The first step in creating something sustainable, and a key tenet of permaculture, is to use what you have. Recycle. And so it was that this old ruin on the property became the natural site for a greenhouse. We are told that it was once a chicken coupe, and alternatively that it was a Cocoa drying house. You can see the remnants of the cocoa drying rack columns close by, so it lends credence to that assertion. On the other had, there was much chicken wire in the debris, and a layer of rich soil on one half lending credence to the chicken coupe theory. Perhaps it was both at different stages of existence. Regardless, it seems that it was used for agricultural purposes, and to sustain the property and occupants long into the past. And now it will again.
Beneath the foilage, it was filled with old appliances and chicken wire and plastic bottles and glass bottles and tires and tiles and discarded concrete materials. Almost an archeological dig of refuse over time. Certainly a mosquito paradise. It took several days with help to clean it out.
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