The project contains four important advances:
- recycling
- easier cultivation of vegetables for the schools
- growing indigenous trees
- teaching children in all these issues
THE IDEA & BACKGROUNDS
The idea of this project was not just to give the schools a better way to grow vegetables in their gardens it was also meant to find a way to plant and grow indigenous trees.
The issue of tree plantations is a very interesting and important topic especially for the people of the southern Sierras. In this area the forestry of European Pines has a great impact on local life and ecology.
While the landlords of the plantations are from Buenos Aires, Cordoba or Rio Cuarto and let build big country houses for the summer, their foresters work on low salary. These days a great number of workers from Missiones, a state in the poorer North of Argentina, is attracted to work in Cordoba for a little more money. The nonnative workers give offence to the native people, because they reputedly bring their poverty and which is referred to poverty, such as lower quality of life and criminality, to the Villages in the Mountains. Also the unattractive and dirty wood factories are torns in the sides of the local society, though many work or have to work in the wood business.
Another point besides the social effects are the impacts on the ecosystem.
The fast and easy growing pines give better wood as native trees. Pines grow higher and can be cut down earlier. But while cutting and removing lots of trees you also take minerals from the earth away which are necessary for growing other plants. Whats left are the needles of the pines which change the pH-value of the ground. This makes it even more dificult for indigenous plants to grow.
CONSTRUCTION
At first you should choose a appropriate place for constructing an efficent greenhouse. The area should receive as much sun as possible and should be plane; the greenhouse should show with the smallest and/or flatest end to the side of most wind.
The first step to be taken is removing all bigger and disturbing plants, if possible remove all grass and dig over all the ground. You should collect all big stones and plastic tiles, and if possible make a compost. Every corner needs a wooden post each as high as the roof of the greenhouse is going to be.
The second step is collecting bottles, sorting them according to size and maybe colour; and cleaning them.
Now the bottom has to be cut off with a knife or a heated knife (best done with knives with wooden grip). The bottoms can later be used as plant pots.
The idea is to stick some bottles into eachother to get long stacks of bottles. Therefore its necessary to keep some bottles with bottom. Each bottle in one stack, which shows with the bottom to the ground, has to be perforatd in the middle of the bottom. The hole is best done with a heated piece of wire. Over the wire in the inside of the first bottle can be stringed all bottom-less bottles.
By setting up these "bottle-stacks" next to eachother you can form the walls and the roofs.
Therefore you span two wire between each two wooden posts, one between the bottoms and one between the tops of the posts. Between the two lines of wire you span all the lines of wire wich lead into a stack of bottles.
Constructed correctly with clean and not buckled bottles, solid wood, on a plane and firm ground the walls of the greenhouse should be very solid, protecting the inside from being harmed by animals or strong wind.
MATERIAL
- a hoe for removing gras
- a rake
- a shovel
- posts of wood (10-30 cm diameter, 4-6, at least four for the corners, one or two to create a door)
- nipper pliers / pincers
- solid wire (the one which is used for fences)
- scissors / knives
- bottles (ca 50 for each m²)
It has shown, that the bottles of CocaCola and Sprite of 2,25l are optimal in height, width and stability. But it is also possible to arrange stacks of smaller or bigger bottles of other beverages as long as they fit into eachother.
FOTOS
