The Forest Garden Greenhouse: Introduction 13q6c

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I N T R O DU C T IO N

“We depend on nature not only for our physical survival. We also need nature to show us the way home, the way out of the prison of our own minds. We got lost in doing, thinking, ing, and anticipating—lost in a maze of complexity and a world of problems. We have forgotten what rocks, plants, and animals still know. We have forgotten how to be—to be still, to be ourselves, to be where life is: Here and Now.”*

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Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute (CRMPI) on the dry, rocky slopes of Basalt Mountain. There I have lived, grown, and experimented for more than forty years. As I learned and practiced permaculture myself, I had a desire to help others discover it as well. Right away at CRMPI I hosted and taught workshops, and my annual Permaculture Design Course is now coming up on its thirtieth consecutive year. I have collaborated with many people in my region and around the country, written articles for the Permaculture Activist magazine, presented at various conferences, and I host a weekly local radio show. In addition to the greenhouses that serve as the centerpiece for this book, I manage an acre of established forest garden and keep a nursery of perennial plants, all of which combine to be an extremely useful demonstration site. The example of what is possible through design and persistence, even in a harsh climate such as mine, inspires students and visitors to try it for themselves. My interest in greenhouses grew naturally from a desire to extend the growing season in my cold climate. Through trial and error, collaboration, and constant learning, my understanding of these structures has grown enormously, as has my appreciation of their capabilities. All of my five greenhouses were built on a shoestring budget, with mostly salvaged materials and volunteer help. They a variety of different interior climates and represent different stages of progress and evolution. I established EcoSystems Design, a greenhouse design business, and later teamed up with local architect Michael Thompson. After a fire destroyed one of

—Eckhart Tolle This book is based on my life experience as a market farmer; as a greenhouse pioneer, designer, and builder; as a plant and animal observer and caretaker; and as a person with a desire for a deeper connection with nature and the food I eat. I’ve primarily learned by doing; I’ve made mistakes, had some success, and I’ve been able to along my lessons to many students and colleagues. This text is a continuation and culmination of that process. My journey has taken me around the world and has included a transition from traditional organic market farming to perennial forest gardens, then to moving those edible forest gardens indoors. Born into an ethnic Polish family in Nebraska, I eventually found my way to Colorado, where after a health crisis I became interested in growing my own food. I first learned to grow annuals, then discovered the emerging design science of permaculture, which sought to find ways of working with natural patterns and processes instead of against them. With that as my guide I established the

* Tolle, Stillness Speaks, p. 77. vii

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Th e Fo r e st Ga r de n Gr e e nho use my first greenhouses, Pele, he helped me create the crown jewel of CRMPI: “Phoenix,” a fully tropical near-net-zero four-season greenhouse. Over the decades my work has given me the opportunity to take many trips throughout the world, often to tropical climates during the cold Colorado winters. As I visited tropical areas, they greatly impacted me; I wanted to bring the plants, the humidity, and the tropical food forest home. With Phoenix I finally achieved that goal. As CRMPI became more established, I began to think about documenting my work in a book or perhaps a video. These ideas came and went over the years but never came to fruition until Chelsea Green reached out about writing a book. That was exciting and motivating but presented a difficult challenge. English is not my first language, and I am also dyslexic. I wasn’t able to read more than two hundred words per minute until I was 30, and I have never been able to write with much fluency. Just as nothing stands alone in nature, this book represents a cocreative, collaborative process. Various teams of interns, colleagues, and friends worked together to help me generate raw material, refine it, structure it, and fill it with the right pictures and illustrations. There were several times during the process when we weren’t sure we’d be able to complete the work, but the book you hold in your hands is a testament to the faith and effort of people who believe in the importance of pushing these ideas forward and bringing them to a larger audience. When it comes to starting a greenhouse project, instead of building it only as a tomato crop extender, I encourage you to imagine a broader spectrum of possibilities. You start with a foundation to create, evolve, and express in as many directions as your needs and imagination can provide. The fun of walking through, following, and being guided by the process, pruning back, putting

in new elements, all the while foraging culinary and medicinal herbs, picking fruit snacks, and relaxing with a good book in your hammock—that’s the magic of creating and living with a forest garden. Greenhouses offer those of us in colder climates the opportunity to experience that year-round. The Forest Garden Greenhouse will explain to you the energy-cycling technology of what we call the “climate battery”—a subterranean air circulation system that takes the hot, moist ambient air from the greenhouse during the day, stores it in the soil, and discharges it at night—and explore viii

