We have now reached the point where our roof capture area has exceeded our water storage capacity so the latest two roofs on my construction escapade have been designed with different functions in mind. One is to provide a cool summer escape inside a dog kennel for our excessively hairy sheepdog and the other is to create much-needed habitat for creepy crawlies and fungi.
You can make your own organic bug spray from kitchen leftovers! Simply save your onion skins, peels and ends then refrigerate in an empty margarine-sized tub or ziplock bag until the container is full. Once you have enough, place the onion pieces in a pail and fill with warm water. Soak for a few days, up to a week. You can keep this on the patio in the sun to steep but this is optional. After one week, strain the onion bits out and store the onion water in spray bottles.
Take agriculture. For 150 years the number of farms in America has inexorably declined. In my state—the most rural in the nation—the number of dairies fell from 11,000 at the end of World War II to 998 this summer. And of course the farms that remained grew ever larger—factory farms, we called them, growing commodity food. Here in Vermont most of the remaining dairies are big, but not big enough to compete with the behemoths in California or Arizona; they operate so close to the margin that they can’t afford to hire local workers and instead import illegal migrants from Mexico.
Much has been made about the inherent danger of our current society having moved off of farmland and into urban environments. It has been suggested that we no longer have the means, or the knowledge, to sustain ourselves within the cities on which we depend for employment and infrastructure. If the cities fail, we fail. Urban micro-farmers tend to disagree, citing that it is the very proximity to vast numbers of people and businesses that provide an immediate client base.
Besides the promise of fresh, city-grown vegetables (and fresh city-grown jobs), creating greenhouses up on these roofs has another benefit for New York. Rooftop greenhouses will be required to incorporate rainwater collection and reuse systems, which will help the city mitigate the pressure that big rainstorms puts on the sewer system.
As things change in the world, and particularly as the economy creaks and groans and contracts more people will be looking for alternatives and wanting to connect with others in their community. First it will be the early adopters, who are doing it pro-actively by choice, then it will be those having to do it by necessity.
An excerpt from the 3D documentary feature about Paul Stamets, renowned mycologist, author and visionary, on how mushrooms can save the world.
More than just being a beautiful addition to the city, it supplies fresh produce to the Riverpark restaurant. Growing over 100 different types of crops, the farm proves a greener and more sustainable method of supplying local companies with produce. And the best part is, when construction starts back up on the site, all of the gardening is done in stacked milk crates, so they can just be picked up and moved to a new location.
In 2011 Permaculture Media Blog published more than 1400 posts. This article is bringing you collection of 44 best webinars, documentaries, videos, eBooks and podcasts.
While green goods and technologies are a step towards a solution, it’s no longer enough simply to re-package a small percentage of our rampant consumerism model as “green.” We need pervasive sustainability, extending to the greening of our hearts, so that actual care emerges for our world, as opposed to image-manipulation for the sake of disguising our same capitalism, over-consumerism, and exploitation of nature.
