Graphic above is my 1/4 acre property. North and the street are to the right. The back yard, most of the garden and my ADU living space are on the south side of the house.
From the street, anyone would notice something unusual about these two properties. They are side by side in the middle of this unremarkable suburban block in Eugene, Oregon. The houses on one side of the street date from the mid 50's, all but one remodeled, and on the other side of the street, recently built, filling the smaller lots up to the five foot setbacks. They are larger than the older homes, two stories and have replaced a wholesale nursery over the past 15 years.
The two quarter acre properties of interest are vegetated all the way to the street, dense with fruit and nut producing trees, brambles and vines. A discerning look would reveal a grape arbor over the roof on a small structure where there “should” be a driveway. During the harvest season, its normal passers by stop to snag some apples, plums, cherries, blackberries, boysenberries, grapes and lemons in a basket on a TV tray harvested from a lemon tree growing in the backyard of one of the properties.
From the street, anyone would notice something unusual about these two properties. They are side by side in the middle of this unremarkable suburban block in Eugene, Oregon. The houses on one side of the street date from the mid 50's, all but one remodeled, and on the other side of the street, recently built, filling the smaller lots up to the five foot setbacks. They are larger than the older homes, two stories and have replaced a wholesale nursery over the past 15 years.
The two quarter acre properties of interest are vegetated all the way to the street, dense with fruit and nut producing trees, brambles and vines. A discerning look would reveal a grape arbor over the roof on a small structure where there “should” be a driveway. During the harvest season, its normal passers by stop to snag some apples, plums, cherries, blackberries, boysenberries, grapes and lemons in a basket on a TV tray harvested from a lemon tree growing in the backyard of one of the properties.
Foto above. From the street. Taller trees on the right are on my neighbor's property. Just right of the post is the former driveway. In view- Marion berry hedge, domestic blackberry, Interloken grapes along trellis and above shed, cherry tree shared with neighbor, English Walnut, Edible chestnuts, the tallest trees, next door.
Returning to Eugene, I rented a place with another friend for several months with minimal fanfare. After a few months, the fateful opportunity presented itself. Another friend came to me with the thought of buying a house his wife wanted to sell.
I was intrigued with the idea. I did build and own my own house when I lived in a rural intentional community in the Arkansas Ozarks but that was in the boondocks and off the grid. No codes, no inspectors. No security cameras. Buying a house in the suburbs was totally different. I agonized about it. I had never borrowed money before, I had no credit rating but I did have enough money for a down payment and the bank would provide the rest.
When built in 1955, the house was a modest two bedrooms and 1100 square feet. The long axis is oriented east west with the south side looking to the back yard. The short axis is north – south. As luck would have it, the place was perfect for my needs. The house had never been remodeled. Fine. Fashion holds no value for me. Original fixtures, floors, counter tops, great.
The place has very good solar access, few trees and no buildings to block the sun. The property was flat with alluvial soil as the location was in a former flood zone, the Willamette River is a quarter miles away. Eight dams upstream in the Willamette watershed have protected downstream from severe winter floods for the past 40 years. There is an assumption, the earthen dams will survive the next 9.0 earthquake we are overdue for.
Before the first white pioneers, what became my suburban neighborhood had been a fire managed landscape for the indigenous Kalapuya for untold millenia. They lived away from the flood prone River in the wintertime and practiced a “seasonal round” from the Spring to Fall, making planned stops for hunting, collecting various plants, fishing and tool making. The landscape near the River would have resembled a park with large trees and minimal undergrowth, conditions preferred by plants and animals the Kalapuya depended on.
Buying the house would be an enormous new responsibility. I would need housemates and I would need to learn a lot of new organizational and management skills like making mortgage payments, keeping up with insurance and various bills, fixing and replacing stuff. And making a long term commitment to transforming the property.
So of course, I did buy the house and moved in the summer of 2000. I hit the ground running. The intention from the start was to make a dramatic deep permaculture makeover. I had also adopted the cat who lived next door from my previous room rental. A new suburban domestic life was underway.
The first task after moving in was to sand the floors inside the house to remove the dark walnut wood stain in the living room, hallway and bedrooms. Underneath the stain was blond hardwood. I did some room painting too. Next task was to sheet mulch the front and back yards and to help a friend remodel the one car garage into a living space.
Sheet mulching was simple. Lots of large pieces of cardboard covered by a foot and more of leaves and horse manure and straw. The more organic material on top of the cardboard, the better. That task was completed by October.
The driveway was taken out over twenty years ago. At one time, that driveway could have accommodated four average cars. Now the slab is gone except for a short sidewalk. Instead the concrete has been replaced by an expansive grape arbor, two English Walnut trees and a storage shed with a grape arbor over the rooftop.
Half the concrete became landscaping features on my property while the other half of the rectangular chunks were taken elsewhere by a friend who helped with the depave. My friend’s need was to satisfy city land use regulations for his own project. Recycled chunks from my place that made a permeable surface were fine with the city, much to be preferred to a new impermeable expanse of concrete.
One day several years earlier, I heard a bobcat sound next door. Not a wild cat yowling to escape suburbia, rather the small, well known small heavy equipment machine. I climbed on the roof of my ADU to check out the noise. Nice! Another neighbor who owned the landscape and nursery business across the street before developing the new houses, was using his Bobcat to remove the top two feet of my neighbor’s packed gravel driveway. My neighbor Bill was trading his gravel driveway for garden space. Bill moved several years later. The folks who bought the place have a wonderful multi use garden space there now.
My new, as in three years ago, next door neighbor friend Patty told me she was thrilled to see my permaculture property next door when she and husband Peter first visited next door to consider buying Bill’s place. Patty and Peter have become great neighbors.
