The Minimum Viable Animal Powered Nursery (The Anti-Fragile Nursery Flywheel) - Part 2

Is it ridiculous to power a garden with small animals and piles of composting earth?

We have been discussing in our last letter about a comprehensive nursery flywheel that builds the foundation for any garden endeavor, either as a hobby or as a self-reliant objective. That is possible because we are using design technology to build interconnected systems based on sustainable elements, which, together, become anti-fragile and produce what we need. That is revolutionary, because instead of fighting an uphill battle forever, like gardening has usually been done, we are compounding forces and making it easier each time.

We already discussed in previous letters how to make soil, seed starting mix, and the nursery flywheel.

Now, it is all about how to set up your nursery with specific dimensions and how to operate it.

In this edition, in 7,3 minutes or less:

# The minimum viable animal- or compost-powered nursery.

The minimum viable animal- or compost-powered nursery.

A nursery of 10 m² can sustain a 1,000 m² garden with seedlings.

It consists of:

• A work table for the seed trays of 1.8 m x 2.5 meters, which accounts for 4.5 m²; this is the space you need for propagation.
• Pathways 90 cm wide, enough to bring a wheelbarrow in.
• 3.25 m² of space for the chickens, guinea pigs, or compost pile. In this space, you can house 4 chickens, 11 guinea pigs, and make 1 compost pile if you intend to turn it inside the nursery, or 2 if you install a door to be able to access it from the other side. You can rearrange the space if you decide you don’t need so much space for propagation.

Beware of:

• The space for seed propagation is calculated for a Charles Dowding-style tray and use. That means that the cells are small and you plant the seedlings in the soil early, relying on good compost (which is difficult to source, but it is easily made, if you follow this recipe and this flywheel). This flywheel also works perfectly fine with soil blocking, but you have to manage the space right. In this space, you can fit 56 Dowding trays, that hold 60 cells each, or a total of 3,360 cells (you can squeeze in one more row of trays, amounting to 63 trays and 3,780 cells), which I reckon may be possible to optimize with soil blocking, if your blocks are 2.8 cm. You can further increase the potential of this space by multi-sowing.
• Do not skimp on pathway space, because it is essential to be able to move around, including carrying loads.
• The compost pile is the easiest option to manage, and it can be converted to hotbeds to further expand propagation space and even growing space (more on hotbeds in a future letter). Remember that chickens can make noise and can be unsuitable for some places. Guinea pigs are uncommon for most of the world, but are a really practical and intelligent solution that is so quiet that it is possible to keep them in the house, becoming the optimal choice for someone who wants to raise animals but lives in a place where they cannot produce noise. Chickens and guinea pigs produce animal products.
• If you choose the compost pile option, you will already achieve soil creation and seed starting mix production from the space in the nursery. If you choose the animal option, you will have to set up a composting area elsewhere. You may need just 1 m³ of compost per year for your garden, so making one compost pile once a year may already be enough. If you choose the compost pile option, you will probably end up with more compost than you need, which is a positive thing.
• It works for both cold and warm climates, as well as dry or humid. You just need to adapt the greenhouse elements that hold warmth to shading elements that allow cooling and anti-evaporation, or vice versa.
• Plan to use the headspace wisely.
• Consider making a separate nursery for trees because trees have another schedule and may clog propagation space.

Because it is modular and adaptable, it offers variations:

• The first variation is to decrease the propagation space and increase the animal housing or compost pile space if you want more animal products from your nursery and don’t need as many plants for your garden. Of course, if your garden is smaller than 1,000 m², you can decrease the whole nursery (both propagation space and animal housing space), but there are limitations, which we will discuss in the next section of the letter.
• The second variation is to lay hot water pipes inside the compost pile to heat water using the heat produced by it. You can lead the pipes to the propagation area and create a naturally heated mat.
• The third variation is related to doing compost piles. You make the compost pile as hotbeds and expand your propagation space. This also allows you to further decrease the nursery footprint, if you wish. Another possibility is to mix fast 18-day compost piles with hotbeds. Make sure to have enough space to bring in and take out material, as well as for turning the pile.
• The fourth variation is for when you have the space to expand. You can attach a greenhouse to this structure for additional heated growing space. You may need to add more animals or compost piles to heat the new space.

The ultra-minimal viable nursery:

• 5 m² (2 m × 2.5 m) would function, with at least 2.5 m² dedicated to the animals/compost pile. For that to work, though, you would have to have your routine nailed down, and I would not recommend it for the first project unless you do it with a strong experimental spirit and are ready to iterate vigorously.

Last considerations:

• If you go the compost pile route, you may produce more compost than you need, since the composting may be faster than its rate of use and you need to keep composting to generate heat for the nursery. That is not a problem, because there is no such thing as having too much compost. The most overlooked and lacking resource is fertile soil. You can use it abundantly in your own garden, gift it to someone who is starting a garden, or even sell it.
• Keeping animals, or making slow compost, requires you to set up compost piles elsewhere to supply your fertile soil and seed starting mix requirements. You can make it onsite, or you can make it elsewhere near a material supply, solo or with a group. Remember the flywheel we already discussed in a previous letter (links above).
• Making fast 18-day compost already supplies you with your fertile soil and seed starting mix requirements.

This is a modular, adaptable Nursery Flywheel that summons natural forces to do what they do all the time, but where their output is put into productive use in a sustainable way.

The seeds, which are our focus here, need stable, warm temperatures during the day and at night to germinate. They don’t need sunlight, but they need a seed starting mix with the right texture, humidity, and no waterlogging. Once they germinate, the seedlings need full light, either provided by artificial light if placed on a windowsill or on shelves, or natural light if they are placed in a nursery like ours with an open roof.

We provide all that for them in an environment that we humans can enjoy and do easy and meaningful work.

Plants have many requirements and nature doesn’t provide them when we want.

It doesn’t mean that nature is against us, but it is our job to create a nursery where we set the stage for successful seed propagation. We have to understand the seeds’ requirements, creating a microclimate tailor-made for them. It must be resilient and easy in order to work reliably and for it to be light work and fun for normal people to do it. On the back end, you have to be supported by a soil-producing flywheel, and place your structure according to the whole site design.

In the next letter, we will conclude this series, diving deep into the operation of the nursery.

See you next Tuesday!

Alexandre and Marina

P.S.: The idea of using guinea pigs as a working animal may sound absurd. Here is a YouTube video of guinea pigs grazing on a farm located in the Netherlands, very far from their original place in the Andes in South America.

P.P.S.: Harvesting guinea pigs for meat may sound absurd as well. Here is a YouTube video of a traditional grilled guinea pig recipe that dates back to the times of the Incas. In Peru, guinea pig is still eaten in restaurants or prepared at home. Some people raise them and others buy them in the butcher shop. Here is another YouTube video, showing a commercial operation of raising guinea pigs.

P.P.P.S.: How Animals Power Your Garden (The Anti-Fragile Nursery Flywheel) - Part 1​