Permaculture
I first learned about permaculture in the fall of 2004 when I read Toby Hemenway's book Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture. This book changed my life -- for 27 years, I hardly noticed our yard, and now I want to be outside all the time!We have made a lot of progress in transforming our yard. In 2004, it was mostly grass, English ivy, and arborvitae. We now have just one small (and shrinking) island of grass in the front yard, and over 100 species of plants. We have the beginnings of a native plant area, plants for basketry, and other plants that are beautiful and wildlife-friendly.
Most of the back yard is now devoted to vegetable beds. Farmer John and I have been enjoying growing and eating our own tomatoes, squash, beans, peppers, garlic, eggplant, chard, kale, collard greens, lettuce, herbs, raspberries, and more! Click here to see our entire plant list. I would love to have your comments and suggestions. Please contact me if you would like a tour -- I love showing people what we are doing!
Here are some of the things we have been doing. I will update this section occasionally as things evolve.
Worm Composting. We have always been good recyclers. Several years ago, we decreased our garbage pickup from weekly to once-a-month. I started worm composting simply as a way to help reduce garbage. We now have thousands of red wigglers living in two bins in our basement. I have given away worms to many people so they can start their own composting bins, and I have a nice supply of worm castings to use for gardening. 
This is the method I use for worm composting. I started out with a combination of leaves and dirt in the bins, which I guess is a little unusual, but has been very successful. I have never had a problem with bugs or odor. It just smells like dirt. If you put an ear close to the bin, you can hear a lot of activity in there! I suppose this is a combination of the sounds of decomposition and the worms moving around. I rough chop kitchen scraps and store them in open containers in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator.
About once a week, I put the scraps -- including torn-up coffee filters -- through my food processor and mix everything together into a big bowl. This takes about 10 minutes. The food processor is "on" less than a minute, and this effort speeds composting and keeps everything nice and tidy in the bins.
The worms live in the basement in two plastic recycling bins. The bins have holes in the bottom, and are on wood blocks to allow for air circulation. I put half of the worm food in each bin, and then very gently use a hand rake to thoroughly cover the food with dirt and worm castings (some worms get moved around too). Each time, I put the food on the low side, and then mound the dirt up on that side, over the food. (photos taken December 2005)
Collecting and using rainwater. In November 2004, we installed our first 50-gallon rain barrel next to the garage, shown here with our Tibetan terriers, Spike and Jones. We bought food-grade barrels from The Yoshida Group in Portland for $5.00 each. By the summer of 2005, we had installed two more. We are using the rainwater for watering vegetables during the summer, and also for flushing the toilet during the rest of the year (when we have plenty of rain). 
Collecting and using graywater. We started collecting gray water in a very simple way -- in plastic containers in the kitchen and bathroom sinks. We pour water from these containers into buckets to use for toilet-flushing (see photo and desciption below). We now flush our toilet exclusively with a combination of gray water and rain water. I enjoy inviting visitors to participate in our water conservation practices!
Learning how the garden can benefit from our excreta. Well, this is a favorite topic among permies. John doesn't even want to think about it... but I have read The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure , and highly recommend it. My own attitudes have changed slowly over the years, and are continuing to evolve.Our first step in learning to change our bathroom habits was to follow the saying "if it's brown, flush it down; if it's yellow, let it mellow". Flushing with rainwater or graywater was the next step. But now instead of flushing the yellow, I take advantage of the free source of nitrogen and either put it in the compost, or dilute it 5:1 with rainwater and use it to water leafy plants. Urine mellowing in the toilet starts to stink, but I have discovered that collecting urine in a container and covering it with a handful or two of dried leaves just smells like dried leaves. If the weather's nice, I don't bother with leaves, and take it outside right away, but otherwise, I empty the container twice a day.
The photo above shows the water storage unit John made for water recycling. On the left is a grocery bag full of dried leaves and in front of that is the pee-pot (a large Nancy's yogurt container). The smaller buckets are for dumping water into the toilet, and the larger one is mainly for storage. Another Nancy's yogurt container floats on top of the water in the large one, and is used for transferring water. Beneath the containers is a towel, with a plastic liner underneath. When the lid of the storage unit is down, it makes a roomy place to put things while you're in the bathroom, and a good seat to use while putting on socks and shoes.
We were surprised when we saw our first water bill after we started using gray water/rain water -- it was about half the amount for the fall of 2004 when compared to the same period of time in 2003. Some of this decline is also due to our raised consciousness about water -- when you start collecting it, you notice how much you waste, and start making small changes to cut down. For example, just letting the water run while you wait for it to change from cold to hot can be as much as a gallon. We have far more than enough water in the winter -- the rain barrels are almost always full -- but the three barrels didn't quite get us through the summer. We had to use tap water for the garden for about two weeks.
After I read The Humanure Handbook , I was convinced that I wanted to do humanure composting. But I was still afraid. I took a workshop from Ruby Bloom here in Portland, and went home with my own bucket toilet. Then my neighbor said he needed to get rid of a couple of composting bins, and suddenly I had everything I needed. So in May 2008, I started using the system. So far, so good. Details when I have something interesting to report!
