In March of 2006, Tulsi and Norris purchased a small house on a .2 acre lot, and used permaculture principles to design their food forest, sun garden, and house renovation. They aimed to create a low-maintenance, truly sustainable habitat for 2-4 people plus wildlife, providing from the property all necessary food, heating & cooking fuel, water, and waste treatment. Join us for a reality check on what's worked and what hasn't, what seems theoretically possible for the future, and what all this means to the oxymoronic goal of a sustainable city. Many more details available at http://farmerscrub.blogspot.com

1. Norris Thomlinson & Tulsi Latoski
Summer 2006 Present: Fall 2010

2. SELF SUFFICIENCY
FIVE YEARS IN
Summer 2009
March 2006
More details at
farmerscrub.blogspot.com

3. Site Info
● NE Portland, OR. Mediterranean climate, Zone 8
● Slopes slightly north
● Almost full sun access
● Well-drained, very rocky soil
● Began with almost no topsoil, nitrogen 1 ppm
● Inherited 1200 ft² of asphalt driveway, and ~6350
ft² of anemic lawn
● Two large seedling cherries on property line
● “Little shack on the prairie” - small house in need
of some major work

4. Site Info – Land Area Stats
● Lot officially 50' x 175' = 8750 ft² = .2 acres
● With unused parking strip 50' x 183' = 9150 ft²
● House & garage & carport & porch = ~1620 ft²
● Storage shed, chicken coop, wood shed, compost area =
400 ft²
● Material handling zone = ~200 ft²
● Side yard hang-out area = ~80 ft²
● Paths = ~ 2000 ft²
● Growing space + paths = ~6850 ft²
● Actual growing space = ~4850 ft², non-growing=~4300 ft²

5. Site Info – Ecoroof
● Added 500 ft² of
ecoroof in fall 2010,
with 500 ft² more
planned for this
spring
● 400 ft² of actual
growing space
● Experimenting with
food production; too
early to report results

6. st
1 Year: March – September 2006
● Sheet mulched grass
● Bought in 6 cubic yards
of mixed soil for instant
annual beds
● Planted in wood chips &
large pots
● Got chickens, bees,
fungi
● Observed site: sun,
water, wind, traffic & use
patterns
● Discussed goals & ideas

7. Site goals: Big picture
● Self-sufficiency for 2-4 people in:
● Food - balanced paleodiet, (not 5 pounds of potatoes per day!)
● Water
● Heating & Cooling
● Cooking
● Lighting
● Waste treatment
● Sustainable – really
● Giving back to the land more than we take
● Not dependent on civilization after establishment
● No pollution (exported waste)
● Create habitat – support wildlife, bees, birds, insects

8. Site goals: Garden
● Nutritious, diverse abundance
● Protein crops – nuts, eggs, and meat
● Peaceful & quiet –
nature sounds
● Low maintenance
● Minimal digging
● Urban model
● Inspirational
● Beautiful
● Alive & vibrant

9. Site goals: House Renovation
Goals Parameters
● Comfortable without fossil
fuels & civilization ● Space for 3-4 people
● Welcoming & inviting ● $25 - $30,000 budget
● End result attractive to ● Mostly DIY
buyers for resale ● Meets code
● Low maintenance –
mudrooms & outdoor
shower to keep dirty people
(Norris) under control
● Model for low-budget DIY
techniques
Began Summer 2009
Expect end Summer '11

10. Design process: September 2006
● Only observed 6 months before
beginning food forest & site design,
not full 12 months
● Permaculture principles
● Based on Edible Forest Gardens by
Dave Jacke & Eric Toensmeier
● Created accurate base map, cut out
tree & shrub circles to scale, and
shuffled around to maximize
numbers of trees & shrub spots
● Left adequate space for paths &
understory sunlight
● Prioritized favorite fruit & nut trees &
shrubs to fit available spots
● “Planted” tall bamboo poles to
represent trees & shrubs

11. Yard Design Elements
● Food forest ● Cooking & heating fuel
● Canopy trees ● Summer shade for house
● Berries & hangout areas
● Herbaceous understory
● Sun garden (Zone 1)
● Chickens
● Bees
● Ecoroof (came later)
● Hangout areas
● Material handling zone
● Water integration

