Permaculture Master Plan - Dittmeier

PERMACULTURE MASTER PLAN DITTMEIER

PHASE 1 A PERMACULTURE FOOD YARD

HUNGRY GNOME GARDENSCAPES

“Empowering people to grow food.”

OVERVIEW

So often, when we move into a new home, the first priority is the house itself. It is only after the home is satisfactory that we begin to look beyond the walls, to the rest of the property, to the living, growing, and sometimes out of control landscape beyond, and begin to form it to meet our needs and desires. This is the point where plans need to be made so that it can be managed with intention.

The future holds nothing but possibilities for this property. With Andrew, Brook and their two children as the new stewards of this land, their long and short term goals align with Hungry Gnome Gardenscapes’ mission: To cultivate Earth stewardship by empowering connections between people and their land.

CLIENT GOALS

Long term goals focus on the land as an ecosystem, incorporating both the human elements and the wild elements.

• Ecosystem regeneration

• Educate the family

• Healthy woodlot development

Short term goals focus around the back yard where most of the cleared land is to be found on the property.

• Feed the family with organic food

• Children’s play areas

• Grow chickens for eggs

• Maintain an open view from the house to the back of the fenced in area

The property boundaries and a photo of the property from above. Source: Google maps

HUNGRY GNOME GARDENSCAPES

DESIGNER: GARETH CROSBY

2013

The Project Site as seen from the north.

Sloping land from the house to the east.

Project side and sloping land as seen from the south

ANALYSIS OF EXISTING CONDITIONS: DESIGN CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Priority 1 Back yard food and safety

Challenge: Sloping land in the back yard, near the house, can lead to erosion

Design recommendations:

• Shape land to retain rain water and stop erosion:

• form into swales, terraces, hugelkulture

• mulch the slope to slow water flow

• Plant plants to slow and absorb water:

• Keep plants low to maintain open view of the back yard from the windows of the house

• give the front yard some privacy from the road

• annual vegetables, perennial vegetables, perennial fruits, flowers, shrubs

Challenge: Roof runoff from the house

Design recommendations:

• Direct the water into catchments

• use gutters and down spouts to collect water from the roof

• shape the land to collect, slow, and spread the water from the down spouts

• build catchments into the shape of the land where water will be directed and collected and slowly released to the soil

Challenge: Tall pines to the east block morning sunlight

Design recommendations:

• evergreen trees block sunlight all year, only a few trees cast shadows far enough to be problematic for the productivity of the garden

• Take down the evergreens that pose a problem for the productivity of the gardens

Challenge: The 75’ riparian buffer limits building

Design recommendations:

• Keep all building outside the buffer

Challenge: The seemingly random pump house located on the western side of the site

Design recommendations:

• Us it as a multi-functional building in the landscape

• since it will get morning light, build it into a chicken coop and add on a scratch area

• this area will also get shade in the afternoon which will improve the conditions for the chickens in the summer

Challenge: Clay soils

Design recommendations:

• Take a soil sample to check the pH and the nutrient levels

• when shaping the land, import quality compost and soil conditioner as well as amendments that will improve the quality of the soil for fruits and vegetables

• plant nitrogen fixing and pollinator attracting cover crops while the land is waiting for planting in the fall or mulch with wood chips

• Recommended nitrogen fixing cover crop: Clovers (cool season)

• Recommended pollinator attracting: Buckwheat (warm season)

Analysis of Existing Conditions

HUNGRY GNOME GARDENSCAPES

DESIGNER:

GARETH CROSBY SUMMER 2013

SERVICEBERRY SERVICEBERRY RASPBERRY BLACKBERRY BLUEBERRY

HONEYBERRY

The back yard design will focus on the short term goals listed below.

• Feed the family with organic food

• Children’s play areas

• Grow chickens for eggs

• Maintain an open view from the house to the back of the fenced in area

The fence line for the back yard will encompass most of the sunny area. There are two options for fence line. Option 1 includes a shady section of the back yard to the north east. This corner will be the only full shade area in the back yard so this spot could be a great children’s play area during the summer. Option 2 does not include this shady corner and cuts up, just below the pine tree.

Once the selected trees have been cleared, there will be ample space and light for a large kitchen garden, three rows of berries, some orchard trees, lots of flowers, chickens and area for children to play, all inside the fence.

The vegetable garden has been located close to the house for ease of access and maintenance, as well as to take full advantage of the sunniest location in the back yard. It is also located on a 10% slope. This will require some initial development, be that in the form of terraces with logs placed on the down hill side of the bed, more permanent terrace edges like granite or recycled concrete from a local source, or hugelkulture mounds of woody materials mounded up and topped

with soil. The beds are laid on contour to slow, spread and absorb rain water. Additionally, if you use fresh logs in the shade garden to create edges, you can grow mushrooms on them.

Up slope from some of the beds, are rainwater catchment swales, where water from the roves of the house will be directed into these swales and slowly percolated into the garden soil below. The catchments will be dug deep and filled with a porous gravel and topped with 6 inches of wood chips. These paths will act as rain gardens that slow, disperse and absorb the rainwater but will also be paths. Pipes will divert the water form the downspouts to the swales.

On the western edge of the fenced in area, a chicken house will either be incorporated into the existing well house or a new chicken coop will be built near the well house. A scratch area will be adjacent to the coop to allow the chickens ample space for optimum health. A mulberry tree is located beside the scratch area both for the family’s enjoyment as well as the chickens, who will gobble up any fruits that fall into the scratch area.

Pollinators are important for the fertilization of most fruits and vegetables. A large pollinator garden has been located in the center of the space to attract beneficial insects to and from this area, passing the orchard plants, the berry bushes, and the vegetable gardens nearby. At some point, if the children need more open area to run and play, this garden can be shrunk to open up space.

An orchard, and its companion plants, follows the northwestern fence line leaving a walking path next to the fence.

OPTION 2

The berry berms follow the contour of the slope just as the vegetable gardens do and can be terraced as the vegetable gardens are or differently.

The four points of entry into the fenced area are (1)the house, (2)the southern gate next to the house, (3)the northern gate to the river, and (4)the utility gate to the east.

HUNGRY GNOME GARDENSCAPES

DESIGNER: GARETH CROSBY SUMMER 2013

ESTIMATED BUDGET

• Fence Option 1: $5,566 for the fence, 2- 4’ gates and 1- 8’ double gate

• Vegetable bed with logs for terracing - $1,000 with granite for terracing - $4,000 with Hugelkulture - $1-2,000

• Rain swales and gutter hookup - $1,000

• Plants for the orchard, berry garden, shade garden, and pollinator garden $1,900

• Prep and planting for the orchard, berry berms, shade garden and pollinator garden $1,500

• Mulching all the paths and gardens - $600

• Chicken shed and scratch area - $1,000-3,000

Total estimated budget - 12,566 - $17,566

This is an estimate to give you a range of possible prices. As the project develops we will know more clearly the cost of materials and the time it takes to develop the space and we will discuss the prices for things as they become clear. There are always complications and we will discuss how to proceed when these things happen.

TIME LINE FOR DESIGN AND INSTALLATION

August

• Shape land and water catchment areas, mulch with straw and seed with buckwheat and dutch clover

• Add gutters, downspouts and flexible piping and rout them to catchments

• Build fence September/October

• Plant annuals and perennials

Estimated Budget

HUNGRY GNOME GARDENSCAPES

DESIGNER:

GARETH CROSBY

SUMMER 2013