Growing Season Extension for Permaculture; Gardening Guidebook for Toronto, Ontario, Canada

8/9/2019 Growing Season Extension for Permaculture; Gardening Guidebook for Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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Growing Season

Extension forPermaculture in the GTA

Request for Proposal

February, 2012


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Abstract The purpose of this RFP is to request an engineering solution to extend the practical season of

growth for permaculture practitioners in the GTA. This solution will be tailored to work in a new

community garden being run by a permaculture organization The Permaculture Project GTA

(TPPGTA).Permaculture is a growing trend in the GTA and throughout the GTA. [3] Permaculture

practitioners are an urban community that share a common goal of decreasing their dependence

on commercialism by living a self-sustainable lifestyle. Because of this goal, a large part of

permaculture lies in the fact that they choose to grow much of their food in an urban

environment to decrease dependence on the market. [5] [6]However, during the winter season,

they face the same problem as all urban farmers that physical barriers greatly reduce their

ability to grow food. Thus, during the winter season, permaculture practitioners lose the ability

of agricultural self-dependence – a vital part of their lifestyle.

An engineering solution to overcome natural barriers and extend the season that

permaculture practitioners are able to grow is required. Cost and sustainability will be theprimary requirements for the solution because of the community‘s focus on a sustainable

lifestyle and financial limitations.

The solution is to be designed specifically for a new community garden that is a current

project of TPPGTA. This restriction will allow a solution to be attainable by first year

engineering students. Furthermore, this location will be a hub accessible to all permaculture

practitioners in the GTA. [5] [6] It is the goal of TPPGTA to use this garden as a model garden and

if a sustainable and cost-effective solution to extend the growing season is made here, it may be

implemented in similar gardens elsewhere.

Because of the close affiliation with TPPGTA, they will be an integral stakeholder for the

development of a solution. The City of Toronto, Health Groups, and Environmental groups will

also be concerned with aspects of the solution.


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Overview of Structure

1 Introduction

2 Current Situation

2.1 Community

2.1.1 Explanation of Community

2.1.2 Location

2.2 Need

2.2.1 Justification of Need

2.2.2 Physical Barriers

2.2.3 Engineering Problem

3 Stakeholders

3.1 City of Toronto

3.2 Health Groups

3.3 The Permaculture Project GTA (TPPGTA)

3.4 Permaculture Practitioners

3.5 Environmental Groups

3.6 Residents

4 Prior Attempts and Reference Designs

4.1 Cold Frames

4.2 Indoor with LED

4.3 Green House

5 Requirements

5.1 Objectives

5.2 Criteria and Metrics

5.3 Constraints

Appendix A Definitions

Appendix B Discussion of References and Biases

Appendix C Discussion of Process


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1.0 IntroductionIn recent years, interest in permaculture and the practice of permaculture itself is

becoming increasingly popular in the GTA. However, agricultural aspects of the practice of

permaculture are difficult during Toronto's harsh winter season. This RFP requests an

engineering solution to extend the growing season for permaculture in the GTA.This document will introduce permaculture practitioners as a community, provide

background information about them, and then describe specific location at which this solution

will be targeted. This document will also provide a precise definition of the community‘s specific

need with an explanation of the barriers preventing agriculture in the winter.

Imposed criteria and constraints for potential solutions, key stakeholders, and an

overview of current technologies that extend growth season are also included.

2.0 Current situationThis section will provide background information on permaculture practitioners and

TPPGTA's new community garden. It will also explain and justify the choice of season extension

as a need of this community.

2.1.0 Community

2.1.1 Explanation of Community

Urban agriculture, defined as the practice of cultivating, processing and distributing food

in (or around) a village, town or city [1], has a growing trend in Ontario. From 2001 to 2006,

urban farm population in Ontario has increased from 5,180 to 7,165 with a percentage increase

of 38.3%.[3] Urban agriculture can sustainably improve people‘s quality of life as it solves social

and environmental problems including food desert, city organic waste and it also provides

healthy food to local communities. [25] Permaculture (or permanent agriculture), in particular, is

an agriculture system that is intended to be sustainable and self-sufficient. [8] Permaculture aims

to minimize the amount of work and resources being input to produce self-sufficient output. It is

a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature. [6]

With respect to City of Toronto, a big group that needs to be mentioned is TPPGTA (The

Permaculture Project in GTA), which is a hub that unites permaculture practitioners in Toronto.

Permaculture practitioners are characterized as people who study and learn about permaculture

and consciously use permaculture to live in a more sustainable way. [21]However, according to

Toyin Coker, the founder and director of TPPGTA, ―permaculture, at this stage, is onlysupported by volunteer-organized groups, and it barely receives any support from the City of

Toronto‖. [4] Although permaculture is a rising group, it still needs support from both the

government and our local communities to evoke people‘s awareness for further development. As

a consequence, this RFP will be targeting on the permaculture practitioners in City of Toronto

with a focus on a anew community garden in GTA as a specific instance explained below.