The combined properties make for a permaculture landmark in the Pacific Northwest. Literally, thousands of people have visited over the years to see what nothing special suburban properties can become. And there are other kindred properties within a few minutes by bike. We have organized permaculture site tours in the neighborhood for over 20 years with numbers of tour participants ranging between 3 and 70+. We have done 3 or 4 different tours in River Road. The Primer will go into more detail describing other locations and our site tours.
When I bought my place in 2000, the intention from the start was to do a permaculture makeover for several reasons. First, to reduce my ecological footprint by producing more basic needs on site including food, water, energy, creative expression and aesthetics. I have serious disagreements with capitalism, as described, so part of the plan has been to reduce my participation in the economic system. Note, I still buy plenty of products and services. I will describe in more detail my lifestyle in another section of the Primer. Is it really a one earth lifestyle? We’ll take a closer look later.
The place also produces income. I rent 3 rooms in the house. Add the detached passive solar living space I built behind the main house, my own personal space, and this property helps increase my residential density to help slow down the rate of car dependent suburban sprawl. To advocates of New Urbanism, this is tactical suburban redevelopment. Its many aspects of permaculture applied to suburbia. Its a 50 year old modest repurposed suburban home and property that points the way towards a preferred future. The place is paradigm shift. Its not the future, its here and now.
The property was perfect for my plans. I was lucky. At the time, I wasn’t even looking for a house to buy. A friend’s wife wanted to sell her house, which she was renting to a couple. My friend asked if I was interested to buy it. Always open to interesting ideas, I pondered the idea and biked over to the place to have a look. I agonized about it. I had never borrowed money before. I had no credit rating. I did have enough of a down payment. I took the plunge. It's perhaps the best decision I have ever made in my life.
Suburbia is not created equal. Some properties are easier to work with than others. There are many considerations when buying a place if the interest is a permaculture makeover. One might consider soil, climate, orientation, slope, shade, existing trees and shrubs, neighbors. Is there a fussy homeowners association, is the city hands off with making uncommon changes with a property? What are the other houses like on the street?
Returning to Eugene, I rented a place with another friend for several months with minimal fanfare. After a few months, the fateful opportunity presented itself. Another friend came to me with the thought of buying a house his wife wanted to sell.
I was intrigued with the idea. I did build and own my own house when I lived in a rural intentional community in the Arkansas Ozarks but that was in the boondocks and off the grid. No codes, no inspectors. No security cameras. Buying a house in the suburbs was totally different. I agonized about it. I had never borrowed money before, I had no credit rating but I did have enough money for a down payment and the bank would provide the rest.
When built in 1955, the house was a modest two bedrooms and 1100 square feet. The long axis is oriented east west with the south side looking to the back yard. The short axis is north – south. As luck would have it, the place was perfect for my needs. The house had never been remodeled. Fine. Fashion holds no value for me. Original fixtures, floors, counter tops, great.
The place has very good solar access, few trees and no buildings to block the sun. The property was flat with alluvial soil as the location was in a former flood zone, the Willamette River is a quarter miles away. Eight dams upstream in the Willamette watershed have protected downstream from severe winter floods for the past 40 years. There is an assumption, the earthen dams will survive the next 9.0 earthquake we are overdue for.
Before the first white pioneers, what became my suburban neighborhood had been a fire managed landscape for the indigenous Kalapuya for untold millenia. They lived away from the flood prone River in the wintertime and practiced a “seasonal round” from the Spring to Fall, making planned stops for hunting, collecting various plants, fishing and tool making. The landscape near the River would have resembled a park with large trees and minimal undergrowth, conditions preferred by plants and animals the Kalapuya depended on.
Buying the house would be an enormous new responsibility. I would need housemates and I would need to learn a lot of new organizational and management skills like making mortgage payments, keeping up with insurance and various bills, fixing and replacing stuff. And making a long term commitment to transforming the property.
So of course, I did buy the house and moved in the summer of 2000. I hit the ground running. The intention from the start was to make a dramatic deep permaculture makeover. I had also adopted the cat who lived next door from my previous room rental. A new suburban domestic life was underway.
The first task after moving in was to sand the floors inside the house to remove the dark walnut wood stain in the living room, hallway and bedrooms. Underneath the stain was blond hardwood. I did some room painting too. Next task was to sheet mulch the front and back yards and to help a friend remodel the one car garage into a living space.
Sheet mulching was simple. Lots of large pieces of cardboard covered by a foot and more of leaves and horse manure and straw. The more organic material on top of the cardboard, the better. That task was completed by October.
The driveway was taken out over twenty years ago. At one time, that driveway could have accommodated four average cars. Now the slab is gone except for a short sidewalk. Instead the concrete has been replaced by an expansive grape arbor, two English Walnut trees and a storage shed with a grape arbor over the rooftop.
Half the concrete became landscaping features on my property while the other half of the rectangular chunks were taken elsewhere by a friend who helped with the depave. My friend’s need was to satisfy city land use regulations for his own project. Recycled chunks from my place that made a permeable surface were fine with the city, much to be preferred to a new impermeable expanse of concrete.
One day several years earlier, I heard a bobcat sound next door. Not a wild cat yowling to escape suburbia, rather the small, well known small heavy equipment machine. I climbed on the roof of my ADU to check out the noise. Nice! Another neighbor who owned the landscape and nursery business across the street before developing the new houses, was using his Bobcat to remove the top two feet of my neighbor’s packed gravel driveway. My neighbor Bill was trading his gravel driveway for garden space. Bill moved several years later. The folks who bought the place have a wonderful multi use garden space there now.