12. Food forest design
Front yard
Back yard

13. Element: Food forest
● Best fit for goals of low
maintenance, nutritious
abundance, diversity,
protein crops, and habitat
creation
● Encompasses entire
food growing area except
ecoroofs and zone 1 sun
garden
● Most woody plants
planted by spring of 2007

14. Element: Food forest canopy
Nuts & seeds Fruits
● English Walnut ● 3 Pawpaws
● Black walnut ● 2 Persimmons
● Chestnut ● 2 Chinese dogwoods
● 4 filberts ● 2 Plums
● 2 Yellowhorns ● Cherry
● 2 Pea shrubs ● Fig
Misc ● Medlar
● 2 Olives ● Mulberry

15. Element: Food forest berries
● Blueberry ● Lingonberry
● Goumi ● Kinnick-kinnick
● Autumn Olive ● Rasberry
● Silverberry ● Blackberry
● Salal ● Japanese wineberry
● Evergreen huck
● Serviceberry
● Darwinian Barberry
● Goji berry
● Gooseberry
● Red/white/black currant
● Chilean guava

16. Element: Food forest Vines
● Kiwis
● Hardy
● Fuzzy
● Arctic beauty
● Maypop passionflower
● Grape
● Akebia
● Air potato
● Cinnamon Vine

17. Element: Food forest
Herbaceous Understory
● Theoretical polyculture
assigned to each tree
● Very experimental: little
experience with most of
the desired herbaceous
plants
● N-fixers, nutrient
accumulators, beneficial
insectaries, aromatic pest
confusers, ground
covers, plus direct yields
for us

18. Element: Sun Garden
● Mostly perennial veggies:
low maintenance, soil
building, habitat creation,
& nutritious diversity
● Some annuals for things
w/o perennial subs
(tomatoes, melons,
squash, etc)
● Main greens growing area
● ~ 1000 ft² including paths
● Circular layout w/wide
keyhole beds

19. Sun garden design

20. Element: Chickens
● Kept since summer 2006
● Backyard as playground
● Integrated into food forest
● Fed dumpstered food
● Mainly for eggs, but eat
them as they age or die
● Goal to feed them onsite

21. Element: Bees
● Kept since spring 2006
● 2 colonies each spring
● Langstroth & Top Bar
hives
● Minimal maintenance
● Usually 1+ die each
winter
● Restock w/volunteers or
captured swarms
● Harvesting ~30 lbs/year
from dead colonies

22. Element: Food preservation
● Eat fresh in season
● Staggered yields
● Storable foods – nuts,
seeds, honey, eggs
● Solar dehydration – fruits,
berries, fungi
● Wood stove dehydration –
fall crops
● Fermentation
● Limited canning
● Root cellar
● Small livestock

23. Element: Rainwater
● Soil primary catchment;
we added ~9,000 gallons
by adding 8-9” topsoil and
removing driveway
● New metal roof
● Ecoroofs will catch, hold,
& use some rainwater
● One or two ~5000 gallon
water tanks
● Mulch to conserve water
● Perennial plants

24. Element: Rainwater
● Little implemented so far
● Sunspace ecoroof drains
fill 3 backyard bath tubs,
~150 gallons storage
● Front porch drain will fill 2
55 gallon rainbarrels then
~300 gallon pond
● Carport & garage roofs will
irrigate plants in hedgerow.
Could fill some rainbarrels
first
● 5 gal. buckets as stopgap

25. Element: Greywater
● Bathtub, kitchen &
bathroom sinks: ~20?
gallons/day into mini
wetland (buried hot tub
filled with gravel)
● ~50%?? overflows into
buried bathtub – clean
water for irrigation
● Laundry to Landscape
~30 gallons/week

26. Element: Aquaculture
● Very simple, no
pumps/greenhouses/
etc. desired
● Aquatic plants –
wapato, cattail, etc
● Aquatic floaters –
duckweed & azolla for
livestock
● Fish – Gambusia &
goldfish for humans &
livestock

27. Element: Fuel wood
● Not based on hard
numbers, just hope
● Coppice for firewood
● Black locust
● Elaeagnus
● Hazel
● Chestnut?
● Mulberry?
● Paulownia new planting
● Woody prunings for
rocket stove