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2.1.2. Location

The requested solution is aimed towards a specific location. This location was chosen as

TPPGTA ‘s new Community Garden (See 3.3 for a description of TPPGTA). This is a garden that

TPPGTA has developed blue prints for and hopes to establish in the coming future. The choice to

select this garden as a specific location is due to some convenient reasons. First of all, since it

has not been designed yet, it is subject to change [5] and the constraints are not very restrictive

for solution designers. Secondly, since TPPGTA has goals to expand permaculture [Section 3.3

or 2.1.1.], this garden is to act as a ‗hub‘ and network linking the community of permaculture

practitioners together. Furthermore, Urban Growers preformed a survey signifying that most

urban farmers use community gardens. [30] This survey holds for permaculture practitioners as

they are also urban farmers. Furthermore, due to a lack of sufficient funding, there is a lack of

statistics solely on permaculture practitioners. So, even representative groups like TPPGTA rely

on general urban agricultural statistics. [5]

Therefore, the whole community in Toronto can betargeted using this specific location as our sole target for a solution. Lastly, many of the physical

barriers [Section 2.2.1.] are dependent on location. Specifying a certain location will make it

easier for designers to tackle a specific issue(s)/barrier(s).

This garden is located at 160 Bartley Rd. North York. It is around residential area and

―back into Toronto Parks land and about 100 Yards away are hydro lines‖ . [4] TPPGTA can be

contacted to gain blue prints further, in depth detail for the location. This detail was to be

provided February 22, 2012 and could not be gained before submission date of this request for

proposal. The garden will start off with a rooftop garden but, after soil testing, gardens on the

ground will also be opened. Toyin, choosing this location, said that there is a lot of room andpotential on ground to be used in the coming future.

2.2.0 Need

2.2.1 Justification of Need

While the permaculture community in the GTA has many needs, we have focused on the

need to extend the growing season for permaculture practitioners in the GTA. This is because

this need is fully legitimate and is fully attainable by first year engineering science students.

We chose to focus on this need rather than water related needs (which was our original

focus) because of new information gained through additional research and a meeting with ToyinCocker from TPPGTA and a visit to Sky Garden, a vegetable garden located on top of Galbraith

building at U of T. Water related needs were not of primary concern to the TPPGTA and water

irrigation and transportation were not an issue at all with sky garden. [5][18]

The list of needs we identified comes from a study identifying issues urban farmers face

in the GTA. [31] While this study was done on the more general community urban farmers rather

than permaculture practitioners, Toyin Coker of TPPGTA confirmed that many permaculture


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practitioners took place in the surveys conducted and that the statistics were relevant to the

permaculture community.

The criteria with which we judged the needs were based on the ability of the need to be

solved credibly by first year engineering students and the reality of the need to the community in

question. One iteration of our decision making process is provided in Table 1.0 as a Pugh chart.

A scoping process is also provided in Appendix C. It is clear from Table 1.0 that season extension

had the best relative score compared to other options. This was confirmed through further

iterations.

Toyin Coker was able to identify season extension as a legitimate need of the

permaculture community and one that will be important in their new community garden. [5] It

was also the only problem other than cost of equipment that Sky Garden faced. [18] While Sky

Garden is not part of the permaculture community; they face many of the same challenges

related to growing.

Another reason season extension is of significant importance to the permaculture

community is because they wish to design agricultural systems that are sustainable and are

modeled on the relationships found in natural ecology. [6] During the winter season, the

permaculture community is not able to agriculturally sustain itself and must increase its

dependence on commercial food, thus not practicing permaculture. [5] Because of this, season

extension is a need of the permaculture community by definition.

TPPGTA also actively promotes knowledge and education about permaculture. [6] During

winter, however, they have difficulty doing this because of lack of actual agriculture to show. A

solution that increases the growing season would benefit the TPPGTA and the permaculture

community by allowing access to a gardening site for more of the year.

A solution that increases the growing season will improve the quality of life of the

permaculture community by allowing them access to their sustainable lifestyle for more of the

year.

Table 1.0: Selection of Genuine a Need

SelectionCriteria

Needs

WaterRelated

KnowledgeSharing

Availabilityof Land

Power/Light

Spreading ofPermaculture

SeasonExtension

Feasibility as an

EngineeringProblem

0 - - + - +

Accessibility ofStakeholders

0 0 0 0 0 0

Reliability ofSources

0 - 0 0 0 +

Stakeholderinterest

0 + + - + +

Urgency of Need 0 + + - + +


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Allowance fordivergentsolutions

0 - - 0 + +

Ability for asolution to bemade by first

year engineers

0 - - 0 - +

2.2.2 Physical Barriers

The effective growing season for Toronto urban farmers generally ranges from May to

October, and this very much limits their productivity. [18]

The most direct reason that plants cannot grow in winter is temperature. According to a

study done by F. W. Went in 1953, [12] the optimal temperature for growth of most plants lie at or

above 25 0C and any temperature below 0 0C will cause serious damages to and even, kill the

plants. Although this cold tolerance differs from species to species, 00C is the minimum possible

temperature for germination among the plants being studied. [12] Plants generally cannot grow below this temperature because ice crystals may form inside plant cells and prevent the plants

from regular metabolism. Also, this low temperature will affect the plants‘ enzyme activities as

well as the fluidity of their cellular membranes. [26] However, the average minimum temperature

in Toronto is below zero from December to March. [2] With the consideration that data are

collected from the most cold-tolerant species, these researches generally agrees with the

situation at Sky Garden: majority of plants can only be growing within the 6 months duration,

from May to September.