My new, as in three years ago, next door neighbor friend Patty told me she was thrilled to see my permaculture property next door when she and husband Peter first visited next door to consider buying Bill’s place. Patty and Peter have become great neighbors.
The combined properties make for a permaculture landmark in the Pacific Northwest. Literally, thousands of people have visited over the years to see what nothing special suburban properties can become. And there are other kindred properties within a few minutes by bike. We have organized permaculture site tours in the neighborhood for over 20 years with numbers of tour participants ranging between 3 and 70+. We have done 3 or 4 different tours in River Road. The Primer will go into more detail describing other locations and our site tours.
When I bought my place in 2000, the intention from the start was to do a permaculture makeover for several reasons. First, to reduce my ecological footprint by producing more basic needs on site including food, water, energy, creative expression and aesthetics. I have serious disagreements with capitalism, as described, so part of the plan has been to reduce my participation in the economic system. Note, I still buy plenty of products and services. I will describe in more detail my lifestyle in another section of the Primer. Is it really a one earth lifestyle? We’ll take a closer look later.
The place also produces income. I rent 3 rooms in the house. Add the detached passive solar living space I built behind the main house, my own personal space, and this property helps increase my residential density to help slow down the rate of car dependent suburban sprawl. To advocates of New Urbanism, this is tactical suburban redevelopment. Its many aspects of permaculture applied to suburbia. Its a 50 year old modest repurposed suburban home and property that points the way towards a preferred future. The place is paradigm shift. Its not the future, its here and now.
The property was perfect for my plans. I was lucky. At the time, I wasn’t even looking for a house to buy. A friend’s wife wanted to sell her house, which she was renting to a couple. My friend asked if I was interested to buy it. Always open to interesting ideas, I pondered the idea and biked over to the place to have a look. I agonized about it. I had never borrowed money before. I had no credit rating. I did have enough of a down payment. I took the plunge. It's perhaps the best decision I have ever made in my life.
Suburbia is not created equal. Some properties are easier to work with than others. There are many considerations when buying a place if the interest is a permaculture makeover. One might consider soil, climate, orientation, slope, shade, existing trees and shrubs, neighbors. Is there a fussy homeowners association, is the city hands off with making uncommon changes with a property? What are the other houses like on the street?
Foto above. The sidewalk is the remains of the driveway, an early project. See the before image upper right. The door indicated is to a the former garage, now a bedroom.
SEE DEPAVE FOTOS
I helped a friend remodel the one car garage. This was a straightforward project. We insulated the walls and floor. An eight foot slider on the south wall, a former closet, totally opened up the space to the south, adding a passive solar design feature. There were large windows along the west wall. The former garage would be my space for seven years. Remodeling the garage was one of the best investments I have ever made. The cost has been repaid many times over the years and with the garage remodel, I now had a three bedroom house instead of two.
By this time, I had welcomed two young women as my first housemates. I used Craig’s list to find housemates. From the start, I was very descriptive of what I was looking for in housemates. I wanted housemates who were vegetarian and non-smoking. I wanted housemates who were eco minded, ideally rode a bike, were tidy and friendly. In more recent years, I have offered a modest break on rent for housemates who were car free by choice.
I went car free in 2024. Later in the Primer we will explore the topic pushing back on cars and what might a one earth lifestyle look like, that is, at least according to the Global Footprint Network. Hint, it would be very different from what the average American experiences but it could be far healthier in many ways for people and planet.
Over the years, I have done well with housemates but there have been several housemates I did ask to leave. Several housemates turned out to have various problems relating to drugs and alcohol. One housemate had a psychiatric experience, another would not leave her room to move out when the time came. But overall, after 25 years, the experience has been overwhelmingly good. Several housemates have remained good friends over the years.
SEE DEPAVE FOTOS
I helped a friend remodel the one car garage. This was a straightforward project. We insulated the walls and floor. An eight foot slider on the south wall, a former closet, totally opened up the space to the south, adding a passive solar design feature. There were large windows along the west wall. The former garage would be my space for seven years. Remodeling the garage was one of the best investments I have ever made. The cost has been repaid many times over the years and with the garage remodel, I now had a three bedroom house instead of two.
By this time, I had welcomed two young women as my first housemates. I used Craig’s list to find housemates. From the start, I was very descriptive of what I was looking for in housemates. I wanted housemates who were vegetarian and non-smoking. I wanted housemates who were eco minded, ideally rode a bike, were tidy and friendly. In more recent years, I have offered a modest break on rent for housemates who were car free by choice.
I went car free in 2024. Later in the Primer we will explore the topic pushing back on cars and what might a one earth lifestyle look like, that is, at least according to the Global Footprint Network. Hint, it would be very different from what the average American experiences but it could be far healthier in many ways for people and planet.
Over the years, I have done well with housemates but there have been several housemates I did ask to leave. Several housemates turned out to have various problems relating to drugs and alcohol. One housemate had a psychiatric experience, another would not leave her room to move out when the time came. But overall, after 25 years, the experience has been overwhelmingly good. Several housemates have remained good friends over the years.
The foto above shows the garage to bedroom space. Slider faces south. Some solar gain but no doubt, a lot of heat lost in cold weather. The slider now has a thick drape for insulation. This foto is from 20 years ago. View out the slider is very different now. This space now rented. Foto lens makes the space look wider than it is. SEE < MORE GARAGE REMODEL FOTOS
The graphics above show different looks at eco footprints. Historically, the US has produced far more CO2 than any other country over the past 200 years. The footprint calculator will tell you your eco footprint after asking questions about your lifestyle. The map compares country eco footprints using a particular metric. There are others metrics. In general, the countries with the largest eco footprints include the US, Australia, Qatar and Luxembourg. Even well off European countries have eco footprints half the size of the US.
