Permaculture & Urban agriculture Jordan

Discussion in 'Introduce Yourself Here' started by Joric, Aug 6, 2017.

  1. Joric

    Joric New Member

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    Desert climate, Jordan
    Hi everyone!

    My name is Joric, from the Netherlands, and I am currently living in Amman, Jordan. Moved here almost a year ago, and together with two friends I founded an organisation called Greening the Camps in Jordan. We just opened our first rooftop farm in Amman, and now we are in the designing stage of building our second rooftop farm in Jerash Camp, a Palestinian refugee camp that was founded in 1968. We are setting up a rooftop farm on a vocational school in the middle of the camp, where we will give workshops in the future. The next step will be building more rooftop farms on houses of Palestinian families living in the camp. I am new to the permaculture scene, just found out about this website and forum, and I'm hoping to learn loads more about permaculture, while meeting interesting people!

    If interested, check out our website! Opening-Rooftop-Garden-Greening-The-Camps.jpg www.greeningthecamps.com
     
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  2. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    Hi Joric, welome to the forum.
    First off, I want to thank you for the work you are doing. I find it unbelievable that people have to live in refugee camps for so long-so very sad. I don't have the courage to do what you are doing and am glad somebody like you is.
    Love the picture you posted.
    Big fat hug and kiss to you and the people you are working with.
     
  3. Joric

    Joric New Member

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    Thank you very much for your kind reply! It's been very rewarding so far, wonderful to see the positive reactions and enthusiasm from people in and outside the camp. And believe me, there's not that much courage needed!
    Big fat hug and kiss back to you too
     
  4. Philippa Loates

    Philippa Loates New Member

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    Hi Joric,

    What a great job you are doing! I feel utterly envious and wish I could be a part of it! Well done you and your team.

    I live in the relatively similar climate to you - I'm based in the UAE. I think we have less seasonal change in temperature and almost no rain at any stage of the year - but perhaps it's a similar environment?
    I'm also new to permaculture and for now I'm only trying to apply it to my family home. I have a huge roof and could convert this into a rooftop garden, so I'm wondering if you can send me your top tips on setting up, growing food etc.
    Anything at all would be helpful!

    So much thanks and good luck to you,

    Philippa
     
  5. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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  6. Joric

    Joric New Member

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    Hi Philippa, thank you for your message and sorry for the late response! We had zero experience with either permaculture or urban farming when we started and we are still trying to find out the right things to do in this climate. I might be stating the obvious to you, but I'll try to give you some tips on growing food on your own rooftop! First of all I would say that shading is really essential in hot weather. Ideally natural shading, such as a grape vine that grows along cables or a pergola, but these take time to grow of course. With factoring in the sun comes finding out which plants love sun and which not so much. Your rooftop might have different micro-climates, due to proximity to a certain wall for example, or because of shades casted on your rooftop by surrounding structures, that change during the day. Working with movable containers, on wheels for example, can help you with finding the right spot for your plants. Besides the sun, wind is a really important factor to take into account, especially on a rooftop in the UAE, where sandstorms can occur. So make sure your plants are protected against wind as well. Considering water, we incorporate the wickingbed system in every garden we make. This is a way of setting up your plant containers with a water reservoir in the bottom, that wicks up water by capillary action into your soil. This way you prevent 50-90(percentages differ quite a bit when googleing this..) percent of evaporation when compared to watering the surface of your soil. Another great thing to set up, in every garden, but definitely on a rooftop in countries such as Jordan and the UAE, is a compost installation. For one, this can help you a lot with keeping your waste output down, by turning organic waste into fertile compost for your plants. And when working with containers to grow your plants in, having good compost is essential to keep your soil full of nutritions for multiple growing seasons.

    I might have been preaching to the choir by now, since it's been a few months since you sent your message, but I still hope there's some useful information in there! I'd be interested to see how things are going or will be going!

    All the best,

    Joric
     
  7. Joric

    Joric New Member

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    Hi there!

    We are reasonably close to the Greening the Dessert site. Greening the Dessert is located in the Jordan Valley and we work in Amman and Jerash, which are loated at a higher altitude. I have visited the site a few months ago, it was really inspiring!

    We are planning on giving our website a thorough update in the coming weeks, so if you're interested to see how things are coming along I invite you to check out our website soon!

    Thank you for your message!
     

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