Extended Growing Season

The Walipini Greenhouse is designed to passively heat in the cold winter months and keep temperatures stable in the hot summers on Pine Ridge.

Features:

• Rammed Earth Tire Wall for passive heating and cooling

• South Facing for passive solar gain

• Half barrels for seed starts to get an early jump on the short growing season here in the Plains

Our permaculture garden is designed to maximize growing yield during the Spring, Summer, and Early Fall. The Garden features…

• 1200 Plants including

  • Summer Squash

  • Zucchini

  • Yellow & Red Chard

  • Green kale

  • Winter Squash

  • Summer Squash

  • Tomatoes

  • Onions

  • Basil

  • Amaranth

  • Corn

  • Green Beans

• Two High Tunnel Greenhouses

  • 16’ x 96’

  • 18’ x 48’

• Garden beds are raised using the pathways as swales and using straw and newspaper to suppress weeds.

  • The beds are designed with a Lakota Medicine Wheel in the center, Buffalo Head on top, and two DNA strands running down either far edge of the garden (check back soon for Drone footage!)

The Root Cellar provides a cool, dry, protected environment to store garden production throughout the year. The temperature remains between X and Y °F throughout the year, even in the hottest days of the summer when outside temps reach as high as 120°F. The thermal mass, tire walls, papercrete insulation, and plaster finish work together to create the passive cooling that maintains these stable temperatures.

We are currently on schedule to finish this piece of the food system in August of 2019.

With extended growing capacity, a large scale production garden, and cool storage, the final phase of our food production system will be designed off of a Yakhchāl, an ancient type of evaporative cooler. Above ground, the structure had a domed shape, but had a subterranean storage space. It was often used to store ice, but sometimes was used to store food as well. The subterranean space coupled with the thick heat-resistant construction material insulated the storage space year round.

This project is set to begin in the Fall of 2023.

If you would like to support please make a donation or sign up to volunteer today!