Rain Water Catchment
Another early task was installing a rainwater catchment system. Some might say, why catch rain in Eugene? Doesn't it rain all the time? We do have plenty of rain in the winter but the west coast, even up to Oregon and Washington State are Mediterranean climates west of the Cascade Mountains. We have wet winters but dry summers.
I visited an agricultural tank business in Albany, 25 miles north. It was a good idea to go in person because I found two oblong, used 1600 gallon tanks for $100 each. Nobody told me about them on the phone. I only saw them walking around their multi acre tank yard. That was an awesome deal even though I had to fix a couple leaks in the tanks.
The tank dealer even delivered the two tanks to the front of my house and fixing the leaks was not a problem. One of my new housemates helped me slide the tanks on wooden tracks to their destinations, one in the back yard, the other in the front yard. Both places were mostly shady and low value for other uses.. I rigged up standard house gutters as conduits for channeling the rain from the roof into the tanks. I had to reverse the gutters on the front of the house to drain east instead of west to the tank.
Best to install big items like storage tanks early in the property transformation process. Eight years later, I added a circular 3000 gallon [12 thousand liter] tank. That tank catches water from the detached accessory structure I built in 2007. The large tank is food grade plastic and was bought new and delivered via Fed Ex from California.
I use the rainwater for irrigation although water from the new tank can be cleaned up to drink, very easily using a Berkey gravity ceramic water filter. I also installed a galvalume metal roof to replace the asphalt shingles on the large house. That was a big project, one of those tasks you say I’ll be glad I did it when it's finished. True enough.
Galvalume is perhaps the best surface to catch rain water. The aluminum/zinc alloy finish is an industrial process. It's not paint. Even paint on metal will age with time, weathering that paint and allowing it to drain into the storage tanks. Best to avoid drinking water from a roof of asphalt shingles and painted metal.
How did an eight foot in diameter by eight feet high tank, 400 pound when empty, find its way to my back yard fence after eight years of property transformation? Simple. We avoided my property. We slid the tank onto a friend’s tilted two wheeled flat trailer frame and walked it a half a mile around the block to my neighbor’s back yard, slid the tank off the trailer, rolled it across my neighbor’s backyard to the place where we had cut a ten foot section of fence down.
We rolled the tank over the cut fence, like a bridge, to a landing pad, a foot high galvanized metal ring, eight and a half feet in diameter that was filled with smooth river rock. We rotated the tank so its faucet and intake fit the water line coming off my roof. Mission complete! The small work party with three friends was a lot of fun!
My irrigation system is simple. My property is flat. The tanks are blocked up about a foot. They have faucets so I simply hook up a garden hose so the water can flow from the tank to a 55 gallon barrel set out in the garden area. I mostly use a zinc watering can water the plants but I can also use a sprinkler. Note, the water pressure from my tank system does enable a sprinkler but at a very reduced area. Instead of say, an area of 30 by 30 feet using city water and pressure, my water tanks only support enough pressure for the sprinkler to jet out to cover only 3 feet by 3 feet. One has to be careful moving the sprinkler so the hose does not drag across garden plants.
Here is a useful equation. An inch of rain collected from 1000 square feet [flat to the ground] measures out to about 550 gallons of water in the tank.
Catching and using rain water has been an extremely educational process. And best to keep an eye out when running water from the big tank to the 55 gallon barrel in the yard. The water in the large tank will flow until the levels of the barrel and tank are the same. Its not difficult at all to lose 2000 gallons of water simply by forgetting to turn off the water before the barrel overflows.
What will my rain water system do? My 6500 gallon system is barely enough to water my garden over the summertime, depending if we have any rain over the summer. Sometimes we go more than 2 months in the dry season with no rain at all. Before managing my storage system I had no idea how much water a garden needed until I started watching the water level in those plastic tubes. No question, producing more of one’s own needs, like water, is an educational and humbling experience at the same time. Our lifestyles of convenience and abundance put reality off in the distance.
Our lives of convenience and abundance means our relationship with water, energy, what we buy and use are all profoundly distorted. Cars, running water, products in the grocery store and more put a lot of distance between the user and the laws of physics.
What we buy and use is profoundly under priced and does not tell an honest story about how our middle class lifestyles inflict damage on people and planet. Convenience and affluence is a short cut to careless and wasteful behavior. How many soccer moms are needed to push an SUV a mile? How many bike rider equivalents are needed to generate enough electricity to power a leaf blower or computer?
In another section of the Primer, we will take a good look at the term “external costs,” the damage caused by any kind of consumption that harms people and planet but is not accounted for. Essentially, a multi trillion dollar subsidy to affluence.
The graphics above show different looks at eco footprints. Historically, the US has produced far more CO2 than any other country over the past 200 years. The footprint calculator will tell you your eco footprint after asking questions about your lifestyle. The map compares country eco footprints using a particular metric. There are others metrics. In general, the countries with the largest eco footprints include the US, Australia, Qatar and Luxembourg. Even well off European countries have eco footprints half the size of the US.
Rain Water Catchment
Another early task was installing a rainwater catchment system. Some might say, why catch rain in Eugene? Doesn't it rain all the time? We do have plenty of rain in the winter but the west coast, even up to Oregon and Washington State are Mediterranean climates west of the Cascade Mountains. We have wet winters but dry summers.
I visited an agricultural tank business in Albany, 25 miles north. It was a good idea to go in person because I found two oblong, used 1600 gallon tanks for $100 each. Nobody told me about them on the phone. I only saw them walking around their multi acre tank yard. That was an awesome deal even though I had to fix a couple leaks in the tanks.
