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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Permaculture Connections?!? The Floating Gardens of Mexico City

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  • From: Harmon Seaver <hseaver@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Permaculture Connections?!? The Floating Gardens of Mexico City
  • Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2008 18:31:07 -0600

George Anna Clark wrote:
> Hi Ethan,
>
> I forwarded your message to a friend, Paco Arroyo, who has worked in
> Xochimilco. His "area of expertise" within ecological sanitation is what
> he calls "organaponia" - container gardening using leaves and human
> urine (or wormcompost tea), topped off with compost, as a growing
> medium.

Ah, I've done this a lot. Read about it somewhere that they were
doing this in Mexico City, I've had up to around 65 5gal buckets on a
porch roof growing all sorts of things -- tomatoes, peppers, pole beans,
lettuce, eggplants, squash, herbs, etc. Even tried watermelon and
muskmelon, but the melons didn't get very big, about softball size.
You drill a 3/8" hole about 4" up from the bottom on one side, that
gives you a reservoir of water in the bottom. Pack leaves, grass
clippings, whatever, into the bucket, use another bucket to pack them
down, then add enough water to get the leaves really soaked, then put
about 4" of compost or just fairly decent dirt on top of the leaves, and
plant into that.
Watering is pretty crucial, of course, and tomatoes, once they get
big, need a lot of water, sometimes everyday, depending on the heat. I
keep a couple of 45gal plastic barrels on the roof filling from the rain
gutters to use for the plants. Other plants, like peppers, lettuce, etc
don't need as much, usually every 3 days or even less. You want to add
water until it starts coming out the little hole on the side.
I've gotten better yields a lot of years than the same varieties
planted in the ground, but of course those didn't get watered at all,
just from the rain.
And the next year, you'll usually find that each bucket is now
filled with pretty good compost, so you can use that and more leaves to
fill more buckets. 8-)
Not really permaculture, but a good way to grow some food in the city.



--
Harmon Seaver




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