With regard to the particular community garden that we have chosen, another important

factor that limits the duration of growing season is the wind. The community garden is south-

facing and very exposed to wind. [4] Wind can cause damages to plants both mechanically and

biologically. Mechanical effects include uprooting, leaf tearing, and stem breaking. [19] Biological

effect, according to an experiment done by F. H. Whitehead, [11] will resist the growth of the

leaves and cause lethal desiccation (loss of water) of the plants. Some other causes for the short

growing season include low light intensity and debris as Toyin mentioned in the interview. [4][5]

2.2.3 Problem Framed as an Engineering Problem

The need to increase the growing season for permaculture in the GTA is inherently an

engineering problem because the solution is in the form of a physical entity that must be

designed to solve to problem while keeping several criteria and constraints in mind. This is inaccordance with our definition of engineering design (see appendix A).

A solution to this problem is attainable to first year engineering students primarily

because of its allowance for divergent solutions. A few examples of season extension

technologies include choice of crops, simple covers, low tunnels [31] cold frames, LED glow lights,

and greenhouses (see Section 4). Many of these previous solutions are simple conceptually and

aspects of them may be combined to tailor a solution that will work for our given community

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and location.

The Metcalf study on urban growing says with respect to innovation in season extension

technology ―creative thinking will necessitate innovation by many different actors, particularly

in universities‖. [31]

3.0 StakeholdersThis section will give a description of each major stakeholder involved with a solution to

the lengthening of the urban growing season for permaculture practitioners. It will also explain

how each stakeholder relates to the permaculture community and for what purpose they should

be contacted with respect to the solution. This will act as a system model for the permaculture

community in the GTA. A summary of this section is presented in figure 1.0.

3.1 City of Toronto

The City of Toronto‘s primary concern with urban agriculture is whether it conforms to

the zoning laws specified by the city. However, this factor does not need to be considered for our

purposes since the location has already been labeled as a community garden. The building of the

community garden will already have taken into account the by-laws, and so any solution for

agricultural basis will obey the law. If the solution has any component which extends further

than the land issued for the community garden, then as precaution, the by-laws of the city

should be re-visited to determine if solution is acceptable. Toronto has also identified serious

food concerns that require them to look for food sources closer to home. [34] The city will benefit

from an example of the implementation of season extension technology. As the technology‘s

development was a part of the action plan recommended to the city by the Toronto Food Policy

Council due to lack of food sources in the city. [13]

3.2 Health Groups

Health groups like Toronto Public health enforce bylaws and regulations that any

solution should also take into consideration. These groups will provide an outline that designers

must take into consideration regarding what sort of systems they can allow for in their solution.

Primarily, the solution must conform to safety regulations and the food must be handled

accordingly. Many of the basic restrictions for food can be found through Toronto Public Health

or Canadian Acts concerning agriculture. [35] [15] It is highly critical this information is given

attention when designing solutions. A lack of adherence to the code will not allow the solution to

be legally viable to implement.

3.3 The Permaculture Project of GTA (TPPGTA)

This group aims to create a hub where knowledge and tools concerning permaculture can

be shared by the community of practitioners in Toronto. [5] TPPGTA, while a specific instance of

representative groups of permaculture practitioners, will have a fairly large involvement in

designing the solution. This is because the location at which the solution is to be implemented is

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a a community garden being built by TPPGTA. Therefore, as the garden is a TPPGTA project,

many of the requirements and factors to take into consideration will be defined by this

stakeholder. The designers should contact this stakeholder to gain specific information

concerning the location and the community garden project from this group. They also hold

valuable information on the current season extension technology present in Toronto urban

gardens.

3.4 Permaculture Practitioners

The practitioners who grow food will be the primary users of the season extension

technology. Their need is being addressed and therefore it is important that designers work

alongside this stakeholder. Their needs and the consequential criteria can be found in section

2.0 and section 5.0 respectively. Previously, TPPGTA was mentioned as a stakeholder due to

their ownership of the specified location. However, TPPGTA is a specific instance that falls

within this category as well since they themselves practice permaculture. [5] Therefore, as

primary users and a representative group, designers can choose to simply work with this groupto get input from both stakeholder categories.

