There’s a long list of techniques that can be used to redesign urban home sites with permaculture principles in mind. Here are just a few:
• Harvesting rainwater
• Growing food, medicine, and other useful plants
• Insulating to increase energy efficiency
• Retrofitting for passive solar heating
• Installing photovoltaic panels
• Recycling greywater
• Reducing impervious surfaces (de-paving)
…and that’s just scratching the surface.
But how many of these can we renters generally pull off? And who wants to put the kind of money and work some of these require into someone else’s property?
Without being able to utilize many of the strategies available to homeowners, what can renters (comprising over half of world population) contribute to the development of regenerative human settlements?
Plenty!
I see the many proactive solutions we can use as falling into just a few categories. Here’s my working list of seven:
1. Choose your living situation wisely.
2. Changing behaviors.
3. Work with your landlord.
4. Work around your landlord.
5. Find public or private land to steward.
6. Creating symbiotic relationships with others who are working land.
7. Get land!
Over the next several months, I’ll be writing about each of these categories, discussing what they can mean, and how you can use them. Stay tuned…
What a great site! I rent in Sydney, Australia, and have just started seriously gardening in my shady, rented backyard….and learning about permaculture. I think I’m going to be checking in here pretty frequently!
Thanks for the compliment and good luck with your gardening. Share photos if you ever get around to it!