Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Shed of Interrelation (part three)

Meg and I insulated and plastered the ceiling of the Shed of Interrelation (SoI) today. You're looking at the small bathroom where a bath and composting toilet will go. The shed is for artists/writers-cum-woofers to take short residencies and rest, make art and work a little in the garden. The shed is a place to encourage transitional thinking in the arts, to encourage permapoesis where art and organic food generation are embedded activities.

In the meantime our winter seeds are rocking. Heirloom elephant leek, garlic, silverbeet fordhook, pak choy, sweet pea, broad beans, broccoli, carrots, black kale, spinach, spring onions, beetroot, baby cos lettuce and cabbage mini. Meg and I were discussing today how many families could potentially be living on this quarter acre in 10-20 years. I think it could feed about 15-18 people in the Summer months and maybe 10-12 in Winter. 

I'm looking down on young banksias and heavily mulched areas with lomandras, poa tussocks, broad beans, almonds, olives, peaches and my chain-sawed eucalyptus balls. The dry stone HaHa wall back-filled with rubble allows for water to pass through it without disturbing the integrity of the wall. You can also see a little of the social warming fence. We persuaded our neighbours not to have a fence that lined the whole boundary, but just enough to have a little more privacy. They also agreed that I could build it as a slatted fence, again for social warming properties. Of course the water tank finishes the picture and finishes an often quoted mantra on this blog spoken by Cuban permaculturalist Roberto Perez at our town hall last year–
Grow your own food, catch your own water, say hello to your neighbour.

Here's a pic of the main house showing flying fox route and solar panels. I'm also showing off my deck building skills here. Split level decks are party decks. You often hear of them collapsing and killing a dozen stomping teenagers, that's why this one is low to the ground. 

I love Zeph's cubby as much as he does. Apart from the obvious – cute, small, red, up-in-the-air – it frost protects our toms. Meg collected another basket full last week. Almost unbelievably the fruit was still ripening despite the plants having died weeks ago. They're not great, but fine for cooking up. You can also see the beginning of the flying fox route and the tail end of the social warming fence. The bed in front of it will be the kick-arse rhubarb patch. Rhubarb is year-round gold for food gardeners. I remember my Dad's awesome patch when I was Zeph's age.

And, finally a place very dear to my heart – the compost area. Underneath the new window of the Shed of Interrelation is a herb bed that's doing OK, but I have decided to dig them out and extend the compost bays to three. We'll also have the humanure from the dry worm composting toilet. Therefore we can have four brews at four different stages. I'm so excited about this. The building of the Shed of Interrelation has already led to so many possibilities, even before the first resident.

9 comments:

Glen Dunn said...

Patrick, Meg, Zeph. I love this post. Not only because I would like to be one of the residents, but that the whole gig is an articulate, passionate, forthright and compassionate extension of the reality of cubby.

Love.

Permapoesis said...

thanks glen, we're looking forward to your return.

eddy carroll said...

Just beautiful
you guys are fantastic
great post

Permapoesis said...

thanks eddy, but i forgot to mention the home-brew – you'll have to help us kaleidoscope a few long necks when you come.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Your thouhts on Z's cubby house reminded me of the adventure playground my dad built. It was so extensive that once, apparently, my sister's primary school class came to our backyard for an excursion! And you have a flying fox too.. any pictures of the 'social warming' fence? intriguing.. tim

Permapoesis said...

thanks tim,

love to see a pic of your childhood adventure playground. perhaps if you can get me a copy i cld blog it?

here's a link to a previous post showing the social warming fence.

social warming fence.

cheers,

pj

Meg said...

I also blogged our Social Warming fence today.

Anonymous said...

i like it.
photos - they're probably all packed away in my mum's cupboard drawers.. i'll have to ask her next time i see her..
i'm quite interested in old/archaic playground designs and for years i've been meaning to do some kind of zine about them. when vanessa was in berlin she took about thirty photos of the playgrounds there, and they were all quite idiosyncratic, strange things - some it wasn't obvious how you were meant to 'play' on them. usually made of wood, too. tim

one Sunday said...

Gorgeous post, I loved seeing around your place, it is looking really fantastic, the aerial shot (?) of the deck and house is such a beautiful and strangely peaceful scene. Such a great work both of you do. xx Hen