Ras+Jebel+Status

Back to RasJebel Farm and Demonstration Site Presentation ** RasJebel Farm and Demonstration Site : Current Status ** //** What Got Done So Far **// > =I - Layers and Fractal Greenhouse=

Nursery
Started in automn 2012, we are working on plant propagation from seeds and cuttings and in particular plants with interesting characteristics for our site and for Mediterranean climate. You can look our nursery page with useful information and our calendar.

[[image:http://a2.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/120/4d07183c5329cf0c8536c70cc637d771/l.jpg width="144" height="114" align="right"]] **Harvesting and Conservation**
8kg of red and white berries have been harvested in June, shared and transformed to jam and compote. Much more fallen to the ground or eaten by birds and insects. Few plums were harvested, but almost all have been stolen by a neighbor. Many almonds were harvested, as well few figs, but fig trees were not pollinated and could have produced much more. Non harvested fruits encouraged the explosion of ants and wasp population. Many kg of barbary figs (opuntia) has been harvested, and some turned into jam and syrop. Carpobrotus figs from the beach has been also collected, tasted raw, and their juice tried into jam. Very few pomegrenades have been also harvested.

[[image:http://permaground.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/img_25831.jpg?w=160 width="185" height="138" align="right"]] **Natural Pest Control**
To limit proliferating ants, trees of the half of the orchard has been limed. This method was used traditionally to avoid tree trunks heat, prevent fungal diseases but also to discourage ants housing in the trunks cavities and holes. Additionally, corn starch mixed with sugar was tested and seems to make them disappear after a week. Liming significantly changed the luminosity in the orchard. A soap based soft treatment was used against aphids which affect few trees and are protected by the ants. Grape leaves infected by mites were removed to reduce their population. Wild plants __Summer__: //Chenopodium album// (edible), Alyssum maritimum, Pancratium maritimum __Automn__: //Amaranthus retroflexus// (edible), //Diplotaxis erucoides// (edible), //Trifolium// (edible), //Drimia maritima, Atractylis// ou //Carduus// (edible), possibly Malva, Hawkbit //Leontodon spp.// and //Scorzoneroides spp or Chondrilla juncea// (edible)//,// Catsear //Hypochaeris radicata// (edible)////, Crepis bursifolia, Sonchus oleraceus,, Senecio vulgaris, Acroptilum repense,//// Capsella bursa-pastoris (edible) //Mercurialis annu// (ref) is the more abundant weed in our garden. Its a non edible annual, non acidic soil indicator. It lives in relation with ants (ref) and can be used for dry oil in small scale (ref). __Winter__ __Spring__ (Sources: wikipedia, http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/WEEDS/broad_preview.html [], []) > =II - Soil Building=

[[image:http://permaground.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/img_25741.jpg?w=120 align="right"]] **Compost Piles**
Three compost piles have been realized and are maintained onsite. Made with materials coming from the site, the nearby pine forest and kitchen scraps: dead wood and branches, dried wild cereal straw and thistles, opuntia dead leaves, reed leaves, wild boar manure, fig and acacia leaves and branches, fruits fallen on the ground, pine needles, wood in decomposition, full of mycelium and fungus, coffee ground and vegetable scraps. The pile is watered from the well and covered with a tarpaulin. At the start, a clay pot with water is placed in the middle of the pile to keep it moist.

**Vermicompost**
Two vermicompost bins has been built and are maintained at the apartment in nearby town, one with Eisenia Foetida and another with other composting worms.

**Tree Base Mulch**
Mulch was made around trees base, similarly to Lawton Jordan site, by concentrating wood and dried weeds around nearby tree.

