With spring fast approaching, two needs recently became apparent. We needed to increase our sheltered growing space as well as our soil building capacities. To accomplish this, we created several designs for increasing our growing abilities, and in the end, we decided to build an integrated system.

Currently, we have a worm bin and three bins for compost. We built the new system in the middle of the garden and it will serve as the fourth stage of composting. From this bin, we will sift the compost and create our soil mixes. Because of its placement, it is ideal for distributing the soil and seedlings throughout the garden.

Twenty-one straw bales were used for the walls, and we used onsite scrap lumber for the frame of the cover. The cover is plastic, and we plan on upgrading it with windows from the local recycle center. The growing space is separated from the compost bin by a wall of straw bales.

To integrate the two spaces we cut sections of rain gutter, which was onsite from our water catchment project, and put them through the straw bale wall. This allows the solar gain from the cold frame to heat up the compost pile during the day, and it encourages the compost pile to release some of its heat into the cold frame during the night.

We have extended our growing season, soil building capacity, and when the system starts to decompose the straw will make an excellent top dressing throughout the garden. The cold frame and compost bin are also well insulated by the straw bales.

Winter is almost over, and with it the time for introspection also draws to a close. The heavy rains and shorter days have given us time to create a sign system that illustrates our priorities in the garden. In the coming year some focuses like crop selection and soil building will stay the same, and this season they will be enhanced by a winter of planning that we did not have last year.

Education is also a key priority as we enter the 2008 growing season, and one of the primary tools that we developed this winter is our garden didactic system. This collection consists of 23 concept signs and 30 profile crop signs. They will be scattered throughout the garden to greatly enhance its accessibility.

This project was beneficial to the Energy Garden initiative because in the process compiling the content, we were able to summarize our work to date. In addition, the signs helped us to identify the focal points of the garden and the methods that influence its development.

The concept signs consist of:

· Goals of the Sebastopol Energy Garden

· Community Compost Collection

· The Sebastopol Energy Garden Growth Collage

· Square Foot Gardening Method

· Natural Farming – The “Do Nothing” Method

· Cover Crops

· The Water Catchment System

· Drip Irrigation

· Culinary Herb Spiral

· Mandala Garden: The Sheet Mulch Technique

· Methods of Season Extension: Towards a “Four Season Harvest”

· Appropriate Technologies

· Processing and Harvesting Techniques

· Tree Guilds: Edible Forest Gardening

· Garden Cycle Tracking

· Ethanol Production

· The Fractional Still

· Recycling and Compost: Designing “From Cradle to Cradle”

· Chickens

· Biointensive Concepts

· Permaculture Principles

Each sign corresponds to something that is happening in the garden or that has influenced its progression. There are also 30 profile crops that we have chosen because of their ability to help us adapt to Peak Oil. Instead of a lawn, we are selecting a great range of crops to benefit humans and the environment. Please see http://www.energyfarms.net/node/1495 for a list of these crops.

These signs will enable people with a wide range of understanding of sustainability to experience a transformed suburban lawn. When people visit this year, during our second growing season, they will be introduced to a diversity of crops with a large variety of functions. In addition, they will be exposed to techniques and technologies that are easy to learn and have the potential to make a big difference in their lives.

The rains will soon stop, and spring will bring a time of action. We will sow seeds of diversity in the garden and hopefully, inspiration in the community. The Energy Garden is always open to visitors and we look forward to helping more people experience the resilience of the Earth.

Here are some of the pictures from the fall cleanup, harvest, and planting. We will be growing many covercrops and winter vegetables and the transition is fun to watch. Directly seeded covercrops are sprouting already because we started them on the new moon. Check back later for more pictures. - Aaron

Reese Baker, graduate of New College’s eco-agriculture program facilitated the charrette focusing on the Site Access Pathways and Water Reclamation. Given the time, they were able to analyze a little more than half of the property. Their challenge was:

As a group, your goal is serve as a consultant with the objective of creating a design for an in ground water catchment system for this site. Be sure to take into account basic design considerations when creating the site plan. These include the directional flow of water such as runoff from hardscapes and access points such as pathways.

Utilizing the eight principles of rain water harvesting taken from Rain Water Harvesting for Drylands:

1. Thoughtful Observation: Low + High Spots.
2. Start at the top - or highpoint - and work your way down.
3. Start small and simple: labor, materials, etc.
4. Spread and infiltrate the flow of water: swales, keyline, ponds, etc.
5. Always plan for an overflow route and manage that overflow water as a resource: spillways, runoff.
6. Maximize living and organic groundcover: native vegetation.
7. Maximize beneficial relationships and efficiency by “staking functions”: plant used to harvest water could include food, fiber, fuel, wildlife habitat, medicine etc.
8. Plan for reassessment of the system: will the materials be appropriate over the long term?