3.5 Environmental Groups

Environmental groups in Toronto are aiming to improve the quality of urban agriculture in the

city; a specific example is Metcalf. [31] These groups encourage season extension technology to

encourage environmental initiative year-round. Therefore, the affiliation of these groups to

urban agriculture requires that designers consider the environmental impact of their solution.

This will help permaculture practitioners as environmental groups will continue to promote

their cause.

3.6 Residents

Toyin Coker, the founder of TPPGTA and head of the community garden project

confirmed that the community garden will be around a residential area. [5] Therefore, solution

designs should take the well-being, safety, and acceptance of the residents into mind. Mainly,

consider how your design will affect them daily (ex. any smell, any noise). [5] Refer to Section

2.1.2. for the location of the garden.

4.0 Prior Attempts and Reference DesignsThis section will explain current solutions to the issue of season extension for urban

farmers. The inadequacy of these designs with respect to our community's criteria and

constraints will also be addressed. Our reference designs are cold frames, indoor growing with

LED technology, and greenhouses.


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Figure 1.0: System Model of Permaculture in the GTAThe figure shows the connections between the stakeholders and the permaculture

practitioner community.

LegendCommunity Community‘s effect to Stakeholders

Stakeholders Considerations on design due to stakeholder

Permaculture

Practitioners

Health Groups

TPPGTA

City of Toronto

Residents

Environmental

Groups

Must follow Health

Regulations; Food

safety

Must follow

Law, by-laws

Restrictions onDesign; Cannot

disturb

residents

Sustain and do

not harm the

environment

Solution is

sustainable and

not harmful to

environment

Provide organic,

healthy food.

Help with

Local Food

Crisis.

Healthy

community,

self-sufficiency

Part of their

Initiatives

Healthier,

cleaner

environment


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4.1 Cold Frames

Cold frames are very common in cool temperature areas. In fact, Sky Garden, a rooftop

garden on top of Galbraith at the University of Toronto is currently attempting the use of cold

frames. [18] Pictures of their cold frames are attached below in figure 2.0 and solution designers

can contact Sky Garden for further understanding of this reference design if required. The

primary focus of cold frames is to protect plants from frost. The cold frame is limited to

increasing the temperature by 10-20 0C. ―A cold frame is a box-like structure with a transparent

lid that rests directly on soil‖. [37] The transparent lid allows for light to reach the plants and for

certain plants, cold frames can last the whole winter. [37]

Cold frames are effective for cool season vegetables but are not able to grow some of the warmer

season plants. Sky Garden explained in their meeting with us, as well as in an interview by

Torontoist, ―It‘s still cool in there, so you can‘t grow tomatoes or peppers‖. [14] [18] Keeping in

mind the community in question, permaculture‘s policy is to become self-sufficient. Therefore

objective one (1) [Section 5.1] cannot be accomplished if basic fruits like tomatoes and pepperscannot be grown. This is the primary problem with cold frames which make them an

unreasonable solution to the needs of the permaculture practitioners. Another factor that Toyin

discussed was the cost problem with cold frames. The cost for an average lumber cold frame is

not expensive, however, Toyin explained, ―... and with communities often concerned with the

aesthetic value of things, cedar is often used and [very] pricey.‖ [4] The average construction cost

of a wooden cold frame is approx. $900 for a 544 ft2 as stated by Cooperation Extension Services

of New Mexico State University. [29] This cost is without taking into consideration the added

cedar wood value.

Figure 2.0: Cold Frame on Galbraith Rooftop


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4.2 LED Grow Light

An alternative way to cope with the season extension problem is to grow plants indoors

with the technology of LED Grow Lights. LED Grow Light is a type of electrically powered,

artificial light that enables plants to undergo photosynthesis in an indoor environment lacking

of natural sunlight. [7] LED grow light is optimized to provide a light that matches the peak

absorption wavelengths needed for healthy growth. [22] This enables it to be efficient in terms of

energy and electricity consumptions. A typical LED Grow Light Panel only consumes 10W-40W.[20]

However, this is a very recent technology and many researches are ongoing about this

technology in laboratories. [28] It is generally not accessible to our commercial urban farmers in

Toronto. Another problem with the LED Grow Light technology is the choice of wavelength. [36]

As it is shown from experiments, depending on the type of plants and the stage through its life

cycle, a plant may require light with different wavelength. This will cause an economical

problem as the user has to replace LED Grow Light with different models when he/she grows

different plants or plants with different stages. Moreover, it is expensive to build a room just togrow plants indoors, especially in the situation of City of Toronto. Although LED Grow Light is

an energy-efficient way to produce plants indoors, [18] and it solves the season extension

problem, its high cost in terms of modularity and land usage makes it not suitable for our

targeting community ---- a pure volunteer-organized group.

4.3 Greenhouse

One of the most common ways to extend seasons is to build a greenhouse. A greenhouse

is a transparent glass or plastic structure that is able to control temperature and humidity to

protect plants from the unsuitable weather outside. [27] Greenhouse works mainly by the varying

transparencies of its walls. It starts with heat-carrying sunlight enters the greenhouse and

internal soil, air and plants absorb some of the radiation energy and reflect lights with a greater

wavelength. The reflected long-wavelength light, however, cannot be transmitted out through

the wall and is trapped inside. [24] This circulation process will continue and heat up the internal

of the greenhouse. In general, greenhouse allows different types of plants to be grown in

different time periods of a year.