> =III - Extreme Water Management=

[[image:http://permaground.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/img_26651.jpg?w=160 width="185" height="138" align="right"]] Swale
Three experimental swales have been built, with a raised bed that is not yet planted. By contrast with classic swales, the first swale is constructed to retain the water instead of infiltrating it in the lower ground. Firstly, the surface blocks of clay has been removed, then 40 cm from the original soil level was dug. The clay was temporarily deposited uphill and the rest of the soil, sand and organic matter placed downhill to form the bed. Finally, 10cm of clay was placed back at the bottom of the swale to enhance retention. The first swale is 8m long and 1m large. The second swale is an extention of the first one. It s located near the cob house and for this reason it was constructed in order to keep water far from the construction and infiltrate as quick as possible. For this reason all the clay layer (around 10cm deep) was removed and stocked for future use. The swale level is a bit higher than the first swale so it can overflow towards the first. The planting bed has the same hight with the first one, filled with local soil and sand from the swale but the clay part has been removed. A third 7m long swale with raised bed has been also built in extension, on the sandy part of the garden where a more sloppy area will be drained. The first and second swales are communicating through a tube made from plastic bottles attached the one to another and then covered with clay soil in order to create a crossing bridge of around 1m large. The connection with the third swale and the overflow is not done yet. Also a connection with the nearby well split water is considered. > =IV - Animals=

Wild Animals Management
Wild boars are present in the site during the night and have positif and negative effects. They are visiting the orchard and return the soil but also cause various problems to the nursery and planted beds by eating small plants, roots and walking in freshly sowed beds. They are omnivore and eat principally vegetables ans worms but also small animals like frogs and insects. We decided to limit the access to the site by reinforcing the fences; other possible solution are:
 * Planting bearded grains: barley, rye that are not attractive for wild boars
 * Electric fences,
 * Feeding the animals in the forest in order to stay far from cultivated areas

> =V - Habitation and People Support=

[[image:permaground/IMG_2929.JPG width="185" height="140" align="right"]] Cob Home Eco-construction
After gathering information and studying two books on cob construction (see on cob book page). An old collapsed ruin in the garden was studied for restoration, but finally another site was chosen. A small round cob room was designed with possibility for future extension. A drainage trench under the wall, was dug, filled with gravel and terracotta pipes were installed. A few meter outlet was made. The ground around the house was leveled to conduct the water outward. A stemwall, with rocks from the ruin, is actually under construction (01.09.12). > ===Design the Construction=== >> ====**Cob Building Choice**==== > > The goal is to build with common materials that can be found on the site or locally, and the building easy to reproduce. Apart from the classic advantages of building with cob, such as aesthetics, connectedness with nature, breathability or ecology, the choice of this type of building was essentially motivated by three reasons specific to the site. First, cob is fireproof, a real hazard when surrounded by a forest in a dry climate, with precaution from locals. Second, clay for cob is abundant on-site, as it has been spread when the well was drilled, years before project start, into a thick 15cm layer that is asphyxiating the soil and should be removed. Third, cob insulation is very good, an important aspect in this climate with summers over 30°C for 3 months and a month over 35°C, and should regulate the high summer temperatures and rainy and cold winters. Additionally, many surrounding cities in this region cultivate wheat which makes straw abundant for cheap.= >> ====**Existing Ruin Examination**==== > First thing that was done is to examine an existing small ruin, with remaining wall of 60cm, and assess if it is appropriated to build over it with cob. The ruin was a dry stone construction that collapsed one day. A lots of rocks inside the ruins was removed and the walls were examined, but two major problems were found, apart for not being able to choose the shape of the house. First, the ruin, situated at the highest point in the land, was also placed on the steepest place, and the ground level is at the height of the wall uphill. This a real problem for drainage, as if the strong rain soak uphill, the interior would be flooded, and the only solution was to significantly lower the ground level uphill or raise the floor level inside, which is a very large task. Second, at the lowest point, the wall was built by placing simply stones on a sandy soil. Stones at the bottom of the downhill part of the wall was not buried, with no foundations, and threatens to compress the sand and move under cob wall weight. These two reasons prevent us from using the ruin wall to build our cob home, and can explain why it collapsed years ago. >> ====**Siting the Construction**==== > The choice of the exact position and orientation of the house, several alternatives that allow to not remove any tree, were compared by taking into consideration access and feeling and for their relation to the four elements - i.e. Sun, Wind, Water; Earth. Orientation relative to the sun can moderate summer heat, especially with southern trees shadows, while in the winter when these trees are deciduous the sun can heat the house. Wind, strong in this area, is influenced by house altitude and surrounding trees, and can similarly cool the house in the summer but be difficult to stand in the winter. Rain water, is essential for cob building, in a country with regular annual floods, and rain runoff can be abundant and threaten house cob walls, if it is placed at the bottom of a long slope. Earth quality and access to clay is also important, as on the higher half of the site, 10cm of clay cover the original sandy soil that can be found on the whole site. The final site choosen (see the the picture below), in the upper half, on a moderate slope, had a mulberry at south east tree to protect it from morning sun in the summer, and cypress trees as wind break that may be pruned later to offer more winter sun. > >> **Shape and Interior Design** > A round shape was choosen, on the picture above, well suited and cob building and very stable. The space of the construction is limited by trees and only a small room about 15m² is needed for a start. A second room can be later built as a future extension. The trees all around helped to find the contour of the room. By keeping a small distance from the trunk and canopy, a contour is traced and looks like an almond, the most frequent tree on the site. The ‘almond house’ has a lot of similarities with almonds: it is small, it won’t be flooded by rain water. This room will function as a place to rest, to chill out and also as a storage for materials. Its design has a quite separated sleeping space and living place that look toward the windows, instead of looking toward the bed when entering the room or when sitting in the small living place. Finally, this design is simple and transformable to future needs, therefore no built-in benches or furniture was planned. > ===**Drainage**=== > Drainage is an an essential part of Cob construction, as it prevents the cob walls from being soaked and the interior from flood, even even in the event of a very abundant rain, which happens annually in this region (i.e. 100mm of rain in 24h). The choice of drainage system is threefold: a Rubble Trench drain under the cob walls, a Berm around the house and an uphill Swale. A French Trench drain can be later added if the drainage is proven insufficient. >> =====**Rubble Trench Drain**=====