The tank dealer even delivered the two tanks to the front of my house and fixing the leaks was not a problem. One of my new housemates helped me slide the tanks on wooden tracks to their destinations, one in the back yard, the other in the front yard. Both places were mostly shady and low value for other uses.. I rigged up standard house gutters as conduits for channeling the rain from the roof into the tanks. I had to reverse the gutters on the front of the house to drain east instead of west to the tank.
Best to install big items like storage tanks early in the property transformation process. Eight years later, I added a circular 3000 gallon [12 thousand liter] tank. That tank catches water from the detached accessory structure I built in 2007. The large tank is food grade plastic and was bought new and delivered via Fed Ex from California.
I use the rainwater for irrigation although water from the new tank can be cleaned up to drink, very easily using a Berkey gravity ceramic water filter. I also installed a galvalume metal roof to replace the asphalt shingles on the large house. That was a big project, one of those tasks you say I’ll be glad I did it when it's finished. True enough.
Galvalume is perhaps the best surface to catch rain water. The aluminum/zinc alloy finish is an industrial process. It's not paint. Even paint on metal will age with time, weathering that paint and allowing it to drain into the storage tanks. Best to avoid drinking water from a roof of asphalt shingles and painted metal.
How did an eight foot in diameter by eight feet high tank, 400 pound when empty, find its way to my back yard fence after eight years of property transformation? Simple. We avoided my property. We slid the tank onto a friend’s tilted two wheeled flat trailer frame and walked it a half a mile around the block to my neighbor’s back yard, slid the tank off the trailer, rolled it across my neighbor’s backyard to the place where we had cut a ten foot section of fence down.
We rolled the tank over the cut fence, like a bridge, to a landing pad, a foot high galvanized metal ring, eight and a half feet in diameter that was filled with smooth river rock. We rotated the tank so its faucet and intake fit the water line coming off my roof. Mission complete! The small work party with three friends was a lot of fun!
My irrigation system is simple. My property is flat. The tanks are blocked up about a foot. They have faucets so I simply hook up a garden hose so the water can flow from the tank to a 55 gallon barrel set out in the garden area. I mostly use a zinc watering can water the plants but I can also use a sprinkler. Note, the water pressure from my tank system does enable a sprinkler but at a very reduced area. Instead of say, an area of 30 by 30 feet using city water and pressure, my water tanks only support enough pressure for the sprinkler to jet out to cover only 3 feet by 3 feet. One has to be careful moving the sprinkler so the hose does not drag across garden plants.
Here is a useful equation. An inch of rain collected from 1000 square feet [flat to the ground] measures out to about 550 gallons of water in the tank.
Catching and using rain water has been an extremely educational process. And best to keep an eye out when running water from the big tank to the 55 gallon barrel in the yard. The water in the large tank will flow until the levels of the barrel and tank are the same. Its not difficult at all to lose 2000 gallons of water simply by forgetting to turn off the water before the barrel overflows.
What will my rain water system do? My 6500 gallon system is barely enough to water my garden over the summertime, depending if we have any rain over the summer. Sometimes we go more than 2 months in the dry season with no rain at all. Before managing my storage system I had no idea how much water a garden needed until I started watching the water level in those plastic tubes. No question, producing more of one’s own needs, like water, is an educational and humbling experience at the same time. Our lifestyles of convenience and abundance put reality off in the distance.
Our lives of convenience and abundance means our relationship with water, energy, what we buy and use are all profoundly distorted. Cars, running water, products in the grocery store and more put a lot of distance between the user and the laws of physics.
What we buy and use is profoundly under priced and does not tell an honest story about how our middle class lifestyles inflict damage on people and planet. Convenience and affluence is a short cut to careless and wasteful behavior. How many soccer moms are needed to push an SUV a mile? How many bike rider equivalents are needed to generate enough electricity to power a leaf blower or computer?
In another section of the Primer, we will take a good look at the term “external costs,” the damage caused by any kind of consumption that harms people and planet but is not accounted for. Essentially, a multi trillion dollar subsidy to affluence.
Fotos above show parts of my water system. Upper left is a food grade 3000 gallon plastic tank. With a camping filter, this water is easy to make potable. Upper right, a simple rain barrel. Lower left, a water feature. There is a pvc pipe from the tank on the right and I run a slow trickle during the winter.The stack of "rocks" is my former driveway. Lower right, a 1600 gallon tank for irrigation. I have two tanks like this. Notice the water channel over the tank. SEE MORE WATER SYSTEM FOTOS
l
Edible Landscape
Installing the edible landscaping was also a priority. I learned what varieties of apple, pear and figs do well in Eugene. I planted domestic blackberries and two varieties of grapes. I also had a large apple tree cut down on the southeast corner of the property. Removing it made space for several new fruit trees. The edible landscape was mostly installed in the early years. What was the Chinese saying? When is the best time to plant a tree? Twenty years ago. When is the best time to transform a suburban property? Answer, twenty years ago.
Much of my landscaping is trellised and semi espalier. I do a lot of pruning because even semi dwarf fruit trees can become too large. I need to manage growth of a fruit tree hedge so it doesn’t poach on the space of the veggie garden. Check the list of landscaping plants.
After years, I cut down two filbert trees. Squirrels made sure I had few nuts and most of the nuts I did find had worms. I planted two English Walnut Trees where there was driveway. They were pencil size at the time and now I can climb in them. I planted an almond after removing an ornamental hedge. After ten years, it was large enough to climb in and flowering vigorously but I had no nuts. I discovered from the nursery I bought it from, thanks to their computer records, that it was a variety that needed a pollinator. So the second almond replaces one of the filbert trees and is now becoming large enough to make a difference pollinating the larger almond.