However, a big obstacle with regard to the greenhouse solution is cost. The greenhouse

structure itself costs about $300 per square meter of floor area. [17] For a small garden that can

feed 10 people, this will cost $20,000 just for installation. This, apparently, is not suitable for

our pure volunteer-organized targeting community. Moreover, depending on the location and

material chosen, more money and efforts are needed to perform regular maintenance and

cleaning jobs. [10]


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5.0 RequirementsThis section will identify and develop engineering requirements for solutions to the need

of the permaculture community. Criteria, Metrics, and where applicable, Constraints will be

established.

5.1 Objectives:

High-level objectives:

1. To allow Permaculture practitioners to continue their initiatives past the natural growing

season

2. To extend the growing season using technology cheaper than their current technology for

season extension

3. To accomplish objective 1 by developing a solution specific for the TPPGTA community

garden which acts as a hub for permaculture practitioners

Objective number 3 still helps the whole community of permaculture practitioners since the

location specified sets examples from the community and acts like a hub. For more details on

why this specific location is chosen to help the community, refer to Section 2.1.2.

Detailed Objectives:

1. To Understand the specified location and its constraints on your solution

a. What it provides for permaculture practitioners (ex. Rooftop Garden,...)

b. Which technology can be reasonably implemented in the garden

c. Refer to Section 2.1.2.

2. Choose one (1) or more (1+) causes for limited growing season (ex. temperature, wind)

a. Refer to section 2.2.1 for some critical barriers

b. If designers wish, other (not mentioned) barriers can be chosen

To develop a sustainable solution that accounts for the barriers selected and does not

contain the constraints noted in the reference designs with current solutions.

To make the solution in accordance with bylaws and health regulations

5.2.1. Criteria: Cost

Permaculture practitioners are a minority as are any general urban rooftop farmers. [18] [5]

Toyin stated, ―Not too many can get any support from the government to do actual

Permaculture which is something we are all working on‖. [4] Apart from that, they are a non-

profit, volunteer organization. Therefore, as TPPGTA design their community garden, they must

be very careful with the financial cost and use their resources wisely. Due to this factor, the


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designers have to consider the solution from an economic standpoint. The cost has to be

minimal for the solution; some of the conflicts with the references designs mentioned are cost as

well.

The cost is ideally expected to be minimal and less than the cost of a similar solution that

produces the same return (5.2.3) (concept of return vs. cost is discussed in the next paragraph).

Designers should refer to the reference design section to gain an approximate cost of the various

forms of solutions. The solution, however, may vary from the forms of reference design

solutions, which stresses the importance of other objectives. The designer must assess how well

the other objectives are accomplished compared to the cost. This relationship can then be

compared with the reference designs and then the designer may make the judgement if the

solution really is viable.

In terms of the criteria, the cost restrictions will vary depending on the type of solutions

and the fulfillment of criteria [5.2.3]. There is a connection with the cost and the return criteria

because designers have to try to achieve the greatest return with minimal cost. There has to be

balance between these two criteria. As a basic example, consider the situation where solution A

allows growth of 12 plant species and costs $1200 while solution B costs $800 but allows the

growth of only 7 plant species. The designers will have to contact the stakeholders (TPPGTA

primarily) and use their judgement to decide what is the better trade-off. For a general rule,

considering the policy of permaculture for self-sufficiency, if there is reasonable fluctuation

within the cost, then optimal return is preferred; once again, designers are encouraged to

contact stakeholders for their specific situations.

5.2.2. Criteria: Length of Season Extension

An important criterion with regard to our targeting problem is how long the season is

extended. The length of time period extended directly determines what types of food can begrown and amount of return being yield. For instance, the LED Grow Light design (section 4.3)

is able to extend the growing season to the whole winter as it grows plants inside and is

independent on the outside temperature. The cold frame (section 4.1), however, extends the

season depending on its material and size. [37]

Solutions with regard to this criterion will be judged how long the design is able to

extend the growing season in terms of weeks. Solutions that have longer growing seasons are

preferred as they better accomplish objectives of our targeting community.

5.2.3 Criteria: Return

In terms of return as a constraint, there are two distinct categories: amount of produce

made available by the solution and number of species that may be grown in the extended season.

Amount of produce made available by the solution will be measured in mass of produce

per area of garden space and a good solution will provide more. We do not constrain this to be

strictly better than current solutions because a cost difference may justify a lower yield. This is

an important criterion because a garden that can produce a sustainable food source is an


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integral part of permaculture. [6] A high value here will allow the food source to affect a larger

part of the community.

