Cistern Raised Beds
The idea of a cistern raised bed was originally introduced by my dad(Gabey's Grandpa or Gidoo) who is a retired contractor. He had discovered the then- recent green building solution, Eco-domes and was exploring all the possibilities of designing a viable, sustainable village structure in an area where his church in Cairo, Egypt was opening a pastoral school in the southern Sudan. Their plan was to train pastoral students in skills that they could take with them as they spread the Gospel throughout their country. The building idea was to create 5 round domes or "hobbit-like" structures, if you will, whose backyards would encircle an area that could be used as either a cistern to preserve water or as a protected raised bed that could sustain crops that would otherwise struggle in an open landscape. Unfortunately, their building & ministry did not come to fruition. While my dad did have the opportunity to go to Sudan, shortly after their first dome was completed, the country held it's first election that resulted in the current political strife and evacuation of non-natives.
As I continued to consider how to best to use the limited resources that we have and still achieve our urban micro farm goals, I looked to some of the lessons I learned as a child raised in drought conditions in the Mojave Dessert. It is a concern of mine that our current climate is indicating dryer and dryer seasons resulting in further strained resources. With this in mind and a little more research, we are going to be testing 2 ideas this spring and measure the progress over the next years. One is the cistern raised bed that is seeing great success in dessert regions, including the now arid areas of the Nile, combined with intensive, square food gardening. It is our hope to see greater yields with optimum water usage.
I have included a version of our plan as built be this ingenious family. Feel free to check this out or just follow along for our soon to be added slide show- coming Feb. 2014.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL0vXmkWUCs
This is what I am planning to do a little later (April-ish & maybe just 4 half barrels)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWsoG3_u45E
As I continued to consider how to best to use the limited resources that we have and still achieve our urban micro farm goals, I looked to some of the lessons I learned as a child raised in drought conditions in the Mojave Dessert. It is a concern of mine that our current climate is indicating dryer and dryer seasons resulting in further strained resources. With this in mind and a little more research, we are going to be testing 2 ideas this spring and measure the progress over the next years. One is the cistern raised bed that is seeing great success in dessert regions, including the now arid areas of the Nile, combined with intensive, square food gardening. It is our hope to see greater yields with optimum water usage.
I have included a version of our plan as built be this ingenious family. Feel free to check this out or just follow along for our soon to be added slide show- coming Feb. 2014.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL0vXmkWUCs
This is what I am planning to do a little later (April-ish & maybe just 4 half barrels)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWsoG3_u45E