Emergency Permaculture kits

[Andrew Jensen]

So, I've been directed this way by Vinay from the superstruct game we are both playing. He suggested I post this idea here.

My major goal for this game is to have something useful come out of it. In that regard, I want to create a starter garden in a box, a collection of tools, seeds and information that could be given to someone just starting out on new land and would provide them with everything they need to get a starter permaculture-based garden going.

So what should be in this kit? I've gotten started at http://superstruct.wikia.com/wiki/Emergency_permaculture
but It's far from any kind of completeness.

It's highly likely these kits would have to be localized to various climates, to begin with I'm thinking about the temporate zones. I know this would me more useful in other climates where there are more people in trouble, but the prototype kit I plan to construct would be used here in missouri.

[Chris Watkins]

Lazy gardening and Balcony gardens definitely have some relevance - easy to grow plants, and foolproof methods that don't require a farmer to make them work,* and making the best use of limited irregular space.)

Obviously it will need to be tailored, both to the logistical needs of emergencies, and to the particular environment.

Perhaps there could be some basic kits, dry tropical, wet tropical, dry temperate, wet temperate... the main differences would probably be which seeds are used, so that shouldn't be a big problem. And the seed supply should:
A) be diverse enough to make sure that some will thrive in the particular setting, and:
B) not assume that everyone will grow the same things (give them choices and let them trade - but encourage them to at least try a few different things, to improve their odds.)


*Pots may not be the best option for emergency/refugee situations, but if there is a good flat-pack option available, that might work. A compost bin (with fly-and-vermin-proof lid) that becomes a pot when there's enough compost?

[Woody Evans]

Chris, I think the choice element you bring up is extremely important. Cultural understanding of foods will be in play, and nobody wants to get a box of (what to them is) weeds...

[Lucas]

Missouri? Do we have friends in Missouri? ;-)

[Josef Davies-Coates]

We certainly do, even got an officially recognised student group working at the University:
http://groups.google.com/group/factorefarm/browse_thread/thread/b45...

[Eve]

Brilliant ideas Andrew!

I would love to help you out with this in anyway I can with my new site www.worldfoodgarden.org. My programmer and I have allocated world climate data to a virtual earth map and deduced average frost dates for every place on earth (with frost) according to it. We are also continuously updating our food plant data to offer gardeners the list of what they can plant in their area and when to plant it. It is in the early stages but we really plan to develop it as a trustworthy source over time. The climate data came from a Climatic Research School in the UK http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/, and unfortunately we are having to verify the accuracy of the data through the gardeners themselves. But fortunately we do have that option!
Anyway, as you move forward with your project keep me posted- we could create a symbiosis with this.

Eve

[Trisha]

Developing kitchen gardens in a sustainable way for displaced people in camps is part of my current remit too. The key to the problem IMHO lies in the need for plans for an affordable composting toilet that can be made from locally sourced materials scaled up to local need. Many camps are on very marginal land and are far from temporary; trucking in/airlifting food is becoming very expensive and uses fossil fuels which fuel climate change and cause more events leading to displaced people. Viscious circle. Sack gardening might be better than pots - used quite a lot in African kitchen gardens.

Eve - thanks for your mail: great potential your site and I look forward to its growth. It would be interesting to know how far back UEA are taking their data, certainly for us the frost days seem to err very much on the side of caution. Also, it would be great to have a celsius convertor....seems even I'm being metricated by stealth!

Trisha

[Vinay Gupta]

Affordable... composting... toilet... from local materials...

YES!

Where are you coming from, Trisha? How did you find Global Swadeshi?

[Andrew Jensen]

Actually, the toolbox for sustainable urban living has a design that's pretty easy, involving a "Strawbale vault." Essentially, you stack up strawbales like bricks to create a chamber to poop in, then put your outhouse structure over that. When it's full, you make a new one, move the outhouse, then cover the top of the first one with a thick layer of straw. Let that sit for 2 years, and it composts..

[Trisha]

I agree Andrew that composting toilets are pretty well-advanced for use in the developed world and becoming more socially acceptable (slowly). My comments (don't let me mess your thread up...shall we separate it out?) come from the need for such things in emergency camps in developing countries. I appreciate that straw is great - mostly, although there is much recent documentation of straw compost on gardens which has killed the plants due to long-acting herbicides made by the usual suspects, but is not often going to be an answer in, say, Africa or much of Asia. Other straws compost differently.

[larahna]

here's another design idea that I came across, that seems to allow relatively easy maintenance.

http://www.ecosur.org/images/stories/documents/dry_toilet.pdf

[Trisha]

I found you via a search for "swadeshi" for a paper on Emergency Shelters (as it happens partly involving building a Hexayurt in very wet weather...!). I am involved voluntarily with a charity whose remit is to educate NGOs/local governments etc in developing community reliance as a direct result of climate change and peak oil and increased numbers of displaced people needing sustainable solutions. As do we all, of course.

[Vinay Gupta]

So, Andrew, how's it going? By now you're probably knee deep in ideas...

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=keyhole... keyhole gardens are a very good starting point - I'm thinking the kit might be a keyhole garden (like a tough plastic sheet with air holes rather than the stone wall?) and we could propose some kind of biodigester in the center which you empty the composting toilet into once it's made the waste safe?

The existing garden uses a compost pile in the center, but for the science fiction purposes of superstruct we could posit some new technologies there. Just for Fun :-)

The question is how much food can you get out of one. Speed of light seems to be about 10 lbs per square foot per year (anybody hearing more than that?) which doesn't go far unless you have several keyholes - but if the plastic sheet is the scarce resource, to make the wall...

I don't know, I'm just not the garden guy. Good luck!