A greater variety of species made available by the solution is preferable. As it is the goal

of permaculture practitioners to become self-sufficient, a solution that allows them to grow

enough species to fulfil a larger part of their diet is of great importance. While visiting Sky

Garden, they expressed discontentment with the fact that the cold frames they had could only

grow a very limited variety of crops. [18]

5.3.1. Constraint: Laws and Regulations

The solution designed must conform to the bylaws and regulations of the city so their

solutions are viable and legal to be implemented. The stakeholders involved with by laws can be

found in Section 3.0 (Mainly 3.1 & 3.2). Firstly, the City of Toronto bylaws have recently been

tailored for certain expansion of urban agriculture. Policy 3.39 under Natural Environment and

Energy reads supports rooftop and community garden initiatives. [32] However, if the final

solution is to be implemented on the rooftop then it must also comply to the Code outlined inChapter 492 in the Municipal Code legal document. [33] The code mentions fire safety, wind

uplift, and water proofing which are all important factors that designs should consider.

In terms of regulations, food and safety regulations are the primary concern. Under the

Canada Agriculture Product Act, there are certain regulations that will have to be noted for the

sake of design. The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Regulations outline the conditions for food to

labeled safe in terms of health. [15] Designers have to make sure that any solution does not

surpass any restrictions outlined by such regulations. This is a very general regulation on food,

however, designers must also to look towards other regulations acts depending on their specific

solution since all of them cannot be accounted for in this Request for Proposal (ex. if it involves

the transport of water).

5.3.2 Constraint: Sustainability

Because sustainability is a central part of the permaculture model (see appendix A), a

sustainable solution is vital for a project so closely engaged with this community. The way the

TPPGTA currently accomplishes a sustainable lifestyle is by modelling their designs after

relationships found in natural systems. [6] They also state as a goal to train individuals to ―build

increasingly self-sufficient human settlements — ones that reduce society's reliance on industrial

systems of production and distribution that Mollison identified as fundamentally and

systematically destroying Earth's ecosystems.‖ As such, a design that accomplishes self-

sufficiency by reducing the community's reliance on industrial systems is a requirement. This

will address social and environmental sustainability.

In ―Developing Indicators of Urban Sustainability: a Focus on the Canadian Experience‖,

Several measurable factors for sustainable design are identified. The most important for this

project in terms of the design itself will be dependence on grid power and water (a decrease),

and the use of replenish able materials. Other identified factors for Urban Sustainability are not

relevant to season extension in a community garden. [5]


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As described in section 5.1.2, cost is a limiting factor for this community. Therefore this

design must not have long term maintenance. This is justified because current solutions (such as

cold frames) do not have long term maintenance costs.

One specific instance of a sustainability constraint that TPPGTA mentioned was that

treated wood could not be used. [5] Because the problem of season extension allows for divergent

solutions (see section 2.2.3), it would be unfeasible to place materials related constraints for

sustainability. The specific constraint will be that TPPGTA must approve any design to ensure

that it conforms with their sustainability requirements.


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Appendix

A. Definitions

These are the definitions we are using for important keywords throughout this document.

Community

A group of individuals who share common interests and work towards a common goal.

It should be noted that despite that fact that we focus on TPPGTA's new community

garden as a site of implementation for a solution to our community's need, permaculture

practitioners remain our community. This is justified by the fact that this is a community garden

that will be available to all permaculture practitioners in the GTA and the fact that it will serve

as a model garden for future permaculture establishments. [5]

Permaculture

Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems

that are modeled on the relationships found in natural ecologies. Permaculture is sustainable

land use design. This is based on ecological and biological principles, often using patterns that

occur in nature to maximise effect and minimise work. Permaculture aims to create stable,

productive systems that provide for human needs, harmoniously integrating the land with its

inhabitants. [6]

Permaculture is also very concerned with the environmental and social sustainability of

every aspect of their lives. Part of how they accomplish this sustainability is growing their own

food in an urban environment, thus decreasing their dependence on the market.

This is very distinct from urban agriculture, a general term for agriculture within an

urban setting. The gardening part of permaculture, however, may be looked at as a subset of

urban agriculture.

Engineering Design

Engineering Design is an iterative and reflective process which aids engineers to solve

problems and develop solutions. This is based off of accepted definitions ad concepts described

in ―Engineering design: a systematic approach‖. [16]

SustainabilitySustainability has four key aspects: social, economic, political, and economical.

For each, sustainability is the capability of continued with minimal long term and

continual effect on the given aspect.

For our given need and community, sustainability is of extra importance because it is the

basis of their lifestyle. Sustainable design to them is the ability of a community to be self-


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sufficient agriculturally. In other words, to reduce the community's reliance on systems of

production and distribution that are destroying Earth's ecosystems. [6]

Need

The necessity to accomplish the common goal of a given community. A community is in need if

there is something preventing them from attaining their common goal. This is the same

definition as used in our topic précis.

Quality of Life

The definition we use for quality of life is ―personal satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) with

the cultural or intellectual conditions under which you live (as distinct from material comfort)‖.

