Andreae Callanan

Thanks, John and Jennifer. Very good points here - I hadn't thought about the angle of exhaust pipes, but that's quite reassuring. Definitely no big rigs in the parking lot, only the odd maintenance truck. And the Geoff Lawton video puts it all into perspective. At my own home I grow my vegetables right out on the sidewalk, and we get far more traffic than the parking lot at the garden. I had my blood lead levels tested a few years ago (as part of a strange government experiment, no joke) and I was way at the low end of normal, despite a lifetime of eating foraged food from roadsides and lead-laden soils. The human body is remarkably resilient!

Hello! Hoping some city permies can help me out here. I help manage a shared-harvest community garden - our garden members make planting decisions collectively and share all the labour and all the produce. Not always easy, but it works (and a handful of us are slowly converting the place to an urban cold-climate permaculture paradise, muwah-ha-ha-ha!).

Some of our gardeners are concerned about car exhaust from the adjacent parking lot, which is separated from the garden by a chain link fence. The parking lot actually sees relatively little use, and people seldom leave their cars idling, so I don't see any issue with using the area immediately inside the fence to grow food plants, and in fact I would like to use the fence as a trellis for some melons and squash. I figure a bit of car exhaust here and there is still going to add up to less contamination than, say, an "organic" monoculture farm that is using fossil-fuel powered machinery directly in the fields. I would be using containers filled with "clean" soil brought in from outside of town, so there would be no concern about exhaust contamination in the soil, just in the air.

So my question is, can anyone point me to studies or statistics that might help ease my fellow gardeners' concerns? Are there some food plants that are less likely to absorb airborne contaminants than others? Or are there any plants we could put in to mitigate potential exhaust issues? Is exhaust even an issue at all in this circumstance? It's really a very small parking lot, and our growing season is only about 5 months here in Newfoundland, so the exposure time is limited.

I love the idea of khakis, but where I'm in a downtown area with lots of neighbours, I have to pick quiet ducks (although even the loudest ducks would be less annoying than the rock band next door... ). Our climate is cool and wet, and our slugs are of the smaller variety, not those banana monsters. I know a few people here with muscies and cayugas, so I'll be picking their brains, too, for advice. Two years ago neighbours of ours had muscovies - 4 ducks and a drake - in the back yard and ended up with 25 of them by the end of the year. They came through the gate and ate all my onions! So at least I know how many is too many

Our space is maybe 12'x 30', with a small patio area where we will likely build a shelter. I have raised veggie beds that I can fence off to protect the produce. Another consideration is water - we can put in a small pool for them, but we can't build a major water feature right now, so a duck that has relatively minor needs for paddling would be best. We don't have foxes, coyotes, or roaming dogs where I am, so my concerns about shelter are minimal. I'm starting to wonder if chickens might be a better choice, but in my iffy climate I feel that a hardy duck would require much less maintenance.

I forgot to mention in my earlier post that what I really need is animals that can help me keep on top of food scraps. So job 1 would be pest control, job 2 would be scrap eating, and then eggs and meat would come after that. When I have my parcel of land someday I'll definitely be looking for better layers, because I love duck eggs, but for now that's the lowest priority. I do want to be able to keep them happy, though, so if they're going to want to be moms, I'll have to figure out how to work with that. (I'm a mom, I can sympathize with the broody ducks!)

When I was a teenager, my father had the biggest, fiercest, ugliest muscovy drake that used to guard our property. All my friends were terrified of him!

I'd like to be part of this thread, too. My husband and I are planning to get a few ducks this year, and we're strongly leaning toward muscovies. We're in an urban area (St. John's, Newfoundland) with a relatively small, partly shaded back yard. The ducks will be there primarily as slug control, with eggs and eventually meat as secondary benefits. My father raised muscovies when I was young and I am quite fond of them, even if they can be a little standoffish! My questions are: what is the smallest number of birds I can have in my flock? And will I need a drake in order for the ducks to be socially content?

Thanks for being here to answer questions, Victoria! I'm looking forward to checking out your book.

Oh, Geoff Lawton's course looks wonderful - I'm quite seriously considering it. For the time being I'm picking up what I can from books and and online - some online materials are are more useful than others, of course, but as I'm home with young kids right now it's hard to commit to anything with any kind of structure. I look forward to this whole process - so much to learn!

Hi everyone! I'm in Newfoundland, but I'm going to post here so I can keep up-to-date on any exciting happenings in NS - there aren't generally any PDC opportunities here, but traveling to NS to study wouldn't be impossible. I'm planning to visit Halifax for a short time this spring or summer, and I would love to take in a permaculture workshop or two if I can make it work. Fingers crossed!

Thanks, Dan! I followed your link and found the "Permaculture, Sustainable Farming, and Off-Grid NS" Facebook page there - that will be a good one for me to watch. Not a whole lot going on in Newfoundland around permaculture right now, but we're picking up a lot from NS and NB. There's definitely interest here, especially as we're learning that our "oil boom" hasn't been the great thing everyone claimed it would be (surprise surprise...).

I'm planning to visit Halifax (from St. John's NL) in the late spring or summer, and I would love to plan my trip around a permaculture event if there is anything happening. I can't commit to a whole PDC at this time, but I could do a weekend of workshops. Even a lecture or a meetup would be great! Google hasn't turned up much, so I thought I'd ask here and see if any of the NS permies might know of - or be planning - any events. Outside Halifax is a possibility too if there are buses or rideshares (I don't drive). Thanks, Halifriends!