Ecological Design Blog

Growing A Love For Food And Farming - Article Review

8/20/2017

A recent article in The San Diego Union Tribune featured Milijan Krecu, a San Diego local farmer and educator.

Milijan, originally from Yugoslavia, immigrated to the US and went to college at UC Santa Cruz where he discovered that everyone wasn't experiencing the same joy and rich flavors from food that he had grown up with.

He is assistant property manager and farm advisor for the Leichtag Foundation's Leichtag Commons farm. The private and independent foundation works to support Jewish life in North County and Israel, fight poverty and advance self-sufficiency. They grow great food via Coastal Roots Farm, host events, rent out space to growers, and connect organizations.

They primarily grow seasonal row crops but have a new food forest that relies on permaculture principles and techniques.

We look forward to seeing their food forest grow!

Link to original article here:
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/lifestyle/people/sd-me-one-krecu-20170809-story.html

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Minisode 12 - Cob Cabin Update - Beginning Roof and Rainwater Harvesting Tank

7/16/2017

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This Minisode shows the progress on the roof of the cob cabin, the porch support poles and the cob wall integrated ferrocement rainwater harvesting tank.

The roof will be ferrocement, like our water tanks, consisting of 3 layers of steel lath encapsulated in cement for a total thickness of 3/8 inch (click here to see our page about ferrocement). Because the roof will be a patio we need to make it extra strong to support a lot of weight in case a lot of people go up there. To do so we are using 24 foot 2x12 rafters laid into the top of the cob walls which to the cob wall on the other side, about 18 feet. These are spaced 1 foot oc on 1 side on 16 inches oc on the other. We will pulace plywood on top of the rafters and apply the ferrocement roof on top of that. The ferrocement roof will be floating to compensate for different expansion and contraction of the wood versus cement. Small gutter-like devises will be custom integrated in the roof to convey water towards a downspout on one corner of the roof that leads to the water tank.

The water tank is made out of ferrocement (click link to be directed to more information about our ferrocement water tanks) and will be integrated into one of the cob walls. This will save time and materials because we will not have to build a cob wall there while also providing a ton of thermal mass. A rocket mass heater will be built between the water tank and large integrated granite boulder inside the cob cabin. Overflow from the water thank will be directed to our food forest (click link to see blog and video about food forest).

The roof will overhang approximately 12 feet to the south in a semi-circle to provide a large covered patio. This will provide passive heating and cooling including shade and shelter from the rain. We sunk 2 sections of telephone polls into the ground to support this patio roof. The poles were free from the electric company who was replacing them on our land. An additional horizontal pole will be placed on top the two vertical poles sunk in the ground to support the roof rafters.

For the vertical telephone poles we dug down until we hit solid rock, about 2 feet in those 2 spots, then made a level spot in the bottom of the hole with concrete, placed a pole on that, then filled in around the poles with recycled road-base (basically crushed concrete of various sizes) ensuring it was well compacted.

Please enjoy the video below.

You can click the "Cob" category on the right hand side of this page to see all previous posts about the cob cabin building project.

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What Is Permaculture And Ecological Design?

6/18/2017

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Permaculture system. Copyright Permasystems.

Ecological design = any form of design that minimizes environmentally destructive impacts by integrating itself with living processes (Sim Van der Ryn and Stuart Cowan). Was popularized in 1971 by Ian McHarg in his book, Design with Nature. This book describes an ecologically sound approach to the planning and design of communities.

Permaculture = combines the words permanent agriculture and culture.. Coined by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in 1978 based on the work by Masanobu Fukuoka, J. Russell Smith, P.A. Yeoman to simply be ethical, regenerative landscapes and food systems.

Here at Permasystems, we use the terms permaculture and ecological design interchangeably.

Work with nature, instead of against it

Permaculture is an ethical design system used as lens to view the world and a toolbox to develop and maintain regenerative systems. It focuses on using regenerative energies in the ways that nature already does and connects different disciplines, strategies and techniques. Permaculture works with, benefits, and extends the patterns of nature.

Ecological design and permaculture principles have been used by humans for thousands of years. Unfortunately, we have lost many of those skills that were being honed for eons. Now, we are seeing a resurgence of people bringing permaculture tools back and utilizing them for everything from growing food, to designing communities, managing waste, water and soil, building homes and other structures and much more.

Permaculture tree. Copyright Permasystems.

To better understand permaculture, lets take a look at a healthy tree growing in the remote mountains. It grew from a seed. This tree gets water from precipitation, no hoses. This tree gets nutrients from the soil and air, no artificial fertilizers. Soil is built from the leaves that fall off of the tree, from dead branches that break down, from bacteria and fungi living in the soil creating nutrients for plants. Nothing extra is added! It is regenerative!
Now, look at a tree in your yard or neighborhood - how does it compare to our mountain tree? Is it regenerative? If not, how could we make it?

