Food forest on a 1/4 acre residential property in the city of Los Angeles. A work in progress.
-
Peaches grow in a grey-watered mini-orchard of 8 fruit trees inhabited by chickens who provide all the fertilization.
-
Moringa trees provide light shade and a hyper-nutritious food source from the leaves and seeds.
-
Tobacco hanging from a Grevillea tree, which is being pruned over time to provide a living staircase for roof access.
-
Grapes grow from a chicken pen. The vines grow up a trellis that shades a south-facing staircase, and is constructed from Bamboo harvested from a friend's garden.
-
Four types of bananas are grown around a central greywater-fed mulch basin. Banana plants are cut down and composted in the central pit after fruiting. They also create a cool shady environment, reducing temperature and increasing moisture in an otherwise hot and dry SW outdoor microcllimate. They shade and insulate the house interior while providing privacy and an immersive view from the bedroom.
-
Chickens for eggs, fertlizer, and many other functions.
-
Our Mediterranean climate is perfect for growing citrus. Using greywater and chickens for irrigation and fertilizer we grow Mandarin, Navel Orange, Eureka Lemon, Meyer Lemon, Key Lime, Tangelo, Makrut, Loquat, and Oro Blanco Grapefruit.
-
Chickens have constant access via a tunnel system to a composting pen, where they deposit manure that we occasionally layer with wood chips and water. We open the lid and dig out composted manure whenever we need fertilizer. We also grow grapes next to the pen that feed directly from the compost. No cleaning or additional maintenance is needed.
-
We plaster our stairs and retaining walls with sifted native dirt, goat manure and straw (from our desert neighbor's goat farm), fermented prickly pear paddle juice (for binding, smoothing and water resistance) and human hair (final coat).
-
Dragonflies breed in our natural pool and are an important part of the food chain.
-
Many useful and edible annual plants re-seed on their own every year.
-
Solar panels and battery storage provide electricity for the property and prevent outages.
-
Passionfruit vines grow up the side of the house onto a bamboo trellis that shades the southwest side of the deck and produces hundreds of fruits multiple times a year. The bamboo was harvested from a friend's yard. The vines are irrigated with stored rainwater through a vermicomposting basin.