I was on my hands and knees today at my new gardening job, for Second Nature who do brilliant gardens. As a new recruit I'm very humbled to be able to garden for them. And to be paid doing it. Hope they don't mind. I now have all sorts of ideas on what to do with star jasmine, magnolia, citrus, creeping jenny, jacaranda, gardenia, dahlia, impatiens, vireya rhododendrons, mondo grass and ajuga. I mean nobody has a copyright on plant combinations do they?
After a refreshing morning's work I have come back to rambling garden diary to reflect on what I learned last Saturday - we went on a site visit to a zero energy house that utilised passive solar design.
Permaculture Principle 9. Small and slow solutions The bigger they are the harder they fall
In houses, rather than install an expensive heat pump HRV system, or busting your badly designed house down and building a brand new house, you could..just live in a tent and have a solar shower. No, just kidding, maybe you could install a shower dome so all that steam thats making your house go mouldy just stays inside the shower. Or have some vents, like a cooling tower (instead of a chimney). Instead of having an ionic oxygeniser machine thingy that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere you could...open some windows and maybe have a few house plants. Perhaps.
It doesn't have to be rocket science complicated. You don't have to come up with a brand new persil automatic washing system. And then a wastewater treatment at the other end to get rid of phosphates now your clothes are super white. You could use soap nuts! And maybe accept that your clothes won't glow in the dark.
We were told about barefoot architects. Instead of having a huge master plan you could just...build your house as you go. Not get into debt. Not even have a mortgage! Oh but the banks won't allow it thats how they make their money you see. So if anyone knows how to build a house by just not buying anything let me know I'm all for it. Treehouse, mud brick house, igloo..
The small and slow solutions picture has a picture of a snail. What I'd really like is to just live in my car, since that way, I won't have to fight traffic anymore at the end of the working day I can just go to my car which is my house without driving to far. Brilliant? Small and slow solution? I don't know what that means for permaculture though. It kind of doesn't work if you have to work for someone else. Sigh. Will have to think about this principle a bit more. After I've reported on visiting the Te Atatu Floral and Garden Circle. It's the only one I know that gives prizes out for picking flowers. But that's the next post.