[9]

This is particularly relevant to our community of permaculture because a key part of

permaculture is to change the cultural conditions in which they live in order to increase personal

satisfaction. [6]

Permaculture

Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems

that are modeled on the relationships found in natural ecologies. Permaculture is sustainable

land use design. This is based on ecological and biological principles, often using patterns that

occur in nature to maximise effect and minimise work. Permaculture aims to create stable,

productive systems that provide for human needs, harmoniously integrating the land with its

inhabitants. [6]

Permaculture is also very concerned with the environmental and social sustainability of

every aspect of their lives. Part of how they accomplish this sustainability is growing their own

food in an urban environment, thus decreasing their dependence on the market.

This is very distinct from urban agriculture, a general term for agriculture within an

urban setting. The gardening part of permaculture, however, may be looked at as a subset of

urban agriculture.

B. Discussion of References (& Biases)

This section will serve to identify and contextualize any biases of the main sources used in this

Request for Proposal.

TPPGTA (Toyin Coker)

Toyin Coker was a primary source for information for the creation of this request for

proposal. Toyin is a permaculture practitioner as well as an advocator for permaculture. This

source is a reliable source for a number of reasons. Firstly, they have personal involvement and

the most recent information for the community of permaculture practitioner. Secondly, since


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they are the leaders of the community garden project, they also were the only source for

information on the location. Since their involvement in permaculture enables them to get

firsthand experience, they could also represent the community of permaculture practitioners

and grant reliable knowledge on their needs. This source was critical for the scoping of the needs

since there is very little data on permaculture separately. Therefore, Toyin provided the

evidences for why one need was more crucial than another; this helped to erase stereotypical

assumption concerning urban agriculture.

Even though a large amount of information was gained from this source, their bias for the

promotion of permaculture did not affect the credibility of information. This was because both

the needs and community were not represented falsely since TPPGTA is non-profit, volunteer

organization working alongside the community.[5] Since there goal is not to gain self-profit, even

a large amount of information was not tainted by bias or self-interest.

Metcalf Foundation

Metcalf is a foundation that encourages environmental initiative and promotes urban

agriculture. The specific report ―Scaling up Urban Agriculture in Toronto Building the

Infrastructure‖ was used throughout this request for proposal in a variety of section. It was

mainly used to provide data on urban agriculture. The data is certainly not specific for

permaculture practitioners since permaculture is much more than urban agriculture. However,

the conflicts and challenges faced in urban agriculture are the same as the ones permaculture

practitioners face. This is due to two main points. Firstly, while the causes are different, the

method of urban farming in Toronto is more or less the same unless the location differs. [5]

Secondly, Toyin Coker from TPPGTA confirmed the credibility of Metcalf for the use of

permaculture data as she said she herself knew permaculture practitioners who participated in

the study. [5]

Furthermore, Toyin explained that the statistics and data specific for permacultureare not present at the moment due to no support from the government. Thus, they relay their

information and data through foundations like Metcalf Food Solutions which encourage their

activities.

Sky Garden (Heather Wray)

Sky Garden was a rooftop garden established in the University of Toronto on top of the

Galbraith Building. This was a garden that the praxis team personally visited, photographed,

and studied. The host for this visit was Heather Wray, a mind behind Sky Garden, who gave us

valuable information. They also have a fair amount of publicity over the internet, reported in

varies articles. Sky Garden is not permaculture however. Yet, their information on the currentstatus of urban agriculture in the city and rooftop gardens is judged credible. Once again, for

similar reasons as the Metcalf Foundation source, their data can be used for our purpose

because rooftop permaculture practitioners also face the same challenges and conflicts as any

other rooftop gardeners in Toronto. Therefore, their information is reliable and can be used for

solution development without hesitation.


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C. Notes on Process

We have demonstrated engineering design in the writing of this RFP by using systematic

methods of scoping (scoping diagram as seen in figure 2.0), decision making (based off of

relative scores represented in a Pugh chart), framing (Based off of requirements given by key

stakeholders), and pivoting (rationally decided based off of information from stakeholders and

research).

Contact Info for Key Primary Sources:

Sky Garden (Heather Wray):

[email protected]

http://uas.sa.utoronto.ca/

TPPGTA (Toyin Coker):

TPPGTA Home Base:

12 Lyndale Drive

Toronto, OntarioEmail: [email protected]

http://www.thepermacultureprojectgta.com

Engineering Design Process:

The followings are diagrams representing key decisions made in the process of creation of this

report.

Figure 2.0: Scoping the Community

http://uas.sa.utoronto.ca/http://uas.sa.utoronto.ca/http://www.thepermacultureprojectgta.com/http://www.thepermacultureprojectgta.com/http://www.thepermacultureprojectgta.com/http://uas.sa.utoronto.ca/


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This diagram was used to scope down to the community of Permaculture Practitioners in the

GTA. As visible, urban agriculture was the first community in mind. We started off with an area

that interests us ---- urban agriculture. By doing some further research, we decide to focus on

permaculture, which is an agriculture system that is intended to be sustainable and self-

sufficient. Further scoping it down to GTA area, we got into contact with TPPGTA (The

Permaculture Project in GTA) group and selected one of the currently-developed community

gardens as our targeting community.

