Before
After
The water systems I designed for this project were featured on the front page of the Permaculture Magazine!!
The property
The property sits at the top of a big valley, almost right against the ridge. This means that there is very little land surface above the plot, which translates into very little opportunity to catch water because not much water travels through the property. The cabin relies on a well as it's only source of water, and the idea of constantly sucking water out of the aquifer doesn't appeal me. For this reason, the moment I moved in, I started observing natural patterns to understand what would have been the best strategies to implement. As I do for most of my designs, I have prioritised my process following the scale of permanence (climate > water > access/roads > trees > infrastructure > soil). This way, I have at least calculated how to place the most permanent elements before I started implementing the less permanent ones.
This OP will focus on the water-related design I have developed and implemented for the property
Design goals
The design goals for this project were the following:
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To establish the example of an easy to implement, easy to maintain, food & water system that could inspire the local community
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To create a beautiful and inspiring place to live, nested a forest of food
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To design a system that is easy to maintain, since the house is rented to different people
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To design an efficient and beautiful grey water system
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To design a system that can infiltrate as much water as possible to create a microclimate and allow production of food with close to zero maintenance
Grey water pond
The grey water initially went into the septic tank together with the black water. My colleague Nick Steiner and I have come up with a low-tech design which we have implemented in only one day of work.
The water from the kitchen goes straight into a mulch pit – basically a hole full of wood chip – in which we planted papyrus. The mulch pit is unlined, so the water can infiltrate into the soil after going through the wood chips and the papyrus' roots. The excess water from the mulch pit is then directed into an unlined pond, where the partially cleaned water accumulates. Around the pond we planted more filtering plants and, on top of adding a lot of beauty to the garden, this feature acts as an access point for water to go back into the soil. In and around the pond are water lilies, papyrus, vetiver grass and lemongrass. Around the pond are bananas, cress, chillies, paprika, physalis, purslane, araça, pitanga, avocado, papaya and mango.
Trees that struggled to grow (i.e. citruses, avocados, mangos) now seem to struggle much less, and the more time passes, the more the moisture seeps in and creates a true microclimate around the pond.
Another great feature of the grey water pond is that it collects all the rainwater from the roof of the house. This water used to just run on the ground, causing erosion and cutting into the soil very close to the wooden pillars holding the house.
You can check a video of the grey water system here
Before
After
Earthwork design
There is a stretch of about 500 meters of road that sends water right next to the property and downhill. On a good rainy day, this translates into up to 45 cubic meters of water flushing down the side of the property and away from it. Over the whole year, with the average of 400 mm/㎡ of rainfall per year that the area gets, this makes about 600 cubic meters of water passing by only thanks to the road.
I designed an infiltration basin placed at the highest available point of the property. I basically just directed all the water from the road into a simple hole I dug in the ground. The hole can hold about 4 cubic meters of water before it overflows. In the process of doing so, it slows down water and starts to infiltrate it, while also allowing any sediment to be deposited and stay back. Because this basin is higher than the garden, it basically starts to infiltrate water up high so that the entire property benefits from it. Once it overflows, it ends up into a into a swale. The swale sits right above the area with the grey water pond, thus contributing to holding water in that area and creating an even more humid environment.
During the first heavy rains of autumn, I also observed that the grey water pond tends to overflow quite easily. I am happy with that, because it is small enough for it to look beautiful and full year round. So what I have done is I will connect the overflow of the swale to the overflow of the pond and direct them into a rain garden. This will look like a somewhat shallow hole in the ground filled with vegetation. The hole will be empty for most of the year, but will accumulate any extra water available during big rain events. This will then overflow into a bigger earthwork that I am planning, but that's a whole other design I will introduce you to at the end of this design report.
You can see a video about this design here
Hereunder is a visual representation of the design, together with a picture of the infiltration basin.
Garden Design
This garden has been design to require minimal maintenance, while providing lots of beauty and as much food as possible.
Here are they key characteristics of this garden:
- Focus on perennial vegetables to minimise maintenance (e.g. sweet potato, mulberry, tree collards, artichokes, nopal, NZ spinach, asparagus, chard)
- Focus on fruits and mediterranean herbs to create a layered system where every plant receives the perfect niche to be healthy
- Include support species that provide nutrients, biomass and protection to the productive plants
- Focus on organic shapes to give the garden a natural feel
Hereunder are some pictures of the garden.
