What's happening?

Short answer- Building permaculture inspired vegetable gardens in a factory parking lot.  Making a film about the role of process and pattern in urban permaculture.

Long Answer.
This project consists of two major parts:

The first part concerns building the infrastructure for a sustainable garden based on permaculture principles.  The second portion is a film investigating the natural and man-made cycles of creation and decay over time in the context of the gardens' location (The Plant, Chicago) with an eye toward patterns of sustainable solutions.

Part 1.  The physical infrastructure:

     The garden is being built on portions of the large (nearly 2 acre) gravel parking lot surrounding the Peer Foods building.  The lot has seen it's fair share of truck traffic, and is primarily gravel, requiring soil barriers and raised garden beds for vegetable plots.  Some areas will be experimentally seeded with hardy plants in more integrated remediation efforts.
     While many garden beds will be built this year, this project is only a small part of a multi-year effort to build an inclusive, community centered out-door garden system in what is now the parking lot.  The knowledge and resources we gather this summer will shape the course of future developments on the site.


Part 2.

The Film:
Working Title: Solving for pattern

      By focusing on natural and man-made cycles of creation and decay in the context of the gardens, the film highlights "patterns of solution" both historical and ecological.   A pattern of solution, to borrow from Wendell Berry, is a recurring response to a wide variety of problems that minimizes the likelihood of future problems.  A pattern of solution can be anything from an optimal foraging strategy for an animal, to companion planting in a garden or a zero-waste industrial production loop.

  Since patterns of solution occur at all scales, the film has something of a fractal structure, spending similar amounts of time on the developments of the summer,the ongoing rehab of the Peer Foods building, and the history and ecology of the area as a whole. While premised on the historical and physical continuum between these phenomena, the film also draws parallels between natural and human phenomena, such as the integrated aquaculture-plant-compost/combustion system of The Plant and the original dynamics of the marshlands upon which Chicago was built (in this case the human solution mimics the natural solution).  As recurring patterns often suggest natural laws, the film shows the connection between the local and universal, embodied in particular solutions.   In this way, we invite viewers to re-consider their relationship with their own physical surroundings.

A note:
While the film itself is intended to showcase "patterns of solutions", we'll also be taking a more didactic route over the summer.  We'll be updating our blog with instructional videos, short films, and helpful hands-on content.   We'd like this to form the basis of a community exchange of ideas, instructables, photos and films chronicling user generated permaculture solutions. Everyone is better off when we can compare and contrast our experiments!  (This part of the project will continue after the original film is finished).

Seed Capitol:

Garden Needs:

Topsoil+organic fertilizer:  The phrase "dirt cheap" is something of misnomer.   Replacing gravel and asphalt with clean soil and mulch can cost up to 2000$ per 20x60ft bed.

Tools, transportation, seeds, and supplies:
 
Tools include additional rakes and shovels, and irrigation. We will also be setting up our own soil testing kit,
to be shared with neighbors and others.
Transportaion: Most of our transit is human powered but, it's rather difficult to carry a cubic yard of mulch on a bike, and gas is expensive.  We plan to order some bike trailers and other equipment from WestTown bikes as well.

Specialized labor:  Adam Smith didn't start The Wealth of Nations with "of the Division of Labor" for nothing:   We have plenty of volunteers, but we're still waiting on a good volunteer-run soil test, or a volunteer with a CDL and a semi (to name but two specializations). Turns out we can't substitute blood, sweat, and tears for professional qualifications.

Film Needs:

Shared production facilities and equipment:  We'll be sharing production space, resources and skills with several other film-makers to keep costs down, but we still have to pay to keep the Klieg lights on.

-Should we not meet our funding goal, funds are prioritized in the order listed:  Soil, seeds, tools, transit, film.  Soil, obviously, is the most important.  If we exceed our goal, extra funds will go towards further beds.  (And if we really exceed our goal, we'll be able to invest in Hoop Houses next year).

Why this is important.

  If you're reading this page, chances are you already have some ideas as to why this is worthwhile.  Perhaps you're concerned about food deserts and access to healthy, local foods.  Perhaps you're interested in urban re-use, or green design, or hands-on education. Perhaps you'd like to experiment with some of these ideas yourself, but aren't quite sure how.  Well then...


If not Now, When? 

Why is it important to start now?  Ecosystems (and we treat gardens and urban habitats as ecosystems) take a while to become established and stable.  The process of building up rich soil (really a robust community of micro-organisms) takes several years, and, if we're lucky enough to replicate the natural stages of environmental succession, we'll be looking at a couple of years to develop a mature permaculture ecosystem.  While so much of our culture is driven by instant gratification (fast food, for example), one can't rush nature, though we can participate and learn from it.  That said, it's all the more important to start now, and start right.

What you can do.

1.  Click the button and donate.

2.  Spread the word.  Tell your friends.  Link to us on facebook, twitter, or your blog.  (Use the widgets).  Share the video.  Come visit.

3.  Suggest ideas.  Have some schemes?  Why not share.  You can try the comments section on our blog, or email us at haymarketgardens@gmail.com.  Better yet, why not come visit, and try out an idea!  We've got plenty of space.

4. Volunteer.  We're generally around The Plant Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.  Come and hang out with us!  Email if you're interested.

5.  In-kind donations.  We'll occasionally be posting specific needs to this page and our  blog.  If you have materials that are not listed, but think we could use, please email us

Check out the perks, and see if there's something you dig.  Please note this may be added to in the coming weeks.

Bonus Points:
Can you figure out the relationship between the labels for the perks?  Here's a tip:  Shout out to Heny Chandler Cowles, University of Chicago ecologist.

Who's doing this?

Many people! (Including, hopefully, you, dear reader), The gardens are part of a larger effort at The Plant Chicago, turning an old meat-packing factory into a sustainable vertical farm and business incubator.  Volunteers at the Plant have been moving rubble and clearing space for beds for a couple of months now.


The project is being coordinated by Tim Sparer,  Dan Scotti, and Justin Niven,  all of whom have been volunteering at the plant for some time.  Read more about us below.


Dan Scotti-Dan is an accomplished film-maker, artist and musician, whose work can be seen here (http://www.vimeo.com/anticdots) .  Dan concentrated in Cinematography and Documentary film-making at Columbia College.  Dan brings an artistic eye to technical problems, scientific explanation, and ecological observation.

Tim Sparer-  elementary school tutor by day, computer-science student by night-  spent the last several summers at a small Quaker farm and summer-camp in Pennsylvania; He's having a lot of fun applying sustainable principles he learned on the farm to urban ecosystems. 

Justin Niven- Currently a foreman at Complete Professional Cleaning, a demolition company, Justin still finds time for plants and social justice. In another life, Justin studied music business- seeing the way that industry was headed, he became very interested in the open-source movement and local economics.