Figure 3.0: Scoping the Need

This diagram was used to determine the most genuine need of season extension. Originally,

dealing with water (transportation, sanitation) was the need. However, further information led

the team to focus on season extension.

Important Email from Toyin (Answering Questions asked):

Purple and black text represent our questions, orange text represents her replies.

We are focusing on season extension. We were also hoping to frame our report in a way that thesolution would be made specifically for your new community garden. Is this viable?

Yes this is viable. We have a large rooftop and want to grow food on top the roof is south facing but very exposed to wind and debris in the off season.


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Does the new garden need season extension i.e. cheaper cold frames or a better way of growingthings inside? (We don't know exactly what the solution will be yet. This document will be arequest for a solution).

The garden will need season extension, soil remediation and small demo areas and cost is a bigfactor. Focused on Season extension. We are well versed with the latest in cold frame and season

extension technology, however, due to the soaring costs we go the salvage way and try to makethe tech we use more affordable. This way it accommodates everyone.

I terms of what kind of solution you would want, what are your primary constraints and why? We already have that it should be cheaper than existing technologies and be sustainable. We are wondering if you could help put a cost specific cost constraint on the solution so that it is viable.

Sort of solutions would be, cold frames, raised beds to unsure soil quality, greenhouses ect. Cold frames - issue with lumber, trying to find non treated, and with communities oftenconcerned with the aesthetic value of things cedar is often used and soooo pricey.

Some more statistics about the current state of permaculture in the GTA would be helpful such

as how many permaculture practicability have small farms or ideally how many find some wayof growing in the winter.

There are little to no stats on Permaculture right now as I have addressed, it is very hard to workin a field that is only accessible as a volunteer. Not too many can get any support from thegovernment to do actual Permaculture which is something we are all working on. We need thepractise to spread before we get another food collapse and then people will want to offer theskills to all. So the issue im speaking to here is how Permaculture is easily co-oped by thoselooking to make quick or big cash. These individuals usually miss the significant elements ofPermaculture such as the spirituality part and the urgency. Cold Frame tech alone is NOTpermaculture. it is MUCH more than gardening. To answer the question about season extension use, all small farms we have worked with grow

something in the winter. Either for the livestock feed or for fresh greens.This is easy to google as well.

Most importantly, we need a bit more information about the new community garden. i.e. howmuch space is there and what kind of space (indoor, outdoor, rooftop). Could we have thecontact information of somebody more involved with the new garden itself?

As mentioned before we have a rooftop site. This is a project where our capacity is very limited.It is very important for you guys to come and visit the site as there is no one to speak to otherthan myself at this point. Permaculture is not a widley supported practise yet. When we changeall that in the next few years we will see it all over the city. With healthy relationships and lessmoney and financial focus, more community and love focus, as well better food andfarming practices. I will be on site weds morning can you come by?

D. References

1. Bailkey, M. a. 200. Brownfields to Greenfields: Producing Food in North AmericanCities. COmmunity Food Security News , 6.

2. Canada, E. 2000. Toronto, Ontario Canada Monthly Climate Statistics.. Accessed2012 Feb 18.


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3. Canada, S. 2006. Farm population and total population by rural and urban population. < http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/agrc42g-eng.htm>. Accessed 2012Feb 17.

4. Coker, T. 2012 Feb 16. Email Inquiry. A. P. Shaham, Interviewer.5. Coker, T. 2012 Jan 23. Interveiw with Director of TPPGTA. A. P. Shaham, Interviewer.6. Coker, T. The Permaculture Project GTA.

. Accessed2012 Feb 17.

7. Conflagrant. LED Grow Lights for Indoor Plants. .

Accessed 2012 Feb 17.8. Definition of Permaculture. 1970.

. Accessed 2012 Feb 18.9. Definition of Quality of Life. .

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11. F.H.Whitehead. 1961, Mar 18. EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF THE EFFECT OF WIND. .

Accessed 2012 Feb 19.12. F.W.Went. 1953. The Effect of Temperature on Plant Growth. 347.13. Feeding the City from the Back 40: A Commercial Food Production Plan for the City of

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16. Gerhard Pahl, W. B. Dec 8, 1995. Engineering design: a systematic approach.

17. Greenhouse Kit Sizes and Prices. 2010. < http://www.geodesic-greenhouse-kits.com/greenhouse_kit.php>. Accessed 2012 Feb 17.18. Heather, W. 2012 Feb 4. Tour Around Sky Garden. P. &. Shaham, Interviewer.19. Langre, E. d. 2008. Effect of Wind on Plants.

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ICURR Press. Toronto, Canada.


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25. Patriquin, D. 2000. Agroecosystems. . Accessed 2012 Feb

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