Permaculture can be used at any level, from your house, to your garden, to your neighborhood, to your to city, or beyond...

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Minisode 11 - Food Forest Plants Update

6/6/2017

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See our permaculture education and demonstration site where we are building a regenerative homestead in a Mediterranean climate in eastern San Diego County. Here is an update on some amazing new plants we put in the food forest and also look at how plants from last year are doing.

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Soil Test Results Are In - See How We Did And Compare Tests

5/28/2017

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We are excited to show you the results from soil testing around the cob cabin we are building. This structure is part of our ecological design (permaculture) education and demonstration site that includes the natural building made of cob (learn about cob from our blog post), a food forest (here is a blog post about some of the plants in the food forest - more information and videos to come soon), graywater systems including an outdoor shower, composting toilet, off-grid solar system and more!

Please be sure to read our previous blog post about Baseline Soil Testing before you continue. That post talks about how and why we did the testing.

Remember, healthy soil holds far more water than dirt and can provide all the food plants need so you don't have to apply fertilizers or pesticides.

The results from 3 soil tests:

UMassAmherst Soil Test - $15 - click photo for link - http://ag.umass.edu/services/soil-plant-nutrient-testing-laboratory/lab-services

Soil test results San Diego County. Copyright Permasystems

Logan Labs Soil Test - $25 - click photo for link - http://www.loganlabs.com/testing-services.html

Soil Test San Diego County. Copyright Permasystems

Texas A&M Soil Test - $10 - click photo for link - http://soiltesting.tamu.edu/

Comparison of select variables:

Results
As you can see from the results, most of the tested nutrients fell within "optimal levels." The majority of variables were measured in PPM (parts per million). The reports were fairly comparable and showed some consistency, for example, the Ph tests found amounts of 6.2, 6.4 and 6.7, relatively low variation. Conversely, there were a small amount of variables that had extremely high variably, for example, Maganese, measured at 10.3, 54 and 12.08, all apparently measured in PPM, the 54 number from Logan Labs is nowhere near the others.

The point of these tests is NOT to use the results as a gauge to adjust our soil, but to serve as a baseline as we build soil biology. Adding more of this or that nutrient is pointless as virtually all soil on the planet contains the nutrients to support healthy plants. The problem is they are often in a form not available to plants but are locked up in dead soil. To make the nutrients available to plants we need to create soil that is alive with bacteria, fungi and other beneficial life - that can deliver nutrients to plants. We will go much further into this in future blogs.

The two numbers out of these tests that we are focusing on are pH and organic matter percentage. We are very happy to hear our pH is about 6.4. This means our soil is of an ideal pH to grow both annual (bacterial dominant) and perennial (fungal dominant) plants. Being slightly on the acidic side means we have a little more ammonium than nitrate, boosting the fungal content of the soil which will provide more food for perennial plants, the type we are focusing on for the education and demonstration site. A diverse array of perennial plants can provide food year-round, perennial roots go deeper than annual so they are better able to reach water and nutrients while also building soil structure, and, they only need to be planted once. We still want some annuals though, the key is to get them self seeding so you don't spend time sowing seeds each year or at least use seeds that are easy to sow, just toss em out! Our organic matter is at about 3%, something we want to boost a lot! Probably want to shoot for at least 20%.

Remember, the key to all this is building healthy soil that is alive and diverse with beneficial life!

Resources

To learn a lot more about soil biology from our favorite soil scientist, Elaine Ingham, visit her site at
http://www.soilfoodweb.com/

Also, Matt Powers has been working with Elaine as well as doing lots of his own amazing work with Permaculture. Visit his site at
http://www.thepermaculturestudent.com/

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Minisode 10 - Functional Fencing

5/17/2017

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We fenced in 1/4 acre around the cob cabin. This fence serves many purposes (stacking functions). For one, we want to keep rabbits, deer and gophers out of this area. Outside the fence we planted lots of yummy things (share the surplus) for the wild animals but inside the fence we want an easy to manage safe planting zone.

The fence will also keep our little dog safe and inside. We have coyotes, foxes, bobcats and mountain lions in the area. Additionally, in the future, we will have chickens and maybe some little pigs or goats and we want them to be safe from predators as well.

The fence provides structure for vines and other plants, which we are planting a lot of! This will serve as a wind break to reduce evaporation and provide additional shade. Additionally, the fence defines a fire break on both sides of the predominant wind directions.

