is a function defined as the number of days between the last frost in Spring and the first frost in Autumn.
• Need good soil porosity, airation, drip irrigation, mulch or straw (4-5 inches) to protect soil–with organic matter and cover crops, drip tapes,

Resources: Johny Selected Seeds (best) , Seeds of Change ($$), Seed Savers Exchange, Weather Underground, Grow Organic, Book: How to Grow More Vegetables (deep soil, plant close).

St. Malo: Creating a CSA Vision

St. Malo is at 8600 feet elevation (Montane Zone w/ ponderosa pine and douglas fir).

A list of potential permaculture elements to incorporate into the design:

• ponds, water tanks, outhouse, shower, rain catchment,wetlands
• compost bins, worm farms
• chickens, guinea pigs, animal housing, BEES!
• tyre moats
• greenhouses, solar stills, swalls, haybox cooker,
• windbreaks, fire protection,
• tool shop or shed,
• cooking space, recycling area, clothesline, cold frames/hot beds,
• biodiesel processor ($1500 or $150: to make 40 gal @ $1/gal) (w/moped?), PV solar panels (avg home: 4k or 190w x 21 pannels @ $10,200)

A Few Plant Options:

Include plants for

• Food:
• Birds and Mammals
• Insects
• Herbal Medicine:
• Nitrogen Fixation:
• Mulch:

• Vegetable garden: (EUG: 126).
  • Plucking beds: broccoli, silverbeet, swiss chard, rose chard, kale, spinach, brussels, sprouts, onions, celery, lettuce, zucchini
  • Narrow beds: beans, peas, carrots, tomatoes, radishes, peas, asparagus, okra, eggplant
  • Borad beds: lettuce, cabbage, lupin, sweet corn, pumpkin, sugar cane, cauliflower, jerusalem/globe artichokes
  • Trellis crops: climbing peas and beans, passionfruit, choko, brambles, kiwifruit, jicama, spinach, cucumbers, pumpkin, grapes.
• Herb mound: oregano, rosemary, sage, basil, thyme, tarragon, marjoram, savouries, etc (EUD: 125).
  • holy basil, licorice, lycium, hawthorn, lemon balm, lindan, mimosa, passion flower, skull cap, st. John’s wart, lavender, white peony, parsley, chives, garlic, ginger, chamomile, coriander, french sorrel
  • Fertilizer: stinging nettles, chamomile, yarrow, dill, dandelion, tansy, horestail
  • Sunny: lavendar, rosemary, sage
  • Shade: angelica, mints, comfrey
  • Activator (compost): yarrow, comfrey
• Cover Crops (GG: 76): Annual, cool weather: clover (crimson & nitro Persian), mustard, rapeseed. Annual Warm weather: black-eyed peas, pinto beans, soybeans, sunn hemp. Perennial cover: alfalfa, bird’s-foot trefoil, chicory, clover (stwberry, white Dutch & Ladino).
• Fruit& nut trees:
  • At the kitchen door: citrus tree (lime or lemon) with chives & parsley underneath (EUD: 125).
• Mediterranean climates (moist winders, dry summers, to survive wet periods & drought): almond, blackberry, borage, fennel, fig, gloden garlic, grape, hind’s lack walnut, lavender, lupine, olive, oregano, quinoa, rosemary, rue, sage, snowberry, summer savory, thyme, wormwood, yarrow (GG: 87).
• Wetland: Canna lily, cattail, comfrey, high-bush blueberry, soft rush (GG: 97).
• Edible weeds: Chicory, garlic mustard, goldenrod, lettuce, mint, mustard, sheep sorrel, sow thistle, stinging nettle, wintercress (GG: 111).
• Nurse plants (fast growing, harsh conditions): acacia, alder, russian olive, bush clover, tree of heaven, hackberry, elderberry, lilac (GG: 118).
• Insect Host: alfalfa, buckwheat, crimson thyme, golden marguerite, maximilian sunflower, tansy, spearmint, parsley, goldenrod, dill (GG: 127).
• Bird Host: Alder, Ash, Birch, Euonymus, Maple, (lots!) (GG: 133).
• Forest Garden: acacia, black locust, honey locust, mesquite, tagasate, almond, fig, golden-chain tree, mulberry, russian olive, cucumber, grape, hops, jasmine, melon, passionfruit, pea, squash, bearberry, clover, stawberry, garlic, jerusalem artichoke, mashua, peanut, potato (GG: 176-8).
• Clipping Beds: edges of paths (EUG: 126): chives, sorrel, corn salad, dandelion, salad burnet, mustard greens, nasturtium.
• Energy crops: corn, soy, canola, safflower, sunflower, flax
• Indigenous plants:
  • Trees: Limber, Pinon, Ponderosa Pine; Oak, Sugar Maple
  • Shrubs: Thinleaf Alder, Barberry,black mulberry,
    
  • Shrub Community: myrtle-leaf blueberry, Grousberry (or red whortleberry , scoparium) under coniferous trees of engelmann spruce ground cover w/tall whorteberry or thin-leaved huckleberry.
  • Shrubs: cranberry, hyssop, plum, silverberry
  • Herbaceous Plants: camas, cattail, chives, columbine, dandelion, sunflower, etc.
  • Source: Rocky Mt. Plants (Nelson: 1969).
    

