Urban+Homestead+&+Community+Gardens

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Geoff has worked in a number of different kinds of systems, from the [|highly developed perennial polyculture at the Bullock's], to the intensive short term annual organic food production that low income urban renters necessarily pursue. Now with some land of his own he's growing his own homestead in the city. Geoff's slideshow and commentary documented the development of his backyard over a number of years.
 * Urban Homestead **

His commentary during the slide show offered many tips. A random selection:
 * leeks, purple sprouting broccoli, daikon all extremely productive and easy.
 * Fava beans, potatoes in no-dig beds
 * Early flowering Kale (over-winter them) habitat for lady-bugs
 * [|Herbacious bed], sheet-mulched… beneficial insect attractors, comfrey, yarrow
 * Trench in the cardboard to prevent weeds
 * If feeding comfrey to chickens you need to start the chicks off with it.
 * To make leaf mold, a peat alternative: use stucco wire cylinders, mix leaves with urine/h20.
 * Sheet mulch- as soil remediator, plant potatoes or if sheet mulch is richer, can start with squash.
 * Crops that distribute yield throughout time: daikon- eat tops and bottoms, [|Egyptian Walking onion]- eat green in spring and bulbs
 * Oka- high yielding, taste good. Easy digestible starch- dig in winter (oxalis tubersum)
 * [|Autumn Olive]—anti-oxidant, anti-carcinogen, nitrogen fixer. Harvest in late October, frost helps flavour, medicinal
 * [| Desert king fig] works well on the coast.

Blue buffalo dog food

Commitment to place [|This garden] took root in 1999 in the site of an extremely arid vacant gravel lot, previously a parking lot for school-buses. Bands of volunteer work parties grew a lush, edible landscape over a six year period. But it's required constant leadership from Geoff to coordinate the volunteers and fight the political battles.
 * Project: Spring Ridge Commons**

[|Photo by Tony Sprackett]

Excerpt from [|Reclaim The Commons!]

By Geoff Johnson //"In order to make possible the kind of garden we envisioned at the Commons, we realized the need for another permaculture strategy: sheet mulching. By utilizing abundant sources of urban waste, we kick-started the soil's fertility-generating ecosystem and dramatically increased its capacity to retain moisture while choking out weeds -- all without digging!//

//During a long series of volunteer work parties, literally tonnes of organic waste was diverted from the landfill and carefully applied in layers on top of the existing gravel. Cardboard, newspaper, landscaping waste, manure from the carriage tour folks, okara from the tofu factory, and kitchen scraps from local restaurants formed a magical rotting lasagne to begin healing the parched urban soil.// //In addition to the initial soil-building and planting, Spring Ridge Commons has benefitted over the past few years from the labour of countless volunteers who have weeded, watered, and built features including: **rock walls**, a **herb spiral**, a **trellis**, an **arbour**, and even a **cob oven**."//

[|Photo slide show of the Commons] taken between January and February 2006 by Geoff Johnson [|and another from May 29, 2006] by Tony Sprackett.

Now Geoff is working on a similar project in Bamfield Park in west Victoria. This site is more secure because it is already a part of the park. Before the project even rolling a cob bench attracted attention.
 * Bamfield park Project**

1560 Pembroke Street, Victoria, B.C. V8R 1W2 Phone: (250) 595-6465 e-mail: respectyouralders@yahoo.com
 * Bike-powered permaculture micro-nursery** This past season Geoff sold hundreds of herbs, veggies, and fruit trees out of his bike trailer at the local community market.
 * Geoff Johnson**
 * Cornucopia Nursery**