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Wallace Estate

Peter Wallace Permaculture Design Project

Team: Michael Cook, Rachel Gibson, Tegan Perry, Jon Clifford

Our team’s project is to create a permaculture landscape design for our client Peter Wallace.

Presentation:

Peter Wallace Estate (Powerpoint 21.1 MB) Δ Peter Wallace Estate (Keynote 22 MB) Δ

The site:

Peter owns five lots on a south-sloping land just off 155^st.

The land is mostly wild grasses as well as some rows of ash and oak trees that have been planted by the state forestry. They have been around for about 5 years and have grown little because of encroaching sod and deer grazing, but many off them are still healthy and well established. The trees were not planted on contour, but the land does not ripple very much so a swale effect should still be produced when the trees grow. The small creek that flows into the pond at the bottom of the hill has been widened by erosion and back-up from the creation of the pond. Besides being a bit to exposed and swamped with vegetation (possibly a good thing) the creek looks healthy. It has a sparse to ample amount of trees lining it all the way from the edge of the pond up to the road, where the beginning of a coniferous windbreak is being established. There are also a handful of bird propagated trees lining the fence. One of the most important features on the site are the concentrated runoff channels that run from the top of the site down to the pond.

The plan:

There is both a short term and long term aspect to this project. Shortly, Peter wishes to erect a few small, three season buildings so a complementing infrastructure needs to be created to ensure ample energy, waste management, accessibility, and weather and climate protection. Energy needs will be relatively low because the home will not be in use during the winter. Passive solar design, earth tubes, solar hot water, and some photovoltaics should be enough. The waste management system will need to take all the bio-degradable waste from the home and cycle it back in to the soil or into fertilizer. We will base our design off the work of Anna Edey of Solviva. Because the placement of the house is so far into the site, we will need to construct a driveway from 155st. We, of course, are not going to put in a regular driveway, but instead some alternative form of paving such as compacted soil or permeable gratings.The focus of the long term plan with be ecological restoration, the establishment of a maintenance free sustainable food or resource crop, and community buildings for Peter and his family.