The Demo Site

Day 5 came and went some time last week, and I was able to get half way through the double digging project. We’ve actually decided to convert our six-year old cold frames into relatively low raised beds, and this required some lumber tweaking. For a decent landscaper, I’m a terrible carpenter, but I did have fun getting the old tool belt out for the job.

As a light rain falls on Santa Fe this morning, I have the choice of heading out to the farmers’ market on my bike or to getting back to the double digging. I’m choosing digging on the basis of the fact that working outside during a drizzle in the desert is nothing other than soul quenching—plus with HGTV shooting our backyard in a couple weeks, I really need work on my abs.

With the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day just over a week away, I am looking forward to all of the speaking that I will be doing at a wide variety of events. Below you will find my schedule. Please join me at any and all of them! (Please note that more details will follow in upcoming posts, BUT PLEASE do not hesitate to comment here or email me [nate@sfpermaculture.com] for more information!)

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 7PM, FARMERS’ MARKET PAVILION

Farmers' Market Film Series. After the movie, “Mad City Chickens,” I’ll be speaking briefly about my experience as a backyard chicken tender. I know that’s not quite the right word given that a chicken tender is typically an item on a menu, but since I’ll be opening it up after that to be “grilled” with questions from the audience, I think the pun is near perfect.

SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 11AM – 1PM, CAMINO DE PAZ SCHOOL & FARM

The 4th Annual Food for Thought Brunch at Camino de Paz School and Farm will be a blast as always! This year, I’ll be the main speaker at where over 90% of the food will come from the campus. This event is a fundraiser for the school. If you can’t make the event, your charitable donation would be much appreciated!

SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 2:30PM, SANATA FE COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS

The 6th Annual Master Gardeners’ Fair just keeps getting better and better every year. I’ve spoken there in the past, and I look forward to doing it again. This time the title of my talk is “Gradual Greening: How Rainwater, Snowmelt, and Wastewater Can Enliven Your Garden and Help Save the World.”

SUNDAY, APRIL 25, 2PM, HILTON HOTEL (DOWNTOWN SANTA FE)

At the Santa Water and Energy Summit, I will be giving a greywater recycling workshop called “Gradual Greening: How to Benefit from Greywater Recycling in a Tough Economy.”

MONDAY, APRIL 26, 11AM, HILTON HOTEL (DOWNTOWN SANTA FE)

The following day at the same summit, I will be part of a panel discussion with my friend Jeremiah Kidd. Our topic will be, Local Rainwater Harvesting Implementation: Residential Applications

MONDAY, MAY 3 AND 4, HGTV’S “BANG FOR YOUR BUCK”

A film crew will be following Melissa and me around as we show off some of our work around town for an upcoming episode of the popular show that you can find on Friday evenings on the Home and Garden Channel.

SATURDAY, MAY 8, 12PM – 4PM, SANTA FE WATERSHED ASSOCIATION

Here, I’ll be giving a four-hour workshop about water harvesting focusing on passive water-harvesting techniques and active water-harvesting systems.

The following questions just came in from Rachel, a colleague in the green-building industry. My responses are in bold after each question.

We are hoping to incorporate a rainwater harvesting system for indoor application (we would use it for outdoor application as well but I imagine that the local rainfall in New Orleans – averages 5-6 inches/month – would provide more than enough irrigation – ?)

If you choose plants wisely and grade your site effectively, you might need very little supplemental irrigation in a place with so much humidity, but you must also be prepared for dry times when many plants need more water than they are getting from the sky, and you should also expect to irrigate newly installed plant material during the time it takes for root systems to establish themselves.

o Do you typically use roof gutters to channel the water into the cistern?  Is this an efficient way to catch water?  What type of roof works best for this (butterfly, shed, etc.)?

Simple pitched roofs that pour into gutters are best shaped roots for water harvesting in cisterns. Weather-coated metals that allow for clean and rapid delivery to the conveyance system are also desirable.

o Where do you usually place the cistern, and can it be placed underground?

Unless your project is in one of the higher parts of New Orleans, I would advise against an underground tank on the basis of the high water-table there. It’s also MUCH cheaper to install an aboveground tank than an underground one, and since it does not freeze there, you could get away with it. (Here at 7,000’ ft., we usually have to partially bury or fully bury our cisterns, but I have a client here who has [after a decade] never had a problem with his aboveground tank! But I have also had clients who do not attempt to collect any water in their aboveground cisterns until about this time of year.)

o If it were to be placed beneath the ground surface, would it be problematic/require substantial energy to get the recycled water back into the house, if the house is raised 8’ above the ground? Would this be problematic even if the cistern were above ground?

I would consider putting your cistern under the house since it will be raised 8’ from grade.

· We are also planning on using a greywater reuse system from the washer, shower and sinks.

o Where would a greywater system typically be installed?

The best use of greywater is directly on the landscape, and this could be one way to avoid the supplemental irrigation (from a surface or groundwater source) that I referred to in my first answer. BUT it may not be legal in that part of the world, so check with local authorities before pursuing greywater there. During times when the landscape is saturated, at the very least you would want to be able to conveniently divert greywater back to the regular sewage system for the house.

o Does it require a substantial amount of maintenance?

No. If you follow the advice in my upcoming book, Harvest the Rain, greywater requires little maintenance. My favorite resource on the subject is www.oasis.design.net

· We are hoping to comprehensively address surface water runoff.

o If we design the site so that 100% of the lot (excluding area under the roof and cisterns, etc), implementing vegetation and permeable paving, do we need to incorporate a drainage system beneath the ground and, if so, how does that work exactly?  Have you done something like this before?

Sorry, that’s out of my high-county bailiwick.

o Is this an extremely costly measure?

