COMMUNITY GARDEN and RESIDENTIAL PERMACULTURE Design

DESIGN for an off-grid TINY HOME RESIDENTIAL SETTLEMENT and community garden under PERMACULTURE PRINCIPLES

I have designed this settlement as somewhere I would love to live myself, informed by 30 years of experience living in small spaces and setting up a number of permaculture gardens. It can be adapted to a homeless shelter with on-site employment in the garden, an aged care facility with the garden providing peace, gentle exercise and nutrition (raised beds would feature and wheelchair access), and just about any other configuration of lifestyle choice. The design is basically the same for urban community gardens for unemployed people, without the residences of course. My advice to state and local governments is to fund these urban community gardens according to need where unemployment is high. This will provide benefits all round with local business supplying and building the infrastructures, and local nurseries supplying the stock. Eventually the gardens will be self-supporting with their own nurseries.   

Tall, secure fencing all around is a very important part of the design due to future social instability which will be inevitable with worsening climate change. Each corner of the site is layer-planted with a food forest of fruits, nuts and vines. The four corners of the fence are planted with a wide variety of topiary fruits and nuts, and just thick vines where the houses are close to the fence to give each home a lovely view of greenery through their large living room windows.

Gas and water will be connected but no electricity other than perhaps for the community area and the caretakers’ residence. Gas will be used for cooking, heating and refrigeration. An off-grid rural/remote settlement would use gas bottles. All the buildings have solar panels on flat roofs feeding into the main battery bank in the community rooms via a micro-grid. Small wind turbines around the outside could also feed into the grid. Each house will have a rainwater tank, and larger ones for the community and caretakers area. No sewerage connection – all buildings have compost toilets of varying design to suit.

Wet compost, ie kitchen scraps, discarded fruits, will go either to the worm farm or into the large  central ‘keyhole’ garden, where it continually breaks down and feeds that fenced off garden. The ‘hot’ compost is kept in a row of bins – these piles are perfect to compost aggressive weeds as the heat generated within them will destroy seed and any pathogens. A mulcher will supercharge the process. The clearing around the community area could also have a fire-pit for night time gatherings.

 

Each tiny home will have a full-length sliding window on the side facing the fence with a narrow balcony, to give a maximum view of the forest a feeling of space. An extended wall along the left will provide privacy. Another wider balcony runs along the length of the building with a retractable washing line.