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Intro d ucti o n {1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111| 2 3 2 3 2 What Is Permaculture? 3 2 3 2 3 2 Permaculture is a concept recently gaining more Systems built with a permaculture mind-set 3 2 3 aspire to the diversity, resilience, and dynamic 3 2 mainstream attention, but while its applications stability of natural systems. This has heavily 3 2 are extremely broad and far reaching, it is often 2 only understood as a style of gardening. influenced my approach to greenhouse design 3 2 3 The term “permaculture” was coined by Bill and implementation, so throughout the book I 3 2 highlight permaculture principles and show how 3 2 Mollison and David Holmgren, two Australians 2 working together in the late 1970s. Their new they relate to my work. For a broader perspective 3 2 concept represented the quest for a permanent on the applications of permaculture design, I 3 2 3 highly recommend The Permaculture Handbook, 3 2 human culture, one not built on nonrenewable 2 resources and constant growth. 3 written by my friend Peter Bane. 2 3 Permaculture is a design science and a 2 3 Principles 2 problem-solving methodology. At permacul3 The two founders of permaculture, Mollison 3 2 ture design courses taught around the world, 2 students learn a set of ethics, principles, and and Holmgren, each independently developed 3 2 3 a set of principles by which to guide the design 3 2 decision-making protocols. These principles and process. While not identical, they touch on many 3 2 protocols are drawn from observed natural pat2 terns. In deg new systems we endeavor to similar points and serve as helpful signposts for 3 2 emulate the natural world and work with, rather an aspiring designer. To illuminate the perma- 3 2 3 culture mind-set, each of the following chapters 3 2 than against, those patterns to create rich human 2 habitats that also sustain and regenerate the rest will be paired with a principle that applies to the 3 2 of the natural world. 3 theme of that chapter. 2 3 }4444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444~

its applications to greenhouses large and small, attached and freestanding. I will also show you how the highly productive and nurturing ecosystem of the edible forest garden can be brought indoors through the use of annuals and perennials growing together out of deep organic soils created by worms and microbial magic and maintained by mulch and the synergistic interactions of plant guilds (beneficial plant communities). The conservative, low-cost, ive systems approach embodied in permaculture design, combined with the climate battery, have demonstrated

that indoor gardens of startling productivity, comfort, and beauty can be created around or attached to our homes. Cultivating an edible forest garden in your greenhouse opens new vistas of connection to nature, renewable energy generation, and resilient food production in the face of present and future climate turbulence. Beginning with very lightweight structures costing under a hundred dollars and ranging to greenhouses with a price tag of over half a million, this book illustrates the universal applicability of the indoor garden. It covers the fundamentals of ix

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Th e Fo r e st Ga r de n Gr e e nho use and problem solving no matter how much you are able to learn from the information here. If the origins of civilization are bound up with humanity’s expulsion from Eden, then surely the purpose of all our striving must be to regain the garden. For those of us not waiting to be raptured, the greenhouse presents an opportunity to bring paradise indoors and at home where we spend much of our time, especially in cold climates. Our aim in deg the fully realized greenhouse should be to embrace the proven systems of nature and to replicate her genius and efficiency. I will attempt to guide you from an understanding of deep organic methods into an entirely new dimension where the layered effects of sun, soil, lush vegetation, and the multiple functions of the greenhouse structure as season extender, propagation room, nursery, worm farm, exercise spa, bath, and living space give rise to stream-of-consciousness gardening and living.

design, construction, energy capture, bed layout, soil building, and ventilation and goes on to reveal the secrets of successful companion planting, integrated pest management (IPM), and the use of microclimates within and around the greenhouse. In the following chapters you will find case studies of the five greenhouses currently maintained at CRMPI, designed for the do-it-yourself builder, as well as others that highlight larger and more extensive greenhouses built on the same principles, as guidance for more ambitious or well-funded projects. There is something for everyone here; whether you wish to extend your growing season by a few weeks or build a year-round tropical greenhouse, you will find helpful examples and resources to aid you in your work. Keep in mind that each project differs in goals, location, and available resources, and so deg and building your own greenhouse will require much creativity

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