I wanted bamboo. By great good luck, what I transplanted here is not a vigorous variety. It's not clumping bamboo but almost. Still, I have to keep track of it. One Spring, a shoot came up 20 feet from the rest. I had to drain and move a water tank to dig up the rhizome. Bamboo advice - handle with care. Its easy to make mistakes
I also cut down the sweet a cherry tree in the front yard after 20 years living here. That was a tough decision. The tree produced sweet and large cherries nearly every year but it took up a lot of space. Removing it made way for two small espalier apple trees, a larger veggie garden, a dwarf apricot and a dwarf nectarine. The forty foot marionberry hedge along the street has a lot more sun with the cherry tree removed.
A Celebrity Lemon Tree
One of the most unexpected trees I have is a Meyer Lemon. Its eight feet high and 25 feet in circumference. It's in the ground and was transplanted from a friend’s place not far away. Eugene is a plant hardiness zone 8b, pushing 9a but still, this is not the ideal climate for citrus. For the lemon tree to survive, it needs to be covered and even heated eight or ten nights over the winter. That offer is worth taking.
The lemon does produce prolifically, hundreds of egg sized lemons. I put a TV tray and basket of lemons out front with a for sale sign, 10 for a dollar or just take some. I have met more that a few people and hear, “Oh, that's your lemon tree. I have taken lemons from the front yard TV tray. My lemons are a sort of agricultural ambassador.
The edible landscape is one of the most visible aspects of the property. From the street, there is no missing all the greenery, my place and next door look like a huge green oasis. There is something ready to harvest most of the year from mulberries and cherries in May to lemons in January and a lot in between.
We have an active walking culture. While working out front, I have met a lot of people passing by on the street. Several times, I have spontaneously shown people the backyard. And more than a few times, people have said, “Oh, you’re the guy with the big lemon tree.”
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Edible Landscape
Installing the edible landscaping was also a priority. I learned what varieties of apple, pear and figs do well in Eugene. I planted domestic blackberries and two varieties of grapes. I also had a large apple tree cut down on the southeast corner of the property. Removing it made space for several new fruit trees. The edible landscape was mostly installed in the early years. What was the Chinese saying? When is the best time to plant a tree? Twenty years ago. When is the best time to transform a suburban property? Answer, twenty years ago.
Much of my landscaping is trellised and semi espalier. I do a lot of pruning because even semi dwarf fruit trees can become too large. I need to manage growth of a fruit tree hedge so it doesn’t poach on the space of the veggie garden. Check the list of landscaping plants.
After years, I cut down two filbert trees. Squirrels made sure I had few nuts and most of the nuts I did find had worms. I planted two English Walnut Trees where there was driveway. They were pencil size at the time and now I can climb in them. I planted an almond after removing an ornamental hedge. After ten years, it was large enough to climb in and flowering vigorously but I had no nuts. I discovered from the nursery I bought it from, thanks to their computer records, that it was a variety that needed a pollinator. So the second almond replaces one of the filbert trees and is now becoming large enough to make a difference pollinating the larger almond.
I wanted bamboo. By great good luck, what I transplanted here is not a vigorous variety. It's not clumping bamboo but almost. Still, I have to keep track of it. One Spring, a shoot came up 20 feet from the rest. I had to drain and move a water tank to dig up the rhizome. Bamboo advice - handle with care. Its easy to make mistakes
I also cut down the sweet a cherry tree in the front yard after 20 years living here. That was a tough decision. The tree produced sweet and large cherries nearly every year but it took up a lot of space. Removing it made way for two small espalier apple trees, a larger veggie garden, a dwarf apricot and a dwarf nectarine. The forty foot marionberry hedge along the street has a lot more sun with the cherry tree removed.
A Celebrity Lemon Tree
One of the most unexpected trees I have is a Meyer Lemon. Its eight feet high and 25 feet in circumference. It's in the ground and was transplanted from a friend’s place not far away. Eugene is a plant hardiness zone 8b, pushing 9a but still, this is not the ideal climate for citrus. For the lemon tree to survive, it needs to be covered and even heated eight or ten nights over the winter. That offer is worth taking.
The lemon does produce prolifically, hundreds of egg sized lemons. I put a TV tray and basket of lemons out front with a for sale sign, 10 for a dollar or just take some. I have met more that a few people and hear, “Oh, that's your lemon tree. I have taken lemons from the front yard TV tray. My lemons are a sort of agricultural ambassador.
The edible landscape is one of the most visible aspects of the property. From the street, there is no missing all the greenery, my place and next door look like a huge green oasis. There is something ready to harvest most of the year from mulberries and cherries in May to lemons in January and a lot in between.
We have an active walking culture. While working out front, I have met a lot of people passing by on the street. Several times, I have spontaneously shown people the backyard. And more than a few times, people have said, “Oh, you’re the guy with the big lemon tree.”
Fotos above. Upper left, the back yard you can see two figs and part of espalier hedge of two apples and three pear trees. Upper right, hedge of apple and pear, two peach trees and grape trellis over a roof top, lemon lower right. Lower right, grape pergola, grapes over shed roof, espalier apple and brambles right and English Walnut upper left. Foto lower left, mulberry harvest from the roof top.
SEE MORE EDIBLE LANDSCAPE FOTOS
Passive Solar
When I first visited this place with idea of buying it, I knew the patio had been closed in with a roof and mostly glass walls. This was a big attraction and the description turned out to be true enough. This south facing passive solar space is about 350 square feet. The main south wall, measures 24 feet of nearly floor to ceiling glass. The previous residents used it as a storage room. My plans were to make it a primary destination for those living in the house.