Their findings were:

1. Incorporate in ground biofilter at the highest point (near road)
2. Replace concrete driveway with permeable pavers
3. Divert runoff water from curb and water through a biofilter and into a small pond or ethanol producing plants near front fence.
4. Use on contour drainage to avoid driveway runoff into garage.
5. Create a dry creek bed from front steps connecting to the back garden.
6. At the bottom, shaded part of the property, create mulch pile under trees for mushroom cultivation.
7. Slow it, spread it, and sink it.

Mark Sardella, our new director of operations here at Post Carbon facilitated the charrette that focused on the design of an Energy Network. Mark’s background is in engineering and renewable energy systems and for the past six years he has focused on local energy solutions. He was also core faculty at Ecoversity in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

His group looked at the social design of a local energy network, and therefore faced the hardest challenge of our four charrettes. Essentially, in one hour’s time, they discussed the transition from the current design of the industrial system to a more integrated and local system that honors all life.

Impressively, they were able to come to a general consensus on an approach to take. They decided that focusing on the promotion of the non-dual nature of reality, giving children and the youth a voice, developing local energy descent plans, revoking corporations from their status of personhood, and creating and networking collaborative co-operatives of groups doing similar things (i.e. guilds of people doing childcare, ecological restoration, etc.) Given five minutes to present these were their findings, and their charrette rose to the challenge.

The Energy Garden at Post Carbon Institute was greatly enhanced by the two and a half hour visit from the folks at RDI. Like rich compost, the input of these budding permaculturists will be integrated into our operation here in the future. As we move into winter we will be focusing our attention on the systems for processing the harvests, retaining the water, and designing systems for networking the Energy Farm concept. With mutually beneficial alliances and the combining of resources and ideas, visits like these have shown us that the best harvest of the season has been the input from our community. With gratitude, we keep planting.

As the Jerusalem artichokes danced fifteen feet in the air and the millet waved majestically, the corn and sorghum rustled rhythmically with the breeze coming from the west, the harvest was celebrated. Once a battered and neglected yard, infested with Bermuda grass and trash, after one season of love, intention, and care the demonstration Energy Garden at the Post Carbon Institute was born. Now teeming with crops that even some seasoned gardeners have never seen; the kenaf, switchgrass, quinoa, sorghum, and other plants represent a resiliency and bounty that inspire hope and action. On three days in late September the community learned about and participated in home scale responses to current global problems.

On Tuesday, September 25^th the Permaculture Class from the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC.org) arrived with thirty people to see the Energy Garden. Well informed and motivated by the holistic education delivered by Brock Dolman and other teachers at OAEC, the students engaged in an interactive tour and design session at Post Carbon’s Energy Garden. To see the details of the design charrettes please see the blog at http://energyfarms.net/node/1397. The two hour tour was stimulating as the students learned about the context of Peak Oil and the purpose and reasons behind the Energy Farm Network. We here at Post Carbon also benefitted from their understanding of permaculture theory and design as they suggested several great ideas to improve the Energy Garden site.

Three days later, on Friday, September 28^th, the next day of tours began and about twenty people participated in a series of free workshops. They learned about ethanol production, appropriate technologies, and relocalization. The attendees were engaging and several deep discussions were sparked about responses to the coming transition. As the methods for developing the Energy Farm were shared, hopes and fears about a world with less oil were addressed with thoughtful questions and creative group brainstorms.

Our last day of tours was on Sunday, September 30^th. The workshops were the same as on Friday, and they were honed to a more family oriented atmosphere. Forty-five people came over the course of the day and a third of them were children who showed enthusiasm that provoked smiles all around. The day was filled with joy and laughter, making relocalization a reality rather than a mere idea. People harvested vegetables from the garden, used a leg powered Japanese winnower and a mill to process wheat and barley. The bio fuel discussions led to good connections and the sharing of knowledge.

The tours marked the end of summer for us at the Energy Garden. We are excited to transition into the rainy season and we are currently planting crops to feed the soil. As we work in the garden, it is a joy to see cars slow down to look into our “yard”. With time the interest will continue to rise and hopefully these types of gardens will proliferate. Until we see you again, enjoy the autumn.

