Erin's Permaculture Garden and Its Chickens 

Erin Bullock is a permaculture consultant based in San Francisco. Living adjacent to the University of San Francisco campus, her backyard is literally spilling over with verdant growth. She embraces numerous varieties of plants.

Touring the garden, chickens enthusiastically greet her at the fence. In a major urban environment, they seem a bit out of place. They demonstrate a unique side of permaculture to urban neighbors.

It is perfectly legal for residents in the city to own up to four chickens without a permit. It’s a refreshing surprise to learn our feathered friends can thrive in a city known for its lack of yard-space.

“Our two Plymouth Rock hens lay eggs everyday,” Erin says, as her cat, approaching her, stops by the fence--eye to eye with gentle curiosity.

"They eat all our snails and slugs, as well as our food scraps." Chickens are great at returning nitrogen to the soil and keeping it cultivated. In addition, they have become conversation pieces with neighbors; a young boy next door peers into the coop from a ladder placed on his side of the fence.

A landscape architect by training, she is establishing her own niche as a permaculture consultant in San Francisco. Erin began her career designing landscapes for corporate campuses. Soon disillusioned about the conventional methods used to serve its clients, she learned about alternative and sustainable practices by living on an organic blueberry farm where she grew to appreciate the agricultural community.

Erin took a permaculture immersion training at the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center, in Occidental, CA. It was there that she became mindful of the fundamental importance of permaculture to all people and how it connects all aspects of healthy communities.

She applied her training--with organics in mind--by working for a landscaper in Marin. Recently she struck out on her own with Urban Earth, a design/build landscaping business focusing specifically on permaculture designs for clients. She currently lives in a vegetarian cooperative house.

The richness of plant diversity comes into full bloom in the yard itself. Loquat and fig trees, ground cherry, raspberry, and flowers—perennials mainly—and lots of vegetables. Examples include artichokes, fava beans, Jerusalem artichokes, scarlet runner beans, oca, yacon, mashua (from the Andes in South America), Red Russian kale; a number of herbs have medicinal properties, too. Walking through the back door, she is greeted with seedlings spilling over eagerly, waiting to be transplanted.

Erin explains that permaculture is a philosophy of life that focuses on living in concert with natural systems. New to most people, it is actually firmly rooted in the ancient traditions of native peoples around the world. Though the idea of planting various species in seeming disarray goes against the grain of our sense of neatly planted rows, it can be graceful.

One can begin living this life quite simply. For example, by composting vegetable scraps, one is helping “close ecological loops” by preventing the unnecessary expenditure of fossil fuels in transporting garbage. "Composting in any form, whether you have a worm bin, chicken manure, or you're sheet-mulching with cardboard and newspaper, builds healthy soil, which is what everything green depends on," she says. By so organizing one’s garden, a natural synergy emerges; pests and disease tend to decline, and a surprising abundance of food can be grown.

Erin emphasizes that one should focus on what resources are available. In SF, plenty of these are there for the asking. For instance, businesses of all sizes offer residents free compost materials. “You can get used coffee grounds from cafes—even Starbucks.” she adds. These are great for producing rich humus.

Although the art and science of the practice requires some study, it can be easily learned by experimenting in a small plot in a community garden.

Erin is one of the few with the opportunity to witness the abundant growth of luscious avocados here in the City. Her neighbor’s established tree is chock full of them, and is happy to share. "Every San Franciscan with a backyard should have an avocado, lemon, or apple tree. Fresh-picked fruit grown locally just tastes better than stuff that has to be shipped in from Mexico or New Zealand," Erin points out.

She recently offered a workshop on urban foraging at her community garden on 7th Avenue. To her surprise, thirty people showed up at 9:00 am to participate. She plans to conduct more in the future. Harvesting seaweed along the Sonoma coast and acorns as the Native Americans once did are some ideas.

She is clearly excited about the prospects of permaculture in our urban environment. It points towards a future solution in a land challenged by the full spectrum of environmental issues we hear about in news and in movies such as An Inconvenient Truth.

Contact Erin Bullock at urbanearthgardens@yahoo.com.