MATERIALS

Tyre, plastic bottles, cans, boxes, 200L drums, oil containers, newspaper, wood stakes, chicken wire, hessian bas, seedling trays (25×30cm), cement mix, hanging basket frames, wheelbarrows, shovel,

Hothouse, shadehouse, geodesic dome, animal tractors, hay box cooker, labels, bird feeders, cleaning/soap.

Re-Localization

Support the Relocalization Movement

Relocalization is a strategy to build societies based on the local production of food (See; the Great Reskilling series!), energy and goods, and the local development of currency, governance and culture. The main goals of Relocalization are to increase community energy security, to strengthen local economies, and to dramatically improve environmental conditions and social equity.

The Relocalization strategy developed in response to the environmental, social, political and economic impacts of global over-reliance on cheap energy. Our dependence on cheap non-renewable fossil fuel energy has produced climate change, the erosion of community, wars for oil-rich land and the instability of the global economic system.

The Relocalization Network supports local groups in developing community activities and programs that can be implemented locally and as working models for other communities seeking to increase their resilience.

 Boulder Valley Relocalization!

What Should the DNC be Doing?

Contact the DNC:

1. Ask the DNC to support community agricultural programs.

2. Ask the DNC to ask its members to make sacrifices for the country. For example, members should become vegan, significantly reduce travel, and invest in their local communities (local enterprise trading scheme, LETS, or Community Supported Agriculture, CSAs).
3. Ask the DNC to help increase the wealth of our communities: Our idea of wealth is about health, a safe society, creative education, and a clean sustainable environment. We need a focus on “Quality of Life” and not “Growth” or “GDP.”

All you have to do is ask.
Demand Higher Standards!

Contact the DNC

Barack Obama For President

“Yes, We Can!”
What a great Truism!

What can we do?

First, VOTE for Obama!

Contact Obama:

1. Ask him to offset the DNC’s ecological footprint associated with the August 08 Convention (website). It would cost about $3m at the UN price for emissions, or $500,000 at the EU price.
2. Tell him you support a GHG tax at $50 if the money goes to community supported agriculture (CSAs).

 

Visioning

Camp St. Malo:

Sierra’s House:

Bridget’s Apt:

1. Visioning
   1. Should require few or no outside inputs, especially when its mature; Create wildlife habitat; Enhance air, water, and soil quality; Eventually result in less work for human occupants.
   2. Questions: what do we want and need form the landscape (food, herbs, wildlife habitat, flowers, income, play space); Does the soil need rejuvenating? Are trees dying? (YES), What are our skills, physical and financial reousrces, limitations, likes anddislikes? How much time and money are you willing and likely to spend on design, implementation and maintenance? Will it have an overall theme or function such as education, sanctuary, demonstration site, simple living, or market gardening?
2. Planning (most demanding step)
   1. Priorities: What are the most urgent problems or desires?
   2. Categorize priorities: personal, aesthetic, problems to be solved, environmental/ecological, and the like.
   3. Analysis: collect the design elements: plant, structures, tasks, functions, that will make our vision come alive. Make detailed lists of species and structures.
3. Layout
   1. Use the Zone-and Sector method. Organize by use. Bring the garden close to home.
   2. Zone 1, 20-40′ from the house: blends of perennials, annuals, sald herbs, shrubs, insect and bird attracting flowers, and nutrient accumulating plants that build fertility. Zone 2, 50-100 feet from the house: fruit trees, terraced beds, large shrubs, berry bushes, ponds, and diversely planted hedges, with big production vegetables (potatoes, tomatoes, beans). Zone 3: large, unprouned orchard and nut trees, field crops (grains), firewood, animal forage, walnuts, chestnuts, bamboo. Zone 4: grazing animals, firewood, timber, native foods, herbs: semi-wild, little managed. Zone 5: Wild Land!
4. Development
   1. Sketch in various planting beds, trees, walls, fences, and other design elements: major components (a bubble diagram). Sketch access routes (try to minimize the number of paths). Keep the big picture in mind. Include distances, scale, and enough detail to implement the design.
   2. Research species and varieties. Work with color and form.