28. Element: Hot water
● Not implemented
● 160 ft² solar water panels
● Solar pump: water into
insulated pondliner box
(plywood) under house
● City water flows thru 300' of
1” PEX in tank (12 gallons
storage)
● Excess thermosiphons (or
pumped) into radiant floor
tubing
● Wood stove can heat water

29. Element: House heating
● Passive solar sunspace
w/thermal mass
● Bathtubs add some
reflected light/heat
● Minimize winter tree shade
● Wood stove – should really
be a rocket stove
● Lots of insulation, ~R30 avg
all around
● Windows all insulated

30. Element: House cooling
● Summer shade, winter
sun
● Black locusts east side
● Black walnut SW corner
● Grapes on south trellis
● Ventilation
● Sunspace thermal mass
● Cold water through
radiant floor pipes

31. Element: House lighting
● Sunspace
● Bathtubs add light
● Windows in most rooms
● Privacy window between
sunspace & bathroom
● Mostly living with sun
● Headlamps w/solar
battery charger
● Considered light tubes,
but very expensive

32. Mistakes, Problems, & Adjustments

33. Design mistakes Problems
● Not designing rotating ● SLUGS
chicken paddocks ● Mushroom logs dried out
● No ducks ● Nettles overwhelmed Ribes
● Omitting nursery area ● Raspberry die off
● Omitting secure material ● Kiwi establshment (arctic,
handling zone hardy, & fuzzy)
● Pawpaws in driveway ● Olives dead
● N-fixers not necessary
● Yellowhorns weak
● Chilean guavas freeze
● Planting garlic w/drought
intolerant plants ● Salal & evergreen hucks dry
● Assumed cold winter east ● Path maintenance-depends
wind on woodchips
● Lack of security
● Lonely for community

34. Adjustments
● Planned for 1000s of ● Minor shrub changes
gallons in water tanks but: ● Bamboo shoehorned in
● Too much space required ● Mulberry not planted
● Not economical after ~400 until fall 2010
gallons per 1000 ft² roof
area ● Even fewer annuals
● 100% gravity feed difficult than orig. expected
● Rely on Bull Run ● Ongoing experiments
watershed as giant gravity herbaceous perennials
fed system
● All new polycultures
● Outdoor kitchen moved
● Food balance (greens
● House expanded extra 2'
vs roots vs berries etc)

35. Results: Accomplishments
Meeting our needs
● No fossil fuels for heat (but most wood imported)
● Minimal gas for cooking (rocket stove would
eliminate natural gas dependency)
● No need for sewer
● Garden goes til June w/o needing imported water
● 675 calories, 40 mins maintenance & harvest per
day
● Should scale well as fruit & nut trees begin bearing
● Ducks will add low-maint. high-efficiency calories
● Many calories from animal products imported from off-site

36. Results: Accomplishments
Meeting needs of others
● Habitat creation &
support of biodiversity
● More & new insects,
spiders, soil critters
● More bird activity
● More worms, richer soil
● More trees & woody
growth
● Educational model –
tours & classes
● Source of seeds & plants
for others

37. Results: Food Harvest calories
2% 2%
3%
4%
5% Roots
27%
Animal
products
Greens
10%
Fruit
Berries
Seeds
Flowers &
Buds
Other
48%

38. Results: target harvest calories
5%
12% 1%
2%
5%
Roots
Animal
products
Fruit
Berries
Nuts & Seeds
25%
30%
Greens
Other veggies
Mushrooms
Squash
8%
12%

39. Results: Harvests
Meeting needs Importing
● Greens & other veggies ● Meat - ~ ½ lb/day
● Roots in winter (summer ● Milk
roots scarce) ● Fats: veggie, butter, bear
● Berries (close, anyway)
● Eggs in laying gaps
● Honey (but may grow
scarcer in future)
● Foraged fruits & nuts
● Eggs (mostly offsite feed)

40. Results: Greens harvest by month
● Way more greens than we
need in mid to late spring Ounces greens per day
25
● Dwindles in summer,
especially without irrigation 20
● Picks up again in fall
15
● Falls off cliff w/ hard freeze
10
● Available through winter, but
takes longer to harvest 5
● Picking up in early spring
0
● These #s affected by our April
June
August
October February
December April
immersion in house project