At the current time, I spend a lot of time in the sun room, simply grooving on the magic of solar heating. But when I moved in, the sun room needed a lot of work. Its first construction was far from code so I helped a contractor friend rebuild the sun room with a proper stem wall, double pane glass and single door and a double French door that used to be a short solid wall. The space also has tempered glass in about half the ceiling.
I have a lot of container plants, many of them are rescues and they turn the revitalized sun room into a near jungle during the winter time. The sun room never freezes. On sunny cool winter days, it warms up enough, 70 plus, to use a fan placed in a former window, to blow the warm air into the rest of the house. Very nice! In the summer, I put shade cloth over the ceiling glass so even on hot days in mid summer, it's never too hot. Again, the ceiling glass is tempered. Do not use plate glass in the ceiling.
The passive solar space has given me first hand experience with solar energy. I know from personal observation how the angle of the sun changes with the seasons with results you can feel as the seasons change in both directions. The energy falling on a flat surface at nine in the morning in July here in Eugene, is about the same on that same flat surface at mid day in January.
The sun is much stronger the higher it climbs into the sky. A passive solar space is instant energy feedback. I simply love the solar space. It's a tragedy that passive solar design has not been a normal feature from the architecture and construction professions over the past few generations.
My sun room is self designed and built with an experienced friend. A note of caution. All the glass in the ceiling invites leakage and there have been leaks and lots of efforts to stop them. The suggestion from my experience is, cautio with this much glass in the ceiling. I do love the sun room.
SEE MORE EDIBLE LANDSCAPE FOTOS
Passive Solar
When I first visited this place with idea of buying it, I knew the patio had been closed in with a roof and mostly glass walls. This was a big attraction and the description turned out to be true enough. This south facing passive solar space is about 350 square feet. The main south wall, measures 24 feet of nearly floor to ceiling glass. The previous residents used it as a storage room. My plans were to make it a primary destination for those living in the house.
At the current time, I spend a lot of time in the sun room, simply grooving on the magic of solar heating. But when I moved in, the sun room needed a lot of work. Its first construction was far from code so I helped a contractor friend rebuild the sun room with a proper stem wall, double pane glass and single door and a double French door that used to be a short solid wall. The space also has tempered glass in about half the ceiling.
I have a lot of container plants, many of them are rescues and they turn the revitalized sun room into a near jungle during the winter time. The sun room never freezes. On sunny cool winter days, it warms up enough, 70 plus, to use a fan placed in a former window, to blow the warm air into the rest of the house. Very nice! In the summer, I put shade cloth over the ceiling glass so even on hot days in mid summer, it's never too hot. Again, the ceiling glass is tempered. Do not use plate glass in the ceiling.
The passive solar space has given me first hand experience with solar energy. I know from personal observation how the angle of the sun changes with the seasons with results you can feel as the seasons change in both directions. The energy falling on a flat surface at nine in the morning in July here in Eugene, is about the same on that same flat surface at mid day in January.
The sun is much stronger the higher it climbs into the sky. A passive solar space is instant energy feedback. I simply love the solar space. It's a tragedy that passive solar design has not been a normal feature from the architecture and construction professions over the past few generations.
My sun room is self designed and built with an experienced friend. A note of caution. All the glass in the ceiling invites leakage and there have been leaks and lots of efforts to stop them. The suggestion from my experience is, cautio with this much glass in the ceiling. I do love the sun room.
Foto above. Former south side patio, enclosed with glass walls and a row of eight slider doors in the ceiling. One of my fav places in the world. Never freezes, can help heat the house on sunny winter days. Plants go out in the summer. Shade cloth keeps heat manageable in the summer. SEE MORE SUN ROOM FOTOS
I built another structure with a passive solar component. My property had an old shed in the backyard. It was caving in and full of ivy. I decided to take it down and build a small structure I could live in. That would make four bedrooms on the property. So I made it so. The “bungalow” has been my personal space for 17 years. It's my own rustic modern design. It’s highly insulated and is built with conventional materials. It’s post and beam but framed in between the posts.
The space measures about 400 square feet. I started out helping a friend with the building. After we split ways, I took up where we left off. I asked others for advice when I needed it and finished the project. A good friend who is an architect was a big help as were other friends. There are two parts to the building, first, the main living area with a large work space and a sleeping loft. Its orientation is to the northeast, towards the south side of the original house. The bungalow has a lot of glass facing north, not ideal, but I love seeing the lemon tree, the sky and the glass wall of the sun room. The view is more important than thermal accountability.
The south wall of the bungalow is along the five foot setback from the south fence line of my property. That’s a short distance west from where the big water tank rolled over the fence. The south facing roof has 8 tempered glass panels, taken from recycled glass sliding doors. That solar space also has large south facing windows and a small loft. The core living space and solar space are open to each other during the warm part of the year.
In the winter, I have insulated drapes that act as a barrier between the two parts. No need to heat all the south side volume in the winter. In the winter time, the solar space is full of plants, some as high as the ten foot ceiling. The passive solar function is very helpful, on sunny days in the cool seasons, during the day,I pull back the drapes to capture the warmer air.
I love the large tabletop workspace made from sliding wooden doors with table top to ceiling windows. This space has no running water, no kitchen, no bathroom [I compost] I use the main house, no need to reproduce all that expensive infrastructure. The bungalow has paid for itself long ago, thanks to increased rental income.
I built another structure with a passive solar component. My property had an old shed in the backyard. It was caving in and full of ivy. I decided to take it down and build a small structure I could live in. That would make four bedrooms on the property. So I made it so. The “bungalow” has been my personal space for 17 years. It's my own rustic modern design. It’s highly insulated and is built with conventional materials. It’s post and beam but framed in between the posts.
