Offshoots Permaculture Project
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 05.13.07
We've covered permaculture a good number of times before. We've seen a movie demonstrating the potential to grow food in desert regions, we've talked with permaculture practitioner Benjamin Fahrer at the Table of Free Voices, and we've seen the work of Will Hooker in creating a vibrant urban permaculture garden in Raleigh, Noth Carolina. Now we've come across another impressive community project, this time in Burnley in the UK, called Offshoots. Offshoots is essentially a community garden offering hands-on demonstrations of life-style changes that individuals and communities can make to become more sustainable and self-reliant. The project incorporates solar and wind powered buildings, a kiln for making charcoal, a wildlife pond and reed bed, compost toilet, cob building with oven, organic vegetable production, tree nursery, community composting project, backyard demonstration and bee hives. Recently, the group has also been running green wood working courses.
Know of any good permaculture or community garden projects in your area? We'd love to hear about them.
Hey I live at and created the Urban Farm in Central Phoenix, Arizona. It is a mainstream 1950's built house that I have turned into an environmental showcase home. I open it for tours and classes on a regular basis. Yesterday we had a composting and keeping chickens in your yard class.
I learned about permaculture in 1991, when I took my design course. Since that time I have incorporated pc and sustainability into the site on an ongoing basis.
The site includes 1/3 acre of edible landscaping (at any given moment there are dozens of different kinds of food growing), 60 fruit trees (I practice urban orcharding), two (soon to be 3) different kinds of solar panels (PV and thermal air heating), three greywater applications, rainwater harvesting, I drive a Honda Insight hybrid, and use reclaimed materials used in the remodeling.
The key to what I am doing here is that I have permits for everything and design each project to appeal to the mainstream. No funky things here. My message is that you can live a green life and not suffer.
Want to know more or see pictures let me know. My website for the Urban Farm is UrbanFarm.org. Needs to be updated though - which I can have done in a few weeks if need be.
Greg
My Mother's Day gift was working in my yard with my family as we begin to convert my yard from xericape to permaculture. We managed to remove the horrendous rock, that is often referred to as a 'yard' here in Phoenix, in one small area. I plan to convert it into a hummingbird/butterfly garden with desert plants and rainwater harvesting. It would be considered a zone 5 area so a haven for wildkife. This isn't an overnight venture but I am excited because I see a yard full of life in my future not just rock. I can hardly wait!