Improving our disposal of dog poop. Spike and Jones, our two Tibetan terriers generate about 30 pounds of poop a month! For years, we put it in plastic bags and then into the garbage can. An article in The Oregonian, recommended flushing it down the toilet. Now, as part of my morning chores, I enjoy (yes!) walking slowly around the back yard with a large kitty-litter scoop in one hand and a wooden spatula in the other. At first it seemed odd to walk into the house with a scoop of poop, but now it seems quite natural. I flush the poop down the toilet with a bucket of rain water or graywater. Yes, I people have suggested that I could compost it also... I'm just not ready for that yet. Maybe I will get there.
Sheet-mulching: A step in the transformation from monoculture (grass) to diversity. In Fall 2004, I started sheet-mulching by covering an area near our front steps.
John called it my "crop circle". On the far right, a view of the same area in Fall 2006. The plants in this photo include lavendar, thyme, chard, burning bush, calendula, red osier dogwood, oxalis, yarrow, gingko, and dwarf willow. Since 2004, I have sheet-mulched the sunny part of the back yard to create vegetable beds (which are mostly circles, semi-circles, and paisleys); the shady side yard where we now have ferns, huckleberries and bamboo; and most of the front yard except for a little island of grass near the front window, which John wanted to keep.
Learning to grow our own food. In 2005, we took Connie van Dyke's "Introduction to Permaculture" at Luscher Farm, and then Connie's "Urban Farming" class at Portland Community College. Books we have been reading include Gaia's Garden, Square Foot Gardening, Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, Gardening When it Counts, and The Maritime Northwest Garden Guide. (photo taken August 2005) 
Building outdoor compost bins. In Summer 2005, a neighbor who was replacing her deck gave us enough cedar to build our three-section compost bin. John also built the flower cart! (photo taken June 2005)Removing and replanting trees. Along our property line in the back yard, we removed a row of arborvitate that had grown to over 15 feet tall. I cut up the smaller branches of the arborviate and spread them out along a new walking path, and we sawed up the larger pieces for firewood. The arrow bamboo that had been squashed between the arborvitae and the garage is now enjoying its freedom.
The hawthorne trees on our median strip were suffering from a chronic fungus, which left them almost leafless most of the year. We had them removed in December 2005, and replaced them in January 2006 with a scarlet oak and a ginko. This photo was taken just before I sheet-mulched the front yard and median strip.
Sheet mulching the front yard to convert grass to space for plants. The wood chips are from the branches of two hawthorne trees that we removed. We cut the hawthorne trunks into a nice stack of firewood (photos taken December 2005 and April 2006).
Now most of the grass is gone, and we are adding plants, including natives, plants that attract birds and beneficial insects, and plants for making cordage and baskets.
Removing a sidewalk and creating a meander path. The two photos on the left shows how it looked on March 26, 2006, after Beth Fox and Jamie Sajovic started taking the sledge hammer to the sidewalk. We discovered two layers of sidewalk -- we used the the larger pieces as stepping stones in the meander path, and then later I used the thinner pieces to replace the bark chip paths around some of the vegetable beds in back.
The photo on the right shows our progress on the meander path as of May 1,2006. We had some arrow bamboo transplanted from behind our garage to the section near the top of the photo on the right. The bamboo has grown into a privacy and sound barrier, helping to screen off the back yard from the traffic on 39th Avenue.
Our 83rd Avenue Urban Farm where we now have two bedrooms for rent!
We have had a house in Lents for about 15 years. Lots of grass and some really big arborvitae! In Spring 2006, we started doing a little sheet mulching around the edges of the property.
In Fall 2006, we started digging out a spiral path for walking meditation, and piling the clods upside down to make raised beds for vegetables. We also planted a plum and a pear tree.Later.... long story short... we met Kollibri terre Sonnenblume, owner of Sunroot Gardens CSA, and this backyard joined about a dozen other urban yards where Kollibri is growing vegetables for his CSA. Kollibri and his helpers double-dug the spiral beds, and planted carrots, beets, parsnips, and squash. On the right is the place in Spring 2007, with the young plum tree in the foreground.
Here is the back yard in September 2007. Our little pear tree produced one lovely pear. Kollibri's root vegetables look beautiful -- and are really tasty!
We are making plans to add perennials and medicinals.
Below, The front of the house, behind the big maple tree.
My favorite permaculture/gardening resources in Portland
Please contact me with suggestions for this list.
Metro offers this free tour every July in partnership with the Audubon Society of Portland. You can talk with the gardeners who designed and now maintain their gardens to learn about natural gardening techniques. I love this tour! Registration is required.
Yoshida Group, Shipping Dept., 503-872-8411. Blue and white 55-gallon food grade barrels, $5.00 each. Located near the airport at 8440 NE Alderwood, Portland.
PGE Landscaping Dept., 503-736-5460. Will deliver free wood chips. You must have a location to dump a full truckload.
More Permaculture links:
This page updated June 12, 2008.