Cisterns are typically not cheap. In addition to the material and installation costs of the tanks themselves, you have to convey the water to the cistern, prefilter the water while it is being conveyed before it gets to the tank, pump the water, pressurize the water, filter it again before it can be used indoors, and you have to provide for ventilation of the tank so that the pump functions efficiently while also making sure that the tank has a properly sized overflow pipe and a daylight point for the excess water. Don’t forget to figure in other bells and whistles, such as a float switch to turn off the system when the tank is dry, a make-up water system (from a well or water utility) during times of drought, and a level indicator. The last item can be as inexpensive as a long dipstick, while the make-up water system can drive up the cost quickly, especially if your water source is far away. Did I mention the various micron filters and ultraviolet light tubes that you will need to burn out the nasties that you might pick up from things like bird poop on a roof? This adds to the cost of water used in the house (although it may not be necessary if the only uses are to be, say, flushing toilets and/or doing laundry at hot temperatures).

· Do you have any other advice or insights in the range of water recycling/filtration, including cisterns, rain gardens, permeable pavement, etc.?  Specifically systems that can be installed cheaply, are easy to maintain and are highly effective?  Am I asking for the impossible!?

It’s great to hear from you, Rachel! Nothing is impossible! If your clients need financing for their water harvesting system, they should check with the Permaculture Credit Union, www.pcuonline.com . Unlike the presidents of other financial institutions, the CEO of the PCU’s eyes will not glaze over when you utter words like “overflow pipe,” “greywater valve,” and “rain garden.” I say go for it! I imagine that your clients will have the cleanest and healthiest water in the neighborhood by the time you are done!

Thank you!!

Thanks for asking!! And good luck with your project, Please keep us posted!

Started with a quick ride down to the farmers’ market and back, then down West Alameda for a water-harvesting presentation to a very cool homeowners’ association. It’s always nice to talk to a group of people who each need your help in a slightly different way. From there, I pedaddled (to take off by bike) to the always-kind Plants of the Southwest for some wildflower seed needed at a job tomorrow. When I got back is was chow time, family time, and finally garden time! Sneaked in a mere 24 sq. ft. before sundown, so I’m thinking I’d better stop writing and get back to ye ole double digging before it gets too dark again today.

One tasty way for Santa Feans to do their eco-deed for the day is to attend Deborah Madison’s book launching gig tomorrow at Collected Works (6:00 - 8:00 PM). Chat with Deborah AND get dessert, too! Here’s something about her eleventh (or so) book from Madison’s website:

Seasonal Fruit Desserts from Orchard, Farm and Market is finally in the bookstores. This is a project I’ve been working on for the past four years, not only developing recipes but interviewing farmers about fruit, researching varieties, and continuing to visit as many farmers markets and orchards as possible to find out what makes fruit as compelling as it can be so that it can be enjoyed fully, simply and without fuss. More at:

http://www.deborahmadison.com/

YUM! See ya there!

Oops! Looks like I rounded up in those last two posts about double-digging. Able to squeeze only an hour in this evening, my only double digging consisted of finishing the last two columns of the bed that I started on Day 1. But now I find out the bed is more like 40 sq. ft., not the 50 I’d guesstimated. Good News: My whole being is craving more upper-body activity. If the sun were still out on this Easter Night, I’m pretty sure I’d still be out there with it, digging happily. Instead I’m here typing and double dipping corn-chip crumbs into my own private humus tub.

More importantly, I also cranked up our 10,000 gallon underground cistern system today. For me, this includes digging through a few inches of bark mulch, unlocking the system’s access door, and turning a valve by hand. Thanks to all of this winter’s wonderful snow, the tank is full, so tomorrow morning I hope to sow some peas in that newly dug bed. (Sadly, as I dug, I realized that the soil was surprisingly dry.) In addition to being healthy, delicious, and inexpensive slow-food, the peas will be great soil prep for whatever we put in the bed in mid-May. The water itself will be beneficial to the soil, but since peas are legumes, they will also “fix” nitrogen in our manure-heavy (rabbit and chicken) compost. Not sure if the King of Compost, John Jeavons, would approve of this tact, but sometimes you just gotta go with your gut—plus I happen to have a couple pounds of free (pea) seed!

Okay. I’ll admit it. I had to take a day off between Day 1 and Day 2. Sure, I COULD have hit the beds two days in a row right at the outset, but I found millions of other very important things to do. Frankly, I was incredibly sore from Day 1. My shoulders and biceps were the hardest hit. I suppose I wasn’t using my abs enough because they felt reasonably intact.

If you count days in an Old Testament kind of way, where days of rest are figured in too, this would be Day 3, but I think my stats are gonna look entirely pathetic if I count rest days on this project, so I’m simply not gonna do it. Still, on the bright side, yesterday (my Day 2) I got the same number of square feet done in LESS than half the time. Partly, it took time on Day 1 to mobilize a heaped-up wheelbarrow of compost and get it over to the worst part of the garden. Also, the first one-foot-wide row of a double digging job always takes the longest because you have to put that first top layer of earth in a different wheelbarrow and get it over onto a tarp at the length-wise side of the bed for use at the very end of the project. Once all that is done, you move one-foot chunks of soil over and mix it in with your compost as you go. If you get into a uninterrupted rhythm, you can actually start to make good time.

Did I mention that this digging and compost mixing needs to get to a depth of 24 inches? The good news is that I did actually feel as if that Day 1 digging helped me become a stronger, smarter ditch digger on Day 2. Even though today we have our church of the farmers’ market to attend, kid-duty (in particular a must-do Easter egg-hunt), a bunch of landscape-design work, and an in-law visit today, I plan on getting a bigger chunk of the garden dug by sundown. Sheesh…sometimes (but only rarely, say, at times like these) I wonder why I’m such a freakin’ optimist!