Earth Hour

Saturday is Earth Hour!

Earth Hour is a global initiative that demonstrates the need that action against global warming. It's simple, on Saturday 3/29/08 at 8pm (in your local time) turn your lights out for an hour.

I hope everyone will participate!! Follow the link above in the title to read more about it!

February meeting

Hello everyone!

I'm finally getting around to writing again and I have a ton to write about.

Just a brief summary of what's happened since I last wrote:

• January 13 - Andrea, Scott and myself met to come up with some design ideas

• January 23 - Bill gave his Introductory seminar at the yoga center

• February 16 - We had a progress meeting at the yoga center

Wow! I have a lot to write!! Here goes...

January 13

The three of us met at my place, we started off with a brief summary of the project. After redefining the elements as follows:

• Full Sun Garden - Primary space to grow vegetables and flowers
• Shade Garden - The area to have shade tolerant plants, including as many edibles as possible. It is understood the amount of edibles may be limited in this area.
• Labyrinth - This was Andrea's idea I believe. Over the past month, I've realized that I have been envisioning it a different way from Andrea, so I've asked Andrea to fill in information about this piece.
• Pond - Thaddeus (Mamut) has written extensively about this aspect.We also decided that we would allow for an area for this component and allow the team to develop the plans firther.
• Front Garden - We didn't do any planning for this area at this meeting.

After revisiting the program, we came up with three schemes: (A) Amoeboid, (B) Angular, and (C) Branchy. From our sketches, I've drawn up my interpretations. What I want you all to realize when you look at the drawings is that I am not used to doing such free form drawings, I do architectural drawings, everything is very regular and linear. If it isn't linear, maybe an arc or something, it's very regulated so that it can be built to my specifications. This I have to say was one of my biggest challenges up until now. I still haven't gotten it quite right, I think the problem is that I may not have the proper software for the task and that I don't have any training. So I'm making it up as I go along. I might end up taking some landscape drawing classes soon. So here goes...
Plan A

This plan is the amoeboid plan, the theme is interconnectivity. The connection of the main cultivating spaces is important to make the garden user-friendly and easy to collect veggies.

Plan B
This plan is the angular plan. Creating a clear concise linear pattern to cultivate the garden.
Plan C
This plan is the branchy plan. The difference between this plan and the amoeboid plan is that there isn't the interconnectivity.


January 23

Bill's talk about permaculture created a lot of enthusiasm for the backyard project. We had a lot more people join our group!

February 16

This meeting was to introduce the new members with the existing members and the project. We have some good news: The porch permit has been issued! So the back porch construction will begin as soon as the ground begins to thaw and will hopefully be done by the end of March!

Throughout the course of the meeting we've come up with some new groups. Here goes:

• Full Sun Garden - Scott and Phaedra
  
• Shade Garden - Lynda and Phaedra
  
• Labyrinth - Andrea
  
• "Butterfly" Garden - Scott and Chandranatha - This is the new name for the Front Garden, Scott has come up with the idea to attract Butterflies and insects to this front area using specific plants.
  
• Pond - Thaddeus, Lynda and Rachel
  
• Solarium - Milton, Erin and Mira - Milton suggested that we use the windows in the front rooms to start seeds. Milton, maybe you could embellish upon this as the ideas develop.
• Compost - Erin, Rahda, Mira, and Jody - This seems to be a big issue at the yoga center, with the new members who live at the yoga center this is becoming more of an issue. We will be meeting on Thursday after Rahda's morning class, around noon to discuss this further.
• Installation/Maintenance - This group was created for those who don't necessarily want to get involved in one specific area but in all areas. We are all considered members of this group.

Whew, I'm done! Please feel free to make any comments or additions if I've left anything out.

Design Meeting

We are having our first design meeting this Sunday! Unfortunately only three of us (Andrea, Scott and myself) are able to make it. :( Despite this, I am looking forward to it!!

The Yoga Pond

The Yoga Center Pond.

This Pond will be built to contain goldfish and some mosquito fish, floating plants, and bottom plants. The fish will be able to survive year around and will not require feeding of any kind. In fact, feeding the fish will make allow them to grow too big for the pond to support them.

Below are some details (Much help from Pondlady.com). I have more in a word doc that will be sent to Jody.

Materials Needed to build the Pond

1. A shovel (Free)
2. A rake (Free)
3. 14" 28 gauge roofing flashing (Need to obtain cost from local supplier or from construction scrap)
4. 1/2" PVC pipe cut into @ 2' pieces (Need to obtain cost from local supplier or from construction scrap )
5. 15# roofing felt for underlayment (Need to obtain cost from local supplier or from construction scrap – will insulate the pond liner from wear and tear)
6. Pond liner ($85-120, need a local supplier if one exists)
7. Goldfish (Comets) $1.50 each
8. Mosquito fish ($1 each)
   
9. Plants ($3 and up for 6 bunches)
   

Floating plants for your pond are as necessary as water. Half of your pond needs to be covered so your water doesn't get too hot and to provide shade for your fish. Your submerged vegetation needs shade or it will burn in the sun. Floating plants give your fish something to hide under when hungry egrets, herons or raccoons drop by. And during the hottest days of summer, your floating plants are in full bloom adding yet another dimension to your pond.
Water clover is producing a small yellow bloom that looks beautiful against your water lilies. Water poppies are putting forth little white blooms that look like someone threw popcorn over the top of the pond, floating heart, frog bit, hyacinth, water clover, water poppy, water lettuce. Cover at least one half of the surface of your pond with floating plants to avoid algae growth and give your fish some shade in the heat of summer. Sun hitting water produces algae. Keep the algae away by using floating plants. Water hyacinths seem to thrive on toxins and suck them out of the water, leaving it clear. They have long blackish purple roots that trail on forever, acting as a filter for the water and the fish love to snack on the roots of the plant. To keep these plants under control, just dip or rip the extra out and either compost it or give it to a new pond owner.