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//Digging: After tracing the contour, we dug the rubble trench at almost 50cm of deepth and 50 cm large. We also dug a smaller trench to lead the drained water 5m far from the construction, large enough for the pipes. Our ground is slitly slopped with the first 10cm of clay, 10 cm of sandy loam soil, a sand layer and a final layer of very thin sand and rocks. We excavated layer by layer and stocked the different materialsfor later use. We put the clay in the center of the house and the sand nearby, while the sandy loam we moved it a little further near the planting beds areas. We haven't flattened the area before starting, even though it could be a good idea after later consideration. We compacted the trench several times with a tree tronc as tool and water.//======

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//Pipes: We posed the pipes of 10cm dimetre on a compacted layer of 3 to 7 cm of big sized gravel. The pipes followed the slope of the site with lower point the smaller trench where the water will exit. The clay pipes following the almond shape were fixed one with another and covered with gravel.//======

>>>> //Filling// >>>> //Mismatch between Design and Realization: While digging the planned dimensions of the trench varied from place to place and as a result the trench and the wall will be thiner than planned initally. The use of sticks to mark would be helpfull to follow the initial plan.// >> =====**Berm**===== >> =====**Uphill Swale**===== > ===**Stem-wall**=== >> **Moving Stones** >> ** Puzzle Stones ** >> **Stabilize Stones** >> **Ditch Adjustment**

[[image:http://permaground.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/img_26911.jpg?w=120 align="right"]] **Cob Cooking Rocket Stove**
A cob rocket stove was built and almost finished, which will function with limited wood, with only small branches and no smoke. This allow to optimize the precious wood burned for cooking. First tests are not yet conclusive.

**Natural Fencing and Door**
A door at the entrance of the orchard was constructed from reeds. This was a good start of working with reeds which are abondant in the site and the surroundings. Several reeds attached together with metal were used for the strong parts of the construction and series of reeds were attached one next to the other to create uniform fences and door to reduce the visibility from the road. At the limits with the neighboring orchards tree and thorny tree and shrub branches were used to limit pedestrians and wild boars. For the construction of fences tree branches were woven, usually three horizontal lines of linear branches blocked with vertical ones. The fences are an always on task as the wild boars keep opening holes and entering the site.