41. Results: Animal products calories
1%
12%
Eggs - 184
kcal per day
Honey - 95
kcal per day
Chicken
Squirrel & Rat
30%
58%

42. Results: Root harvest calories
6%
4%
5% Jerusalem
artichoke
5%
Garlic
Potato
Skirret
45% Mashua
7%
Elephant garlic
Dandelion
Yacon
7% Other
9%
12%

43. Results: Root harvest by month
● Abundant from late fall til
early spring Calories of roots per day
400
● Scarce in summer, 350
besides garlic in August 300
● Potatoes comprise much 250
of summer harvest 200
150
100
50
0
June October February
April August December April

44. Results: Food preservation
● Much solar dehydration
(mostly off-site fruit)
● Cherries dry on tree
● “Garden scrap kim chee”
● Created root cellar
● Freezer for bulk meat
purchases
● Fridge - often “where
food goes to die”
● Easier w/more ppl to eat
perishables

45. Results: Conditioning & cooking
● We'll burn ~1.5 cords wood this
season - would need 1.5 acres
to grow (!)
● House heating projects
incomplete: insulation,
sunspace windows, solar hot
water
● Should use rocket stoves to heat
& cook plus hayboxes
● Cooking J. artichokes eats wood
● Drying laundry eats wood
● Body acclimatization to cold
temps helps a lot
● Run fan sometimes in summer,
but not necessary
● Dress appropriately!

46. Results: Lighting
● Haven't installed all planned windows yet
● Sunspace doesn't allow as much light into kitchen as
hoped during gray winter. Does great on sunny days.
● Haven't adapted to living w/sun – still use electric lights
● Headlamps alone for
artificial light would
work
● Haven't really tested
ability of solar battery
charger to keep up
in winter

47. Results: Summary
Self-sufficiency Sustainable
● X Food (can feed 1/3 of a ● √ Giving back to the land
person) more than we take
● X Water ● Not dependent on
civilization after
● X Heating establishment (will always
● √ Cooling depend on water supply)
No pollution (could get there
X Cooking
●
●
by not buying packaged
● Lighting (close) food)
Waste treatment (still
√ Create habitat – support
●
●
generate garbage, especially
from house project)
wildlife, bees, birds, insects

48. The Future

49. Future theoretical possibilities
● Could maybe feed one person
● Could meet heating & cooking needs by
implementing all strategies and living with
whatever temperature is possible – 50s?
● Could meet all other goals except water self
sufficiency

50. Future yields
● Fruit trees may yield
~350 lbs/year
● Berries may yield
~200 lbs/year
● Walnuts & filberts
may yield ~80 lbs,
chestnuts 10 lbs/year

51. Future development: Meat
● Ducks!
● Live under front porch
● Free range front yard
● Eat slugs
● Rabbits
● Live on roof w/access to
ecoroof
● Feed alfalfa, black locust,
comfrey, paulownia
● Trap or shoot squirrels
● Expand chicken fodders

52. Future development: Seed crops
● Plant 15+ Oikos Tree
Crops dwarf oaks for
human & poultry acorns
● Grow more fennel
seed
● Breed Good King Henry
for seed production
● Experiment w/perennials
for humans or poultry
● Legume seeds (favas,
peas, runner beans...)

53. Future development: Root crops
● Adjust seasonal balance
● Cinnamon vine bulbils
● Yellow asphodel
● More summer potatoes
● Diversify
● Develop polycultures
● Mashua & jerusalem art &
chinese art. or silverweed
● Lily & chinese artichoke
● Oca & lily & yellow asphodel
● Oca & skirret & potato
● Skirret & garlic
● Grow for poultry

54. Cities: Implications
● If can feed one person
& fuel one house from
our lot, then Portland
can support ~280,000
ppl.
● Currently ~600k ppl.
● So everyone needs to
do what we're doing,
only do a better job of
it, and kick out more
than ½ the population.
● Our conclusion...

55. Conclusion: Let's move to Hawaii!
● No need to heat or cool
● Don't even need clothes
● Fill our shorts with wild
avocados instead