Our fence is comprised of:

Poles are re-purposed well casing (I think it is 1.5"), super cheap and last super long, pounded into ground about every 8 feet
5 foot tall deer and wildlife fence, woven wire so it is easy to contour along uneven ground, holes go from small at the bottom to large at the top
2x bare wire strands stretched horizontally above main fence, 1 foot spacing, to be sure the deer don't jump over
2 foot tall gopher fence (a type of chicken wire), 3-4 inches underground, then secured to main fence, to keep rabbits out and pets in
2 foot expanded steel lath buried in ground, sprinkled hot chili pepper powder in bottom of trench to repel gophers
Large gates are steep tubing and small gates are re-purposed wood
Bamboo wedged into gates to keep deer from jumping over

The whole fence took about 7 days of work, most of those days with 2-4 people working. It should last many decades. Thanks to those that helped! Now lets grow some food!

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Rainwater Harvesting System Installed At San Diego Elementary School

5/7/2017

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This past week we were very excited to install a rainwater collection system at Birney Elementary School in University Heights, San Diego, CA. It included a 300 gallon ferrocement cistern (Model LFC-300) that we hand-made at our shop and then assembled on site. The catchment area is a large multi-classroom roof so they will get lots of rainwater to use for their school garden!

Birney Elementary school garden

School gardens are extremely effective for experientially teaching kids about natural history and ecology, nutrition, water cycles, carbon cycles, soil ecology, and food cycles - not to mention what good food should taste like! They also teach kids environmental stewardship, foster a connection with nature and build practical skills. Having a rainwater harvesting tank adds an additional observable element to the garden letting kids actually see what is happening with water on site. It also saves the school money by using less water and reducing demand on stormwater drainage systems.

School garden water tank. Copyright Permasystems

Ferrocement water tank adjacent to school garden

The rainwater from the tank will be used to water trees and plants in the garden. A garden hose attachment makes is easy to move the water around using only gravity. The tank is light proof so no algae can grow, letting water be stored as long as needed. The tank and all parts of it are potable grade to provide the highest quality water. A first-flush device (#2 in photo below) allows the first few gallons from a rain event to be diverted from the tank and back to the drain ensuring the tank water is extra clean for plants.

Rainwater harvesting tank parts. Copyright Permasystems

The kids are planning to hand paint the tank - something you can only do with cement tanks. Plastic and metal tanks flex too much so the paint would flake off. We look forward to teaching the kids about water and rainwater harvesting in upcoming classes!

Remember, just 1 inch of rain over 1000 square foot of roof equals 600 gallons of water!

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Rainwater harvesting Is Legal - Everywhere

4/30/2017

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Rainwater harvesting is legal. Copyright Permasystems

Unfortunately, rainwater harvesting has received some bad press lately convincing a significant amount of Americans that rainwater harvesting is illegal and the government will come after you for engaging in this practice. THIS IS NOT TRUE! Lets take a look at the actual laws.

First off, the unfortunate story that received national attention and created this problem was about a man in Oregon who built dams on his property, creating three artificial lakes, complete with boat docks and fish. His case was described as one that was far in excess of an individual’s simple collection of rainwater. However, the article titles made it sound like the average person could go to jail for catching a little rainwater. This man never went to jail but repeatedly did not follow orders to drain his lakes.

Rainwater harvesting is legal is every state.

Some states significantly limit the amount of rainwater you can collect. All states have laws to regulate the building of lakes. But every single state lets you collect rainwater from your own roof. Here in San Diego County you don't need a permit for rainwater harvesting tanks - even pretty big ones - as long as you follow some commonsense regulations in how you hook the tank up. The County even has multiple rebates for people who install tanks, up to $450!

David Tarsi's blog documents the rainwater harvesting regulations of every state. His research has found there is currently no state government law in the U.S. that considers rainwater harvesting by individuals (home owners) in a direct manor and bluntly, “against the law” for anyone and everyone.

Please don't let deceptive articles sway you from rainwater harvesting - it's not only legal, but it's easy, can save you money on your water bill and help build a regenerative future!

In part of India the drought is so bad that they actually fine people if they DON'T have rainwater harvesting systems!

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How To Measure Rainfall - Sometimes Not As Easy As You Think

4/16/2017

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Measuring rainfall with rain gauge. Copyright Permasystems

How much does it rain where you live? Do you know? Does it matter?

It is easy to guess how much it rains, maybe you look at a bucket or puddle but to really know you must use some kind of proper gauge, like the one above.

It is important to measure rainfall to calculate your supply when trying grow plants, manage stormwater or prepare for years of flood or drought. After all, if you don't know how much you're getting, how can you prepare for the future?

The easiest way is to buy a gauge. The AcuRite 00850A2 5-Inch Capacity Easy-Read Magnifying Rain Gauge is less than $4 on Amazon (click item for link). Then, take the gauge and place it (often mounted to a wooden post) at a level that is easy to read. Be sure the gauge is not near any buildings or trees because wind can push the rain to fall at an angle and be blocked by an object which might give you a bad reading on your new gauge. I like to put out two gauges in different places and compare them - but I realize that is pretty nerdy!

