Intense Urban Permaculture & City Farming - Plunging In!

We are serious about turning our Jacksonville lot into a productive, food-producing, permaculture based, organic Urban Farm!

And we are going to do it on the cheap!

So far the 1985 GMC pickup truck cost less than $900 bucks and we are recycling all things useable.

Though plastic is petro based and not a favorite material, it will be used if it a stable polymer type that does not oxidize as easily such as polypropylene AND if it is post-consumer recycled material.

Raised Beds made from modular wetland boxes, planted with cabbage

Use it rather than send it to the landfill.

Though I'm sure the photos of garbage bags full of leaves are becoming old, I posted another this am.

Green Roof Garlic for the rabbit hutch

Yesterday we collected 6 truckloads of huge heavy duty garbage bags full of leaves.  Judy and I laughed at the labor we received for no cost - all those hours of raking and bagging organic material for us to pick up for free!  Surprisingly, the entire lot of leaves came within a couple block radius of our Urban Farm.

Some of the bagged leaves are full of sand also, perfect for filling in those uneven holes in the back.

Rooftop Veggie Garden

We also picked up two truckloads of very clean pine straw for the pathways and the barn all for free, saving the organic matter from ending up in the landfill and providing free heavy duty garbage bags and mulch!  We stay away from those lawns that hire fertilizer companies to come and spray.

Additionally, the number of raised beds have increased from two to seven now.  Five old modular wetland boxes were adapted with drainage holes and filled with leaf compost and seasoned horse manure from a friend.

Chicken Coop being constructed from Greenhouse

Cabbage plants are planted directly in the seasoned manure over leaves in much the same way the French would plant their famous intense vegetable gardens in horse manure hundreds of years ago.

Chicken boxes from milk-crate type boxes

The garlic is sprouting now on the rabbit hutch green roof and spring is just around the corner.  Potato beds are readied and every day brings a new challenge.

Judy is reading up on chickens and I am converting our greenhouse into a chicken coop - see the photo, using scrap wire and fencing.

Free Compost, truckloads

We are using recycled milk-crate type chicken boxes for the fowl's nests!

Rooftop vegetable gardens are growing strong!

Urban Permaculture and city farming at its best!

More later!  Happy permaculture & Urban Farming from Jacksonville!

Kevin

Urban Permaculture - Composting the Hood's Leaves

Free Compost, Cations and pH tools

We gather many truckloads of leaves every week destined for the landfill and recycle the bags and the leaves.

Not too glamorous yet very practical ( remember Louis Sullivan and functionalist architecture) collecting your neighbor's bagged up yard leaves can benefit your permaculture garden, your green roof and benefit your wallet.

Cation exchange capacity and pH are two important variables of a gardens and green roof.  Additionally, leaf compost can add valuable trace minerals needed by both the ground level and rooftop plants.

Leaf compost typically contains twice the amount of trace minerals by weight as does horse manure.

And heavy duty garbage bags are expensive.  We used to pay about ten US dollars per box at our local home improvement store.  Now we have all the free heavy duty garbage bags we need.

Interestingly, leaves from different species of trees offer varying characteristics.  While ash leaves are relative neutral in pH, some maple species leaves are documented to possess a pH of around 4.5.

Research shows use of properly composted leaves greatly increases the cation exchange capacity of soils.  One of the important functions needed in both garden and green roof soil media is cation exchange capacity.

Save $10 per month on garbage bags

 Though varying opinions of organic compost value to green roofs exist throughout the industry, many believe organic material in the soil media is highly beneficial to green roof plants.

Remember, both gardens and green roofs are individual ecosystems, intricate webs of life with complex interactions.

Collecting heavy duty garbage bags filled with fresh raked leaves (we avoid those lawns heavily treated with fertilizers and herbicides/pesticides - those lawns are easy to spot here in the US due to the small advertising signs the lawn companies stick in the lawn after a fertilizer application - and speaking of lawns and fertilizers - a short must-see video of the history of the American Lawn will have you rolling in your chair and scratching your head at the same time can be viewed here) is a positive step for the environment.

Other benefits include;

• Free highly effective cation exchange capacity supplements from the leaf compost
• Free organic matter from the leaf compost
• Free trace minerals from the leaf compost
• Free pH adjustment material from the leaf compost (this is especially important when using higher pH soil media or media high in calcium)
• Free garbage bags
• And a lesson to your children riding with you to scavenge that recycling is more important than pride. :)

Free Organic Mulch and Free Garbage Bags, Urban Permaculture

Enjoy the photos of the free leaf compost we gathered last week and also the free heavy duty garbage bags and as always - its great to have an Urban Farm!

Kevin

Jacksonville Permaculture by Eli and Valerie! Wow!

Eli and Val's Permaculture Haven

Eli and Val opened their yard for a group of permaculture fans here in Jacksonville yesterday.  It is amazing how much food they grow on a small plot.

The entire ground area is dedicated to food production and fiber and medicine plants.

They have also embraced growing plans vertically.

Yard Long Beans hang from the wall over the front door and cover the camellia bushes.

There are small, winding paths throughout the front yard, down the side yards and across the back yards.

Eli and Val's Edible Yard

They start most of their plants from seed and have constructed a beautiful seed sprouting area in the side yard.

Amazingly, they have grouped together plants to repel pests and the entire permaculture operation is pest-free - a creative integrated pest management system in itself!

Eli runs an Urban Gardens business and you can watch his Urban Permaculture Video by clicking here (opens in a new window).

As always, email us with your permaculture questions!  Kevin

Seed Starting Area

DIY Greenhouse Design 12 x 25 for less than $25.00!

Cheap but functional greenhouse for permaculture!

Used Scrap electrical conduit, fence posts, plastic Judy had and large office paperclips.

All available in your neighborhood trashpiles usually.

Look forward to hearing about your designs!

Judy's Seedlings in the new greenhouse

Fence posts, rails and conduit make up frame.

Inebriated Bees

Probably more exhilarated or stupefied than inebriated, the bees Judy was referring to were all congregating around her Backyard Urban Permaculture Garden growing the tall and glorious sunflowers.

We all laughed.  But she was on to something.

The sunflowers were actually loaded with pollen.

WE didn't know just HOW MUCH until she brought one into the house and we placed it in the kitchen windowsill.

WOW!  Check out the photo to see how much pollen fell off overnight....

Happy Urban Gardening!

Kevin.

Restoring volumetric Green to the Urban Core.

Urban Permaculture, Pollen, Bees and Sunflowers

Bat Houses for Urban Permaculture - Free Fertilizer and Pest Control

Bat House at University of North Florida

Bat houses are an excellent choice to add to any Urban Garden.

Bats are voracious devourers of pesky mosquitoes, gnats and other flying fierceities.

Guano's reputation for premier fertilizer ranks high among all the organic nitrogen and nutrient choices.

Bat houses need to be out in open fields.  A bat house nestled in a wooded area may never be used.

According to the USFWS, a colony of 100 bats can eat over 2,200 pounds of insects during a smmer feeding season - and make alot of good fertilizer!


Click here for a link to 22 Free Bat House Designs and

Happy Urban Gardening!

Kevin

Exporting Urban Permaculture Technology as a Mission

Check out Echo Gardens in Ft. Myers, Florida.

ECHO - http://www.echonet.org/

You can view their website by clicking above.

ECHO stands for Educational Concerns for Hunger Organizations

When visiting or traveling through the Ft. Myers area, a visit to Echo is a must.

Well System at Echo

Growing Vegetables at Echo Inc in Ft. Myers

Urban Permaculture at its finest!