permaculture

[Katherine Waser <kwaser@ag.arizona.edu>]

Steve Diver does raise a valid point about those living in apartments or
townhouses or whatever who don't have enough land for chickens, ducks,
cows, horses, goats, sheep, buffalo, yaks, elephants....

But hey, that doesn't mean they can't have animals in their systems!
Instead of the above, how about earthworm bins? Grow herbs and miniature
fruits/veggies on your windowsills in pots, feed what you don't eat to the
worms, and use their castings as fertilizer! You can keep them under your
sink; they don't make noise and they don't smell as long as you set up &
maintain the bin properly. Or how about guinea pigs? In research I did on
urban agriculture for the last issue of the Arid Lands Newsletter, I
discovered that guinea pigs are very common elements in urban agriculture
as practiced in Peru (and for all I know in other countries, too.)
Apparently they are very tasty, and if you don't want to eat them I'm sure
at least the poop is useful.

Incidentally, regarding the need for enough light in the house to grow
veggies, last January I had something called a "Solatube" installed in the
(very dark) utility room off the kitchen in my house here in Tucson,
Arizona. These are sort of like skylights but less costly to install. My
utility room is now flooded with light--in fact for several weeks after I
had it put in, every time I walked into the kitchen I'd think "oh @#*($!, I
must have left the back door open!" --and then I'd realize it was just the
solatube. I'm sure the light would be enough at least for herbs and green
veggies, though maybe not fruits or "fruit veggies" like tomatoes or
eggplants (though I haven't tested it yet because I have plenty of garden
space outside). Best of all in this climate is that there's very little
heat gain.

Of course, it did require a financial outlay (in my case about US $300),
but now I have much more interior light at no environmental or financial
cost. These solatubes are very popular now here in the American
Southwest--I don't know if they are readily available elsewhere-- do
listmembers from other areas have any information on this?

Anyway, Steve, let poor Bossie go back to the farm, and Think Worms!

best regards,

Katherine Waser
****************************************************************************
Katherine Waser, Editor                    Tel: 520-621-8584
Arid Lands Information Center            Fax: 520-621-3816
The University of Arizona                   E-mail: kwaser@ag.arizona.edu
1955 E. 6th St.                                 
Tucson, AZ 85719-5224