permaculture in ithaca's northside neighborhood
Permaculture is thriving in Ithaca's Northside neighborhood. Several gardens showcase the sustainable practices inherent in the permaculture design system and neighbors practice many different elements of the permaculture lifestyle. What is permaculture? It can be described many different ways; there are almost as many deffenitions out there as there are permaculture practitioners. At it's core, permaculture is a design system aimed at creating a cultivated ecology (ie gardens) which reduces outside resource consumption, increases biodiversity and ecosystem health, and moves society toward a sustainable permanent and local culture. Permaculture is also a life philosophy of self-relience, personal responsability, voluntary simplicity and lower ecologcial footprint. The Northside neighborhood is an example of the type of community created when these ideas are applied to life.
A walking tour of the Northside will first lead us from the neighborhood 'third place' Gimme! coffee along Cascadilla Creek on Lake Ave. The creek is a beautiful greenway, wildlife corridor and bike street exemplifying the benefits of green corridors through the heart of the city. The sound of running water, the beauy, the value of volunteer wild cherries, mulberries and black walnuts to wildlife, the watery habitat; all contribute to the neighborhoods bordering the creek. The corridor runs from the headwaters in ellis hollow through cornell and finally to the farmer's market and in the future could be enhanced as a transportation spine featuring greenery and fresh air.
Turning left onto Monroe Street, out first garden can be found at #111. I have been working on this garden for two years now and have been excited to see trees growing rapidly and the soil improving almost before my eyes. The first sight here is the perrenial garden between the sidewalk and the street. Kale, Jerusalem artichokes, sage and oregano provide both food and flowers for the neighborhood and the neighborhood honey bees who reside in their hive on a second story rooftop a block away on the first block of First St. Alfalfa and baptisia add nitrogen to the soil and aid other plants in green leafy growth; the alfalfa also digging deep with it's fiberous roots dredging up deep nutrients and breaking up compacted soils. Hidden within the tangled plants is a hazelnut tree which will provide protein in the coming years to both humans and squirells.
The side yard, once a small lawn, is now a thriving bed for tomatos and herbs thanks to sheetmulch. Sheetmulch has become something of a permaculture trademark. The technique uses cardboard, compost and brown mulch to build soil and kill weeds without disturbing healthy soil structure. The result is healthy fiable loam which just gets better and better. A rustic trallis supports the tomatos growing there and was built from apple wood pruned from the old cider tree in the back yard. A young American persimmon will one day dominate the yard and provide an exotic flavor to the household cusine
Around the opposite side of the house one can find a young paw paw tree just at the end of the mulched driveway. Paw paws are a native fuit with tropical flair gaining in popularity here in the northeast. They have many advantages to traditional orchard fruits, namely 0 pests and diseases, suckering and spreading habit and no maintnence requirements. A bed nearby has recently been transplanted with blueberries and strawberries.
The backyard provides a cool, peaceful and magical setting for relaxation and food growing. Although hard pruning will reduce the tree cover over the coming year, this garden is an example of a forest garden. Paw paw, currents, raspberries, hazelnuts and serviceberry are low maintnence fruits filling empty niches and many perrenial edibles, native plants and tasty weeds fill the small yet bountiful yard with diverse edible treats. A patio which is under construction will eventually serve as a potential community space linking neighboring back yards.
next time... down 1st Street, the People's Garden Project, the Community Gardens and the Ithaca Farmer's Market