Wednesday was the new moon, so according to biodynamic principles we have a three day window on either side to start new seeds and plant seedlings that we started on the last new moon. To prepare for this time, I put forth a semi-frantic burst of action, harvesting the millet, amaranth, quinoa, corn, and flax. I have weeded and cleaned nine beds, roughly 1000 square feet, and now that the frenzy has slowed I am completely haunted by the Bermuda grass.

Yes, the amaranth was a stunning orange, and the yield from one bed was impressive and exciting. Sure, it was the first time I have seen quinoa growing in a garden, and it was delicious. The corn, millet, and flax can make fuel and feed nations, but on more than one occasion in the past week, I have had dreams (read: nightmares) about Bermuda grass.

After three days of weeding in the hot sun, with the sounds of birds and cars to keep me company, the rhizomatous pattern of this invasive weed probed its way into my subconscious. The grass creates a long chain, penetrating at least 8 inches deep (probably more) and it relentlessly spreads its way across any open ground. Its pattern is uniform, its behavior is consistent.

Preparing the beds for the winter crops, as is usually the case with gardening, I was left with my own thoughts. Daily, my hopes and fears surfaced as I thought about the state of the world in forty years. I continued to pull the Bermuda grass. The work developed a rhythm and the birds provided the melody.

For entertainment, or perhaps because it is harder to completely quiet the mind, I allowed my thoughts to create pictures of the future. On the fear end of the thought spectrum, I saw the suburban landscape as wasteland, ghetto, and desert. Cut off from cities, which were controlled by a repressive and authoritative government, there was hardly any productive human activity and the flow of goods and services was extremely limited. Visions such as these are demoralizing and self defeating, and one night last week, the night of the Bermuda grass nightmare, I allowed this perspective to darken my mood and disrupt the rest of my day.

Late last week the energy at Post Carbon Institute was infectious. There was a slew of activity as more than a dozen people came through for meetings, tours, and to see the new electric Ford Rangers. As I was working, I again let my mind entertain itself. This time, with so much collective energy focused on creating positive responses to global problems, visions of hope and renewal uplifted my day. The same communities that the day before were devastated by peak oil and climate change, were thriving. The pace of travel and the movement of goods were also slower, but the more densely planned neighborhoods were teeming with life. Gardens were in full bloom and there was laughter everywhere. People were riding bicycles and there were baskets offering surplus fruit in front of every house.

Needless to say, with visions of possibility and renewal, the Bermuda grass came out easier than when I imagined destruction. After a long and insightful week of garden maintenance, I notice a choice. I can label the Bermuda grass as an unwelcomed, invasive, and obnoxious problem. Certainly, that would have some truth. Or, I can see the plant for what it is. By covering the ground, breaking up the soil, and setting roots relentlessly, the plant is useful for certain functions.

Regardless of how I judge it, I want to model my activism and work after this fierce plant. Seeing the pattern of its growth, it is consistent, resourceful, and strong. It works in network with other strands of its family to create a comprehensive web that works underground and above the surface to create a movement that will never be nullified. In order to see my visions of hope and positive change come true, I will take this lesson in work ethic from a plant that I might otherwise label “invasive”.

We have again added bed space to the Energy Garden, this time in the shape of a mandala. Utilizing techniques from Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway, we are slowly building the hardpan barren “lawn”, read: super invasive bermuda grass and clumps of dead sod, into nutrient rich humus. As double digging was near impossible, we are letting the worms to the work by creating a sheet mulch close to 18 inches thick.

First we created the design for the area and then marked the edges of the mandala on the earth. Next we began creating the bed. Otherwise known as lasagna gardening, we chopped away some of the clumps of grass and started with an inch layer of manure. We followed that with cardboard, then with an inch or two of organic vineyard compost from Grab and Grow in Sebastopol. According to the grab and grow website, it is “made from a simple blend of grape pumice, green waste and oyster shell flour, this compost has no manures or supplemental nitrogen fertilizers added to this high potassium mix.

This was followed by a single “book” layer of wheat straw, then with another inch or two of mango mulch. “It doesn’t have any mangos in it, but it does have horse and cow manure to supply basic nutrients; grape and apple pumice which are high in beneficial bacteria and yeasts to aid with the breakdown of organic matter; rice hulls and straw for good soil tilth; soft rock phosphate and greensand to boost the phosphorous and potassium.” This was followed by a layer of alfalfa straw and wheat straw mixed together. We will plant by opening pockets in about a month.

