Inner City Farmer

I dropped the ball on this one. I’ve been spending so much time tending to the garden I forgot to hype Brad Lancaster’s visit to Austin. For those not familiar with him, Brad is a rainwater-harvesting guru from Tuscon, Arizona who preaches (and practices) taking the path to “a bun dance” (you have to see him to understand this joke) and not scarcity when it comes to water conservation. He’s also pretty damn funny.

I first saw him speak at the 2007 Natural Building Colloquium and was so impressed I swore I would drop everything to see him speak again if he ever came within 100 miles of Austin. Well, he spoke at least four times last weekend so odds were good that I was going to get to see him, and I did. His talk at the AMD campus just off Southwest Parkway was every bit as enlightening and inspiring as I hoped it would be. The event was well attended, and I got the sense that it could serve as a real lightning rod for change. When Brad explains how much water we waste as a society flushing our “waste” down the toilet, it makes you want to scream. The important thing is to remember who to scream at.

Fortunately for those who missed him speak, you can still learn all about him at his website or by ordering one of his books.

 
On Tuesday I headed to the landfill near the airport to take advantage of one of my favorite things: free mulch!

Luckily, I have a vehicle that I am not very attached to so shoveling several yards of mulch into the back didn’t present much of a problem for me.

I took a fairly large dent out of the pile, but, trust me, there’s plenty more still there.

I used half the mulch I brought home in the garden, and the other half I am using to fill in the rudimentary French drains I dug under my gutters where the rain overflows and collects next to the house. Having pools of water so close to the house causes all sorts of problems. I’m also hoping to plant a bush in the hole next to the trench I dug so it can soak up all that excess water.

Initially, the trench worked perfectly as all the rainwater from the roof flowed into the trench and away from the house.

But, alas, when it rains in Texas, it rains hard, and the trench quickly filled up and started overflowing, which means it’s back to digging for me.

Why do I feel the need to flee the city and lose myself in the outdoors at least once every month? Beyond helping me relax in a way that I simply can’t when surrounded by cars and buildings, nature has a way of infusing me with helpful ideas. When I returned from Enchanted Rock last weekend, I tackled the problem of what to do about all the water that pools in front of the exterior of the Man Cave every time it rains.

Water, of course, is the bane of all home construction. Ensuring that it runs away from and not into your house is vital to your home’s health and longevity, especially if one of your exterior walls is made out of cob. To solve my problem I looked to my visit to Enchanted Rock for answers. As you can see from the black lines in the picture, water will always choose the fastest way down; like everything else, it’s a slave to gravity. With that in mind I started digging a hole in the ground outside the Man Cave that will, hopefully, draw water away from the walls down into a hole that I will be filling with mulch. I believe they call this a swale in permaculture. Basically, I am hoping that the water that used to pool on the driveway will instead flow into this hole. I hope to use this catchment area to water a large bush. If it all works as planned, I will rarely have to water this plant and I will no longer have to worry about water sneaking inside the Man Cave. Win win.

It recently came to my attention that some people thought I would never actually finish the Man Cave. This lack of faith stunned me. Sure, it’s taken me a little longer than I had initially thought–I ripped off the garage door and started making a cob wall in its place fifteen months ago–but never once has the plan deviated drastically from my original vision. I imagined a soothing room with an earthy feel, and here it is, very nearly complete. I never had a doubt.

Actually, that last statement is not entirely true. The ceiling in the Man Cave proved to be my white whale. If I had to do it over again, I would surely do it a different way. What made it so difficult, besides the constant battle against gravity, was that half the sheetrock was over twenty or perhaps even thirty years old and tended to crumble at the slightest touch. This didn’t work in my favor when I was stapling the reed matting to it or when I was pressing the base coat of plaster into the matting. Some spots still sag, but every bit of it is covered with the finish coat (thank you, D!) and now I can look ahead to putting in the earthen floor.

It won’t be easy. Between now and Sunday morning I have to move most of the rocks in the picture below into the Man Cave:

It’s a Herculean task, but I have performed many of those in the past couple years. Here are a few more. I hope to turn my clay pit into a pond this summer:

I am also in the process of ripping up all the grass in my front yard and turning it into a food forest:

Does anyone doubt that I will able to do all this? Surely, you know better than that.

I seem to be buying a lot of things lately, and here I go again. The Austin Water Utility Conservation Program is sponsoring a sale on rain barrels this weekend. They usually cost at least $60 or $70 but from 8 to 11:30 a.m. you can buy one for the low low price of $45. You can find more details here.

I have had great success using the one rain barrel I have set up in my back yard. Now I’m hoping to put one in my front yard so I can catch all the water that runs off my roof in that direction. I just planted a row of shrubs between my yard and the street to block off unwanted guests (humans) and invite desired ones (birds), and for plants rain water is the Dom Perignon of the water world. See you at the sale!