Underwater plants are necessary for the ecological balance of the pond. If the pond has an appropriate number of goldfish, floating plants and underwater plants, maintenance will be an easy and quick task. The underwater plants serve so many purposes it is next to impossible to have a pond without them. Submerged plants give off oxygen for your fish to breathe and are fertilized by fish waste. They act as a natural filter and your fish eat them. What a perfect plant/animal symbiosis. The underwater grass serves as a filter to keep your water crystal clear. Anacharis, cabomba, or parrot’s feather are oxygenators and fish food. They act as a filter and catch particulate matter. The goldfish waste fertilizes them so they grow fast. The goldfish also eat the plants, but not as fast as they can grow. You need one bunch per square foot of pond surface. You must buy them all at once even if you have to put the water lily off for a few weeks. If you do not have enough anacharis, your fish will eat it all before it has a chance to grow and your water will turn to green pea soup because there is not enough anacharis to give you sufficient filtration.

Fish

Buy goldfish – comets breed. These are the hardiest fish for a pond. Buy from a local small pet supply store, not a big box store. These are likely to be locally raised. One linear foot of fish per 25 square feet of pond surface.

Porch Update

Narayana found some drawings that were done by an architect a couple years ago. So after a couple discussions, it was decided to try to use the drawings that were already done to see if the city will issue a building permit.

Once we find out what the city has to say, then it will determine if we are going to modify the existing porch design.

Will post again once there is more information...

Vines for the back porch

One idea would be to put vines up the back porch. These would be in full shade so finding vines that will work is hard. Here are a few:
Japanese Honeysuckle - Lonicera japonica
Orange Honeysuckle - Lonicera ciliosa
Oriental Bittersweet - Celastrus orbiculatus
Wu Wei Zi - Schisandra chinensis

Wu Wei Zi appears to be the coolest.

I will try to write on this with my notes about different vines: Vines

Our First Meeting

We had our first meeting on Saturday. There were 8 of us that met with Narayana along with two other members of the community at the Center. Most of us came from the Oct-Nov Permaculture design course at Midwest Permaculture, but a couple were from the July course. It was good to meet some new people. (Someone please remind me to take a group picture next time)

Like Wayne and Mark kept repeating, we observed. There was a terrible snow/sleet storm here, but we all braved it (Tim and Zach rode their bikes over in it - bless them). As much as I hated being out in it, it was good for us to observe some of the worst conditions. After a couple minutes of looking around and observing, we all got to work and started the measurement. Andrea helped me measure the back wall (I'll be designing the back porch over the next couple weeks - to be posted soon); Thaddeus, Heather (Thaddeus's wife), Andrea, Tim, Zach, Scott and Phaedra (the latter two from the July course) worked on measuring the back yard open space and the garage.

After we were done, we went inside to warm up and have some lunch. After a brief Hindu prayer, we sat in a circle and ate lunch, it was delicious. During lunch, we all got a chance to discuss Narayana's vision for the space as well as ideas that we all started to have.

The project will include:

• Back Porch - This will be the first phase of the project; construction will be completed before we begin our installation of the garden. In the city of Chicago, the code for back porches is quite strict. The porch as it stands now cannot be duplicated, due to it's long stairway without a landing. The code calls for us to break up that run, and make it a little wider, allowing for easier rear egress (exiting). Additionally, we will need to allow for the side setbacks to adhere to the fire code. We all think that the new design of the porch should be integrated into the back yard design. Possibly keeping the roof structure and removing the covering, turning it into a pergola. I just had an idea to remove the concrete pad underneath the porch so that we can incorporate that space into our design (maybe making it part of the meditation space.) Any comments? Ideas??
  
• Water Feature - Narayana stated that it would be nice to have a water feature that would create some beautiful sounds and be a habitat for fish. Thaddeus will be working on this aspect of the project, possibly with one of Phaedra's friends. It's kind of vague right now, but as the idea becomes more concrete you'll be updated.
• Meditation Space - An area for group meditation (possibly near the water feature?) I think this area will be discussed in our group session.
  
• Hindu Shrine - The details for this space will be provided by a Hindu priest.
  
• Front Parkway - This area has a couple plants currently, but we can use this space for efficiently. Scott will be working on this aspect. There was some mention about this space being unacceptable for edibles since it is exposed to a lot of automobiles. However, this space can be used as a butterfly habitat, growing flowers that can be used for ceremonies at the center. We could also use this space as an educational space, providing explanations about the integration of the practices of yoga and permaculture.

Here are some pictures from our visit:









Porch drawings coming soon...