Next we created the paths by laying burlap bags donated by Taylor Made Farms in Sebastopol. On top of the burlap we put down woodchips. The irrigation was then laid under the straw. We have also sheet mulched and prepared a new berry patch next to the sunflowers and driveway in the front of the house. In an epic battle with the Bermuda grass we have also sheet mulched all of the paths on the property with cardboard and woodchips. We hacked down most of it and hope it never comes back. It looks great right now.

Before...

After... let the worms do the digging!

Arriving thirty strong, equipped with cameras, notebooks and perspectives freshly shuffled by a week of holistic earth care instruction, OAEC's permaculture class toured the Energy Farm. They came a little after ten and over the next two hours engaged in a participatory dance throughout the small suburban site. President Julian Darley addressed the students as they surrounded the front "yard", now in full bloom with broccoli, millet, basil, peppers, and many other beneficial plants.

He spoke about the philosophy guiding the Energy Farm Network and the urgent need to relocalize our food and fuel production. Darley challenged the students with problems about bio fuels produced using industrial agriculture citing the huge amount of land and oil that it takes to grow and process these crops. In his brief fifteen minute intro he gave the students some context related to peak oil and the adaptation process we face in this lifetime, calling this time the "great transition."

Brought by Brock Dolman, permaculture elder and master instructor, this tour was special because it was a large group, very well informed and keen to learn about and address the deeper challenges of such an ambitious project. After Julian finished, we divided the group. Half went on tour of the grounds and the other half engaged in mini design charrettes. After forty minutes the groups switched.

We created four design charrettes aimed helping the students practice their site analysis and design skills. Each charrette focused on a zone of the property. The four charrettes were called the Fukuoka forage forest, zone one patio, sixteen square foot garden bed, and water.

The “Fukuoka Forage Forest”, named after Japanese farmer Masanobu Fukuoka, focused on the back part of the lot under the apple trees and adjacent to the fence. The students came up with several good ideas to implement in the zone furthest from the house: cob benches for seating in the gazebo, an outdoor kitchen to process food, a cob oven, an outdoor shower, more worm bins, incorporating bees, temporary fencing for chicken forage, mushroom cultivation, introduction of ducks to the system, a possible pond under the largest apple tree, birdhouses, creation of roof structure over the chicken coop for roof catchment and shelter for birds.

The zone one patio refers to the area closest to the house in the back. Currently, hot and inhospitable with crushed rock and concrete, the area is relatively neglected considering the proximity to the house. The students focusing on this area envisioned; an arbor on the porch, a trellis of kiwi and grapes, planting a fast growing shade tree, breaking up all the concrete except under the patio and doors, using broken concrete for pavers to make paths, using the fence to grow vines on, cultivate bamboo, sandbox in corner with cob walls with planter pockets, planning a soft ground cover, hanging pots from the eves, building a culinary herb bed.

The charrettes that focused on water produced an assessment of the incoming water and cited some of the future tasks for addressing the issue further. They mentioned: municipal water input, runoff from street and driveway, conservation techniques, the need to get an accurate square footage of the every roof on property to calculate water catchment capacity, a need to find the highest elevation on roof for downspout, a need to find a place for storage tanks, how to handle wastewater, and they looked at ways to “slow it, spread it, and sink it.”

We currently have six pocket gardens that are four feet by four feet. We challenged the students to create planting plans that focused on a theme. One group chose to create a plan with a medicinal focus, and the other focused on companion planting with a 60 % calorie, 30 % carbon, and 10% vitamin ratio. The group that keyed in on medicinal plants decided to sow in a spiral pattern with echinacea in the center followed by chamomile, lavender, jewelweed, nettles, mullein, ginseng, purslane, plantain, yarrow, selfheal, valerian, comfrey, ginger, garlic, and dandelion. The 60/30/10 group decided to plant in a symmetrically opposing pattern of strawberries, spinach and lettuce, calendula, pumpkin, amaranth, and scarlet runner beans on trellises.

The hour and forty five minutes was extremely productive as it exposed the students to the desire to create an energy farm network and it also provided some key input as to future improvements of the land here in Sebastopol. Everyone seemed to leave energized and motivated and it was great preparation for the community tours on Friday the 28^th and Sunday the 30^th. In closing, Julian reminded the group that in order to adjust to the coming changes we need to “reduce consumption and produce locally” and that these two things are inevitably intertwined because as we begin to produce locally we will reduce our consumption and as we reduce our consumption because of peak oil we will have to produce locally. May our net work guide the way.