Logo primary
Logo secondary
Backyard garden
Backyard garden
Details
Commenced:
01/03/2009
Submitted:
09/05/2015
Last updated:
07/10/2015
Location:
Innsbruck, AT
Climate zone:
Alpine





Followers
Fiona Haug Nathan Dow
View Updates

Backyard garden

Project Type

Urban

Project Summary

Vegetable and herb garden in a backyard garden community.

Project Description

The backyard garden community my garden plot is a part of originated in the 1940s when the houses surrounding it were built: every apartment had its own veggie plot assigned to it!
The gardens began diminishing in the 50's-60's when people became more affluent and abandoned growing their own. Today, our garden is the last of its kind in Innsbruck (whilst at the same time there are efforts to begin new urban gardening projects all over town) and sadly is doomed to be eradicated in the next few years, when the old 2-story buildings will make way for 3-5 story, denser architecture.

From 2009, I began taking over small abandoned plots, beginning with a small herbal corner, and I now have approx. 90m² to work with.
The main aim of the project was to gather hands-on experience in putting permaculture principles to work and grow my own vegetables and fruit whilst preserving the historic garden structure.

There always had been a "no chemicals" rule in the garden, but not everyone had given compost (home grown or externally produced) back to the earth in the same measure they had been taking out produce. Hence the soil was seriously depleted and for each new bit of soil I'd take over, the process always began the same way:

  • - weed out invasive plants and use them as mulch.
  • - reorganise existing plants (mostly berry bushes and perennial flowers) to more amenable spots.
  • - loosen up the very clay-heavy soil without turning, plant green cover crops, potato and/or leguminous crops, chop and drop.


The main challenges faced were:

  • * to plan a garden that assimilates the overall gardening style (square veggie plots with pathways in between), is pleasant to the eye (flowering plants throughout the year), and does not offend the sensibilities of my bare-soil gardening neighbors (ohmy, what a buzz, when I started mulching haha)
  • * to use (almost exclusively) locally available resources to improve the soil (neighbors became mulch-friendly very quickly when they discovered they could just bring their weedings to my collecting spot - just a few feet away - instead of having to drive them to our town's composting center!)
  • * very high pressure from slugs, who clearly prefer the lush, mulched paradise my plots offer over the bare soil of my neighbors, and leading me to mostly discard thick layers of mulch, which has slowed the process of soil improvement a bit.


It has been greatly satisfying to observe how the garden is evolving over the years, how plants moved to better places in the garden have recovered and are now thriving, how I can grow an increasing variety of vegetables, how an abundance of bees has appeared, how my perennial berry/flower strips bring joy to passersby and gardening neighbors alike... I am producing surplusses that I gladly share, and am regularly asked for my (self-seeding) plant babies - which are reliable cover crops and sources of mulch.
And in all this abundance, I am learning a lot from my experiments!

Updates

Courses Taught Here!
Project Badges
Urban
Administrators
Nathalie Sequeira - Admin
Team Members

Report Backyard garden

Reason:

or cancel

Hide Backyard garden

Reason:

or cancel

Legend of Badges

Note: The various badges displayed in people profiles are largely honesty-based self-proclamations by the individuals themselves. There are reporting functions users can use if they know of blatant misrepresentation (for both people and projects). Legitimacy, competency and reputation for all people and projects can be evidenced and/or developed through their providing regular updates on permaculture work they’re involved in, before/after photographs, etc. A spirit of objective nurturing of both people and projects through knowledge/encouragement/inspiration/resource sharing is the aim of the Worldwide Permaculture Network.

Member

Member

A member is a permaculturist who has never taken a PDC course. These cannot become PDC teachers. Members may be novice or highly experienced permaculturists or anywhere in between. Watch their updates for evaluation.

Male memberFemale member

Permaculture Matchmaker

One of these badges will show if you select your gender and the "I'm single, looking for a permaculture partner" option in your profile.

unverified

PDC

People who claim to have taken a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course somewhere in the world.

verified

PDC Verified

People who have entered an email address for the teacher of their PDC course, and have had their PDC status verified by that teacher. Watch their updates for evaluation.

pri_verified

PRI PDC

People who’ve taken a Permaculture Research Institute PDC somewhere in the world.

pdc_teacher

PDC Teacher

People who claim to teach some version of PDC somewhere in the world.

pri_teacher

PRI Teacher

With the exception of the ‘Member’ who has never taken a PDC, all of the above can apply to become a PRI PDC Teacher. PRI PDC Teachers are those who the PRI recognise, through a vetting board, as determined and competent to teach the full 72-hour course as developed by Permaculture founder Bill Mollison – covering all the topics of The Designers’ Manual as well as possible (i.e. not cherry picking only aspects the teacher feels most interested or competent in). Such teachers also commit to focussing on the design science, and not including subjective spiritual/metaphysical elements. The reason these items are not included in the PDC curriculum is because they are “belief” based. Permaculture Design education concerns itself with teaching good design based on strategies and techniques which are scientifically provable.

PRI PDC Teachers may be given teaching and/or consultancy offerings as they become available as the network grows.

pri_teacher

Aid Worker

The individual with this badge is indicating they are, have, or would like to be involved in permaculture aid work. As such, the individual may or may not have permaculture aid worker experience. Watch their updates for evaluation.

pri_teacher

Consultant

The individual with this badge is indicating they are, have, or would like to do paid permaculture design consultancy work. As such, the individual may or may not have permaculture consultancy experience. Watch their updates for evaluation.

community

Community Project

Community projects are projects that help develop sustainable community interaction and increase localised resiliency.