The space measures about 400 square feet. I started out helping a friend with the building. After we split ways, I took up where we left off. I asked others for advice when I needed it and finished the project. A good friend who is an architect was a big help as were other friends. There are two parts to the building, first, the main living area with a large work space and a sleeping loft. Its orientation is to the northeast, towards the south side of the original house. The bungalow has a lot of glass facing north, not ideal, but I love seeing the lemon tree, the sky and the glass wall of the sun room. The view is more important than thermal accountability.
The south wall of the bungalow is along the five foot setback from the south fence line of my property. That’s a short distance west from where the big water tank rolled over the fence. The south facing roof has 8 tempered glass panels, taken from recycled glass sliding doors. That solar space also has large south facing windows and a small loft. The core living space and solar space are open to each other during the warm part of the year.
In the winter, I have insulated drapes that act as a barrier between the two parts. No need to heat all the south side volume in the winter. In the winter time, the solar space is full of plants, some as high as the ten foot ceiling. The passive solar function is very helpful, on sunny days in the cool seasons, during the day,I pull back the drapes to capture the warmer air.
I love the large tabletop workspace made from sliding wooden doors with table top to ceiling windows. This space has no running water, no kitchen, no bathroom [I compost] I use the main house, no need to reproduce all that expensive infrastructure. The bungalow has paid for itself long ago, thanks to increased rental income.
The ADU. Upper left - work space, view to back yard and south side of the house. Upper right,view of the ADU. Lower right, solar part of the ADU. Lower left, work space and solar area, note glass in the roof. SEE MORE ADU FOTOS
Educational Resource
A primary intention from the start has been to show what a nothing special suburban property can become. The reality is, this property has been far better than average for a permaculture transformation. But almost any suburban property has surprising potentials, both to produce food, energy and water but also shelter. I rent three rooms in my house. Other suburban homes might not have my food producing potential but they could well provide affordable housing or even become a cooperative household. Several not so affluent people could buy a house together.
My place was the first entry on youtube under the title suburban permaculture. There are something like 50 million suburban homes in the US and that represents an enormous amount of economic activity for transformation and reducing eco footprints.
There have been, literally thousands of people to see my place and I know many have made changes to their own homes and lifestyles as a result. Each new property transformation can be a catalyst for even more transformations. Paradgim shift moves into a new mode when these places share a property line, fences come down, shared projects crank up and a micro suburban neighborhood becomes a suburban eco village. In the next part of the Primer, we will have a look at just such a scenario. SEE MORE COMMUNITY ASSET FOTOS
Educational Resource
A primary intention from the start has been to show what a nothing special suburban property can become. The reality is, this property has been far better than average for a permaculture transformation. But almost any suburban property has surprising potentials, both to produce food, energy and water but also shelter. I rent three rooms in my house. Other suburban homes might not have my food producing potential but they could well provide affordable housing or even become a cooperative household. Several not so affluent people could buy a house together.
My place was the first entry on youtube under the title suburban permaculture. There are something like 50 million suburban homes in the US and that represents an enormous amount of economic activity for transformation and reducing eco footprints.
There have been, literally thousands of people to see my place and I know many have made changes to their own homes and lifestyles as a result. Each new property transformation can be a catalyst for even more transformations. Paradgim shift moves into a new mode when these places share a property line, fences come down, shared projects crank up and a micro suburban neighborhood becomes a suburban eco village. In the next part of the Primer, we will have a look at just such a scenario. SEE MORE COMMUNITY ASSET FOTOS
Production On Site
So my property performs many functions. I rarely buy fruit or veggies any time of the year. I do a lot of food storage including solar drying, deep freezing, dry room temperature. Some veggies keep in the ground all winter like beats, leeks and carrots. Winter squash and potatoes can keep for a year in a dry and cool space. Some varieties of onions can keep up to a year.
The place produces energy with passive solar design and the solar water heater. The rainwater system contributes to a more prepared and resilient home as the rain water can be made potable if there is a disruption to utility water. I have two Berkey gravity ceramic water filters. I compost. I have several slash piles, I do not export biomass, it all stays on the property.
Site tours show and tell how a nothing special suburban property can help reduce the eco footprints of those who live there. All these systems add up to “home economics.” Taking care of more needs at home. And that action fits well with reducing energy and resource needs in the first place. Spoiler alert, we will take a closer look in another section of the Primer, what might a “sustainable lifestyle” look like? The Global Footprint Network’s footprint calculator rates me at a one earth lifestyle, IF we forgive the occasional big carbon footprint flying to Sardegna.
Is my lifestyle really sustainable? Could everyone on planet earth live like me? I know my use of resources is a lot less than all but 3 or 4 people I know. Sustainability is objective, not subjective. The footprint of the average American, according the the Global Network is about five earths. More to come on this issue.
So my place is too good to keep quiet. After a year, I started hosting site tours of the place, people come over and I show and tell the projects. This is one of my favorite forms of outreach. It's so much fun to describe and explain all the features here at my place. Site tours have ranged from spontaneous - just inviting someone to see the place after a brief chat out in the street to planned events with well over 50 people.
All this work on my property has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. If there is any hope for a livable future, transforming the human built landscape will have to be a core part of the rescue and 50 million or so suburban homes in the US [and millions more in Canada, Australia, South Africa, England, New Zealand and others], must be an important part of the effort. The sooner the better. Governmental entities should actively encourage suburban permaculture.
SEE COMPLETE LIST OF SITE FOTOS Choose "What I Have Done" tab
This was a blank back yard. See the before foto upper right. Aesthetics is a critical part of paradigm shift. Imagine if our cities and towns put a high value on creating beautiful places to live.
