This is an article I wrote for a newsletter. It was’nt published but I think it’s worth putting up here.

When I first came in contact with Hare Krishnas I was intrigued by their philosophy of simple, rural living. I remember being particularly inspired by the picture of a bare-chested devotee ploughing a field with oxen in the “Great Vegetarian Dishes” cookbook. Back then I just had vague notions of the realities of agriculture and farming and little idea how to take practical steps towards simple, rural living. That was until I received an inspirational answer to a question I asked during a morning philosophy class:

“Maybe before we start thinking about a farm we should first try a garden? (laughs) If we can’t handle a garden what makes you think we’re going to be able to handle a farm?” (HH Devamrita Swami, 2006/07 Otaki Retreat)

And so the seed for the Gaura Urban Permaculture project was sown. In 2007 I had the good fortune to purchase a property in central Johnsonville with a large backyard. The previous owners hadn’t taken much care and it was overgrown and weedy (photo 1). For the first months I was out with the chainsaw every weekend pruning trees and hedges. All clippings were mulched, mixed with dung from the local stables and composted.

Next a retaining wall was built to create a level area for the vegetable patch (photo 2). This created a large flat area for the main garden. Several smaller areas for growing perennials and vine crops have been created by terracing (photo 3). The soil started off as heavy clay, but has improved markedly by applying organic gardening practices such as mulching, double digging, and growing cover crops.

The 2007/08 growing season yielded some successful crops (photos 4 and 5). There was sufficient production to meet my own needs, to supply fresh, organic vegetables for Devamrita Swami during two of his visits to Wellington, and to occasionally give vegetables to Gaura Yoga and Parama Karuna Ashram.

“When you taste food from the garden, grown naturally, from the material point of view, that’s the real pleasure of life. But because people don’t do that any more … they have to make their life so complicated.” (ibid)

The 2008/09 season is just getting underway. It should be bigger and better than last year since much of the hard work has been done to get things established. As I write, the first crops are being planted out under polythene and glass to guard against the unpredictable spring weather (photo 6).

Looking towards the east:

North East corner, showing the roof apex. Also, proof that I had a level on site (not necessarily proof that I used it):

East Barge, it isn’t quite square, there’s 25 mm variation in the width of the gap between the fascia and roofing iron.

These are turn-ups to stop the wind blowing water up the roof, under the flashing. I have no idea how this is supposed to be done, I just did what seemed appropriate.

North West corner.

Some ideas on flashing for Glenn. Click on them to get a bigger image (same for all the photos on this site).

There’s been some progress over the last few days as Tony kindly let me build while the weather was good. I was hoping to get the roof on, but didn’t get there. The detail that goes into making sure it will be weathertight takes a while to get right. Today it’s raining and I’m spending the weekend in the office working on Funding.

My mother’s coming to visit in about a month and it would be great to get the building finished by then. There’s still quite a bit to do though - roof, door, windows, cladding, ceiling, flooring (pavers), etc…

Most of the framing is done. Took a couple of days leave for a 4 day weekend and worked solidly through. Next is getting the roof on to protect from rain, etc. Had a spell of good weather but there’s rain coming.

Framing with Macrocarpa is hard work. Most of the nail holes have to be pre-drilled or the wood splits. But it’s turning out as a very solid structure.

I got a couple of students to clean up the bricks. They were pretty slow but it was worth doing because it has speed up the laying. These second hand bricks are really slow to lay (I think I mentioned that last time). I’ve got all corners (the tricky bits) and one long side up to 7 courses high. I’m aiming for 10 courses - I don’t think I’ll run out of bricks but I may not have the patience to lay that many.

Here’s the current progress (tonight I did a couple of hours work in the evening under floodlights).

This weekend was a brick marathon in Flemish Bond with Dutch corners. It turns out that the bricks I got are rather hard to work with because they’re not all the same size. I might get a student to come and wire brush and sort them.

This is the first course (with steel)

And an angle on the progress by the end of the weekend… more soon!

Another Trademe bargin - a 7000 litre water tank. Brand new this would be about $3K but I only paid $400, and got a second one free (but with no lid). Looking for a home for a lidless 7000 litre water tank…

This will collect rain water for the garden. Rain water is much better than chlorinated town supply water for the garden and gives more freedom — this year the council had a sprinkler and hose ban for several months.

The blocks are all down except one and next is filling them with concrete.

On a rainy day last weekend I leveled up the middle terrace. Now waiting for some more soil from somewhere (probably the neighbor’s garden). This used to be a steep bank, now I should be able to grow something there next season.

Last winter (2007) my power bills were really high trying to keep the lounge warm enough for Tulasi (Indian Holy Basil) to grow. She barely made it through the winter, and only with the help of a 2400W heater and a 400W grow-lamp.

Winter 2008 is rapidly approaching and I’m endeavoring to make a better arrangement for her. My aims are (1) create a smaller, less draughty space - easier to heat (2) more sun-facing windows - to make the most of whatever sun is available and (3) high thermal mass - stores heat during the day and releases it at night.

So far I’ve acquired a big pile of bricks and blocks and started digging the foundations. Here’s the pile of bricks:

And the foundations dug out:

And a picture of Tulasi herself: (Taken at Otaki in Dec 2007)