Rhododendrons; Katana

Rhododendrons; katana

I think it'd be fun to imagine a solarpunk society where most buildings come with a greenhouse, whether its attached or a separate but nearby structure, and people take great pride in their greenhouses' looks and vibe.

Like imagine personalizing your/your family's greenhouse, and visiting your friends' greenhouses. How you use it in different seasons, what you have growing in it, the spaces dedicated to hanging out.

Imagine you go to a friend's house and they have a greenhouse with green and yellow panels interspersed, light shining through the glass and onto a nice warm floor on a spring day. There's a rug and some pillows tucked into the corner with a small table, so you can sit or pull up a chair to enjoy snacks or just hang out.

You go to another friend's. Their greenhouse is dedicated to output, with dwarf citrus trees and strawberries and peppers and tomatoes and herbs growing in neat little pots on the tables. Some of them will be planted in the beds outside, some will be given to friends, some will live their whole lives within the glass walls and be perfectly happy. Sometimes your friend opens the panels, and the greenhouse comes to life with all kinds of butterflies and bees stopping by to visit.

There's a nice greenhouse by the library, which has a few fragrant herbs and tea plants growing inside, but is mostly a cozy space. A nice table and a few chairs are inside, for students who like to use the space to study or hang out together. There's one great big chair that's nestled in the perfect spot to read in the warm sunlight, or to listen to the sound of gentle rains tapping against the glass in summer. In fall and winter, they keep a healthy supply of warm hot cocoa and coffee for visitors to enjoy, but in the summer you're more likely to find fresh lemonade.

You know someone who uses their greenhouse as more of a gathering place, its perfect for parties. Plenty of tables and chairs, string lights along the walls so get-togethers can last well into the night. The various panels in pink, orange, and yellow make the room feel magical as light filters through.

Some families turn their greenhouses over to the kids quite early, and it quickly becomes a place full of toys, tiny seedlings of their favorite flowers in colorful pots, a few study books tucked away in a study corner. Or a popular hangout spot for them and their friends to post up with snacks after school.

A few couples may grow a few plants, but keep the area mostly clear--perfect for times where they just want to turn on a small radio, and slowdance with one another well into the night.

And your greenhouse? You can use it however you'd like after all, make it your own.

Reblog to make it die faster

Urban Design Concept of the Day

The 15 Minute City Concept

The 15 Minute City is the concept that everything a person needs including housing, grocery stores, restaurants, schools, clinics, parks and shopping should be within a 15 minute walk or bike ride of people's homes. This is to be accomplished by implementing mixed use zoning and greater housing density. The 15 minute city concept is promoted as areas that are 15 minute cities are shown to healthier for the people who live in them, have strong communities, and are better for the environment as walking and cycling are better for you than automobiles. The concept while frequently discussed as a goal to reach does already exist in places like Centercity Philadelphia, the Loop and Near Northside of Chicago, Manhatten and the downtown and Capitol Hill neighborhoods of Seattle as well as many European cities. It has been proposed and risen to prominence as an alternative to the current suburban model of development

I've been thinking off and on about how our modern styles of home construction are badly suited to the environment everywhere (except probably England and New England) and really rely on central air in order to be livable during various seasons. And I've been thinking about that video of the woman talking about the advantages of thatched roof construction in the heat, and the fact that native building construction in Southern Florida has been palm-thatched since before colonial contact. You'd have open lengths at the tops of the walls to let air flow through, and a raised platform inside to keep your stuff dry.

(look at this by the way it's really cool)

and I've been wondering what, besides the obvious cultural supremacy coolaide, would stop us from pivoting back to regionally appropriate home construction. Here are the concerns a person raised on suburban housing might have:

keeping out pests, such as scavengers and spiders and snakes

the labor of upkeep. Thatched roofs do have to be changed out periodically, and we have limited hours in the day to do this in a capitalist hellscape

inaccessibility of skills and knowhow. At the present time, learning how to do this properly might be difficult.

there might be some concerns about wildlife in the rafters

So we probably wouldn't want to go back to the EXACT designs of the past, but certainly this could be the blueprint in the same way that older New England houses are the blueprint for modern houses? There must be a mix of modern and traditional solutions that are more sustainable than what we have right now.

For example, say we put screening along the inside of the crossbreeze gaps to keep out mosquitos and such. We can even put netting up along the underside of the thatched roof, like they have done in India in the past. Then you get the airflow, without the pests. And that's just off the top of my head, I know that there must be more innovative solutions out there too. We'd have to come up with new ways of storing perishables and wiring electricity, but it's not at all insurmountable...

Africanews

Kenyan Maasai women turn harmful cactus species into bio-gas and food | Africanews

The Maasai women of Kenya are overcoming an environmental hazard caused by an invasive prickly pear which was introduced by colonial rulers

A group of women in central Kenya are on their way to harvest prickly pear that will be turned into biogas.

The cactus is an invasive species which is disturbing the ecosystem.

Its encroachment hinders wildlife navigation as well as reducing grazing areas. Some animals which consume the plant's fruit can suffer from digestive issues due to its small hairs.

Now a women's group in Laikipia County has transformed the problem into a new enterprise. 

We are also able to manage natural resources and that is why we are also coming with an idea of making biogas out of the cactus and also selling fruits and generate income that helps us to educate o-ur children."

The fruits from the cactus are edible if separated from their sharp spines.

The Twala women at Laikipia Permaculture therefore use all parts of the fruit, creating a range of products including jams that are then sold.

"We get the fruit from the women's group. We wash them, we grind them to separate the pearl and the seed," Serah Wangare, a juicer at Laikipia Permaculture explained.

"The seed we put them in the drier which we grind them to get the oil, the oil we give it back to the women's group which they then use to make cosmetics, the shower gel, the body lotion. And (from) the pearl we make the juice and the jam."