Bioshelter Market Garden: A Permaculture Farm

489 Pages·2011·13.83 MB·English

by  Darrell Frey

Praise for

Bioshelter Market Garden
Darrell frey’s inspirational book gives you all you need to know to create an
energy-saving, food-producing bioshelter. it not only offers plenty of detail on the
nuts and bolts of construction and maintenance, but it also provides the big picture:
the concepts and principles behind these innovative structures. Bioshelter Market
Garden covers everything you need to understand, build, or simply
admire these important tools for sustainability.
—Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture
Darrell frey has mapped out the possibility of regeneration of individuality and
of nature, of liberty, of community, of food security and of ethics such as the modern
agricultural literature has never known — a harmony with nature, with the earth,
with one another in a sharing society such as the world has often dreamed.
—Prof. Declan Kennedy - Chairman, advisory Board, www.gaiauniversity.org
Darrell frey’s Bioshelter Market Garden is a welcome addition to the North american
permaculture lexicon. Darrell has pondered and observed his systems — large and
small — for a long time, and i’m glad he has shared his successes and lessons with us.
The book is sensible, grounded, and practical, while offering a wide view of how to put
the pieces together in a multifunctional way, on the ground, as a business, and as a way
of life. The world needs more bioshelters, and this book contributes substantially
to reinvigorating the development and deployment of this technology.
—Dave Jacke, Dynamics ecological Design
The increasingly complex ecological problems we face today will require
increasingly complex solutions, leaving the average person to wonder where to
even start. Darrell frey’s example, as exhibited in this book, is as simple as it is essential
. . . one must start here and now, with what nature has provided. frey is no dreamer,
but a practitioner, who shows us how the world can and must be changed,
one farmer, and one small plot of land at a time.
—Brian snyder - executive Director,
Pennsylvania association for sustainable agriculture (Pasa)
it is no simple matter to create livelihood on a few acres and to preserve the
biodiversity of that place. in Bioshelter Market Garden, author Darrell frey shares
the wisdom of his 20-plus years of doing so, and invites readers to work with
the sun, the dragonflies, the muskrats, and the complexities of human
enterprise to engage their own blessed swatch of land.
—Terril L. shorb, Ph.D.,
founder, Prescott College sustainable Community Development Program
some of us learn by reading, some by asking questions, and some of us just forge ahead
and take risks. Darrell frey is in that last category, and the lessons he has gleaned the
hard way over the past 30 years, are now available to anyone who wants to plan for an
uncertain future. frey shows, with well-illustrated case studies, how to grow a four-
season garden, turn sunlight and rainfall into sources of income, and live in the comfort
of an architectural ecosystem that nourishes the planet as it shelters the family.
—albert Bates, author of The Biochar Solution: Carbon Farming and Climate Change.
Darrell frey is at once keen observer, adept teacher and consummate
communicator, demonstrating to the reader in a style reminiscent of aldo Leopold
how we are all connected to the web of life and that our daily choices matter. Bioshelter
Market Garden is equal parts inspired storytelling and how-to manual for living
creatively and responsibly upon the earth. Through his own experience as a
permaculture instructor and market gardener, frey sets forth a detailed roadmap
by which we might all reach a sustainable future and celebrate our interdependence.
—Dan sullivan, managing editor BioCycle magazine and
former senior editor with Newfarm.org and Organic Gardening magazine.
Bioshelter Market Garden is a must read for home gardeners and farmers alike.
Darrell frey shares the secrets of creating a great year round growing system developed
through a lifetime of farming. Best of all, he teaches readers simply how to grow
things the right way, organically. The lavishly illustrated book is an
essential tool for sustainable growing.
—Doug oster, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Garden Columnist and
Co-host The organic Gardeners radio show