Once you get some rain and check the gauge it is best to write it down so you don't forget! Then, you can use the data to figure out your annual rainfall. Just add up all the numbers. But wait - what month do you start and end with to find out how much you got for the year???

Professionals that measure rainfall sometimes argue about this. Two years ago, after using the so-called rain year - July to June - for more than 130 years to measure precipitation totals, National Weather Service stations in Southern California started using the "hydrological year" - October to September. Why does it matter?

In order calculate an accurate and comparable average, the beginning and end of the "year" that is used should be outside of the rainy season or after a normal break in a rain season. For example, the calendar year begins and ends right in winter, when a lot of places get a significant portion of their precipitation - this makes it often a bad time to start record keeping.

It can be tough because different places in the country have breaks in the rain at different times so it's hard to have just one type of "rain" year to easily be comparable. Luckily this problem is pretty easy to fix - every weather service station nationwide produces two rainfall totals: one based on the calendar year and a second based on local preferences. The big question is when should your local area make it's rain "year"?

Looking at the above graph in Ramona, CA (eastern San Diego County) where we have our permaculture education and demonstration site, you can see the rainy season comes to an end in June. That means either the rain year - July to June or the "hydrological" year - September to October - would be appropriate to use, the former being the most accurate.

So far, this "year" in Ramona we have received higher than average rainfall, like much of California has. A nice change from some recent lower than average years. As we go from extreme years of drought to extreme years in flooding, knowing how much rain we get allows us to properly prepare our rainwater harvesting systems, whether they be active or passive systems, for the future. This reduces the chance of problems or system failures allowing maintenance to be minimal and us to sit back and relax whether the weather is bone dry or soaking wet. Remember to design with the future in mind!

Resources:
U.S. Climate Data - http://www.usclimatedata.com/ - rainfall totals and graphs by city.

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Passive and Active Rainwater Harvesting - What's The Difference

4/9/2017

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Here in a dryland environment (San Diego County), rainwater harvesting is critical in weaning ourselves off of foreign water and creating a sustainable and local water supply. What a lot of people don't realize is even in a place that doesn't get a lot of rain, like coastal San Diego County - approximate average of 10 inches of rain per year - you can still catch a HUGE amount of water! For example, the average home in San Diego County has a 2000 square foot roof. With JUST one inch of rain this size roof would catch 1200 gallons of water - this is active rainwater harvesting. This pales in comparison to the amount of rainwater that can be caught in healthy soil - passive rainwater harvesting. Lets explore these two types of systems, active and passive.

Pond Rainwater Harvesting. Copyright Permasystems

Passive rainwater harvesting at our education and demonstration site

Passive rainwater harvesting freely works without the need of a person, switch or valve. The more passive a system, the less energy it needs. Earthworks, simple structures and strategies that change the topography and surface of the soil, are a great example of this system. They can speed the infiltration of water, augment soil moisture and nutrient availability and provide large quantities of high quality rainwater to gardens and landscapes. Water can be collected in huge amounts from roofs, streets, vegetation, bare dirt or greywater drains. This water is only available for limited periods after rainfall depending on soil type, mulch, climate and plant uptake but it can recharge groundwater.

Something as simple as applying a layer of mulch around your plants can reduce water usage by 25%, creating a passive system.

Painted Rainwater Harvesting Tank. Copyright Permasystems

Active rainwater harvesting system - one of our ferrocement tanks

Active rainwater harvesting requires a person, switch or valve to actively turn it on/open or off/closed. The more active a system, the more energy it requires. The best example of this are storage tanks or cisterns that collect rainwater from roofs. This allows you to store the water for when you need it, like summer, to be used to water plants or anything else. The downside is these systems tend to cost more than earthworks and limit your storage capacity to the size of the tank.

So which is better? Lets look to nature for the answer since natural systems are the most efficient as they don't need external inputs. For this reason passive rainwater harvesting systems are the best! You only need to build them once, and if done properly, you will never need to maintain them or add anything to them - like healthy soil in your yard. However, active rainwater harvesting systems are still a critical tool for creating water independence. For example, here is San Diego County we can use rainwater harvesting tanks, an active system, to significantly reduce our need to import water from distant places (Click for our past blog on where San Diego's water comes from).

The best is to use both active and passive systems. What's important is to build and install them properly to ensure they work efficiently, creating a sustainable and even regenerative future for us all!

Resources
Brad Lancaster's rainwater harvesting website - full of useful information. His books on rainwater harvesting are the best out there!
https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/