Cataloging in Publication Data:
a catalog record for this publication is available from
the National Library of Canada.
Copyright © 2011 by Darrell Frey. All rights reserved.
Cover design by Diane Mcintosh. Main photograph: David Travis
Lineart illustration: Bob Kobet, architect. ©istock, Carole Gomez (seeds)
Liliya Zakharchenko (vegetables)/alexander Bolbot (frog).
Printed in Canada. first printing December 2010
Paperback isBN: 978-0-86571-678-0
eisBN: 978-1-55092-457-2
inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of Bioshelter Market Garden should
be addressed to New society Publishers at the address below.
To order directly from the publishers, please call toll-free (North america)
1-800-567-6772, or order online at www.newsociety.com
any other inquiries can be directed by mail to:
New society Publishers
P.o. Box 189, Gabriola island, BC V0r 1X0, Canada
[phone]
New society Publishers’ mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental
ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least
possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision. We are com-
mitted to doing this not just througheducation, but through action. our printed, bound
books are printed on forest stewardship Council-certified acid-free paper that is 100%
post-consumer recycled (100% old growth forest-free), processed chlorine free, and
printed with vegetable-based, low-VoC inks, with covers produced using fsC-certified
stock. New society also works to reduce its carbon footprint, and purchases carbon
offsets based on an annual audit to ensure a carbon neutral footprint. for further infor-
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Library and archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
frey, Darrell
Bioshelter market garden : a permaculture farm / Darrell frey.
includes index.
isBN 978-0-86571-678-0
1. Permaculture. 2. farms, small--Management. 3. solar greenhouses.
4. Gardening. 5. sustainable horticulture. 6. Human ecology. i. Title.
s494.5.P47f74 2011 631.5’8 C2010-906969-2
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Contents
Acknowledgments .....................................................................................xi
Introduction .............................................................................................xiii
Chapter 1: Toward a Permanent Culture ...................................1
Prologue ..................................................................................................1
Book outline ..........................................................................................2
five acres and interdependence .........................................................3
The Value of the small-scale farm .....................................................4
Creation of sustainable Local food systems .....................................5
integrated systems: Permaculture Design..........................................7
sustainability ........................................................................................10
Concepts of ecology ...........................................................................13
Permaculture and agriculture ...........................................................19
farm ecology .......................................................................................21
Three sisters farm ...............................................................................21
resource survey ..................................................................................22
season extension .................................................................................27
outreach ...............................................................................................27
Back to the earth .................................................................................28
Chapter 2: Sustainable Food Systems: .........................................33
Safe, Healthful and Secure
sustainability for food systems .........................................................33
food safety and Public awareness ....................................................37
food security .......................................................................................45
vii
viii | BIOSHELTER MARKET GARDEN
Chapter 3: Direct Marketing for a Small Farm .....................57
Preparation ...........................................................................................58
Business Management ........................................................................58
Marketing farm Products ..................................................................61
outreach and education Programs...................................................67
Chapter 4: The Permaculture Farm: Design .............................73
farm Design and Planning ................................................................73
site analysis: The Land, the Community and ................................74
the environment
Planning ................................................................................................90
season extension .................................................................................92
Case study: Design of Three sisters farm ........................................98
sector analysis ...................................................................................101
overlaying the farm into the Landscape .......................................102
Bioshelter ............................................................................................103
Wildlife at Three sisters farm: Many Neighbors ..........................105
applied observation .........................................................................109
Chapter 5: Energy Systems on the Farm ...................................113
Conservation ......................................................................................114
Biothermal resource recovery .......................................................118
solar .....................................................................................................119
Photovoltaic applications ................................................................133
Chapter 6: Beyond Integrated Pest Control: .......................139
Insects, Disease, Weeds and Other Pests
organic Methods ...............................................................................139
Whole-systems Planning ..................................................................141
ecological Pest Control .....................................................................145
insects on the farm ...........................................................................147
spiders on the farm ..........................................................................152
Design for ecological Control .........................................................153
insects in the Bioshelter (and other Creatures) ............................163
Pests and Permaculture.....................................................................176
Chapter 7: The Market Garden Farm: Management ...........177
The spiral Garden ..............................................................................178
The south Garden..............................................................................184
The east Garden ................................................................................185
The southeast Garden .......................................................................185
Contents | ix
The Pond Garden ...............................................................................185
The West Garden ...............................................................................188
smaller Gardens ................................................................................190
Crops and Products ...........................................................................191
Perennials ...........................................................................................204
The farm Woodlot ............................................................................206
Managing Plant interactions ............................................................206
Chapter 8: Seasons of the Garden ..............................................219
Winter .................................................................................................219
spring ..................................................................................................228
summer...............................................................................................230
fall .......................................................................................................232
Bioshelter Maintenance ....................................................................232
Managing the Permaculture Landscape .........................................235
Planting ...............................................................................................240
Linda’s Crop Profiles .........................................................................244
The edible flower ..............................................................................263
fungi ...................................................................................................272
Chapter 9: Bioshelter Defined and Designed ........................275
The Bioshelter Defined .....................................................................275
Why Build a Bioshelter? ..................................................................277
Bioshelter Daydreams .......................................................................278
Bioshelter Design ...............................................................................279
a Bioshelter for Three sisters farm ................................................282
farm Design .......................................................................................297
Chapter 10: Bioshelter Management ........................................307
Managing the indoor ecosystem — an overview .......................308
Gardener as ecosystem Manager ....................................................317
Bioshelter Management through the seasons ...............................318
other aspects of Bioshelter Management .....................................327
from a Tiny seed: starting seedlings .............................................328
Countless Bioshelter Possibilities ....................................................346
Chapter 11: Compost and Biothermal Resources ................347
Harvesting Compost’s Multiple Yields ...........................................347
Traditional Uses of Biothermal energy ..........................................349
Compost and the NoP .....................................................................351
Biothermal resources .......................................................................353