Growing Season Extension for Permaculture; Gardening Guidebook for Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Growing Season
Extension for
Permaculture in the GTA
Request for Proposal
February, 2012

Abstract
The purpose of this RFP is to request an engineering solution to extend the practical season of
growth for permaculture practitioners in the GTA. This solution will be tailored to work in a new
community garden being run by a permaculture organization The Permaculture Project GTA
(TPPGTA).
Permaculture is a growing trend in the GTA and throughout the GTA.[3] Permaculture
practitioners are an urban community that share a common goal of decreasing their dependence
on commercialism by living a self-sustainable lifestyle. Because of this goal, a large part of
permaculture lies in the fact that they choose to grow much of their food in an urban
environment to decrease dependence on the market. [5] [6]However, during the winter season,
they face the same problem as all urban farmers that physical barriers greatly reduce their
ability to grow food. Thus, during the winter season, permaculture practitioners lose the ability
of agricultural self-dependence – a vital part of their lifestyle.
An engineering solution to overcome natural barriers and extend the season that
permaculture practitioners are able to grow is required. Cost and sustainability will be the
primary requirements for the solution because of the community‘s focus on a sustainable
lifestyle and financial limitations.
The solution is to be designed specifically for a new community garden that is a current
project of TPPGTA. This restriction will allow a solution to be attainable by first year
engineering students. Furthermore, this location will be a hub accessible to all permaculture
practitioners in the GTA. [5] [6] It is the goal of TPPGTA to use this garden as a model garden and
if a sustainable and cost-effective solution to extend the growing season is made here, it may be
implemented in similar gardens elsewhere.
Because of the close affiliation with TPPGTA, they will be an integral stakeholder for the
development of a solution. The City of Toronto, Health Groups, and Environmental groups will
also be concerned with aspects of the solution.

Overview of Structure
1 Introduction
2 Current Situation
2.1 Community
2.1.1 Explanation of Community
2.1.2 Location
2.2 Need
2.2.1 Justification of Need
2.2.2 Physical Barriers
2.2.3 Engineering Problem
3 Stakeholders
3.1 City of Toronto
3.2 Health Groups
3.3 The Permaculture Project GTA (TPPGTA)
3.4 Permaculture Practitioners
3.5 Environmental Groups
3.6 Residents
4 Prior Attempts and Reference Designs
4.1 Cold Frames
4.2 Indoor with LED
4.3 Green House
5 Requirements
5.1 Objectives
5.2 Criteria and Metrics
5.3 Constraints
Appendix A Definitions
Appendix B Discussion of References and Biases
Appendix C Discussion of Process

1.0 Introduction
In recent years, interest in permaculture and the practice of permaculture itself is
becoming increasingly popular in the GTA. However, agricultural aspects of the practice of
permaculture are difficult during Toronto's harsh winter season. This RFP requests an
engineering solution to extend the growing season for permaculture in the GTA.
This document will introduce permaculture practitioners as a community, provide
background information about them, and then describe specific location at which this solution
will be targeted. This document will also provide a precise definition of the community‘s specific
need with an explanation of the barriers preventing agriculture in the winter.
Imposed criteria and constraints for potential solutions, key stakeholders, and an
overview of current technologies that extend growth season are also included.
2.0 Current situation
This section will provide background information on permaculture practitioners and
TPPGTA's new community garden. It will also explain and justify the choice of season extension
as a need of this community.
2.1.0 Community
2.1.1 Explanation of Community
Urban agriculture, defined as the practice of cultivating, processing and distributing food
in (or around) a village, town or city [1], has a growing trend in Ontario. From 2001 to 2006,
urban farm population in Ontario has increased from 5,180 to 7,165 with a percentage increase
of 38.3%.[3] Urban agriculture can sustainably improve people‘s quality of life as it solves social
and environmental problems including food desert, city organic waste and it also provides
healthy food to local communities. [25] Permaculture (or permanent agriculture), in particular, is
an agriculture system that is intended to be sustainable and self-sufficient. [8] Permaculture aims
to minimize the amount of work and resources being input to produce self-sufficient output. It is
a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature.[6]
With respect to City of Toronto, a big group that needs to be mentioned is TPPGTA (The
Permaculture Project in GTA), which is a hub that unites permaculture practitioners in Toronto.
Permaculture practitioners are characterized as people who study and learn about permaculture
and consciously use permaculture to live in a more sustainable way. [21]However, according to
Toyin Coker, the founder and director of TPPGTA, ―permaculture, at this stage, is only
supported by volunteer-organized groups, and it barely receives any support from the City of
Toronto‖. [4] Although permaculture is a rising group, it still needs support from both the
government and our local communities to evoke people‘s awareness for further development. As
a consequence, this RFP will be targeting on the permaculture practitioners in City of Toronto
with a focus on a anew community garden in GTA as a specific instance explained below.

2.1.2. Location
The requested solution is aimed towards a specific location. This location was chosen as
TPPGTA‘s new Community Garden (See 3.3 for a description of TPPGTA). This is a garden that
TPPGTA has developed blue prints for and hopes to establish in the coming future. The choice to
select this garden as a specific location is due to some convenient reasons. First of all, since it
has not been designed yet, it is subject to change [5] and the constraints are not very restrictive
for solution designers. Secondly, since TPPGTA has goals to expand permaculture [Section 3.3
or 2.1.1.], this garden is to act as a ‗hub‘ and network linking the community of permaculture
practitioners together. Furthermore, Urban Growers preformed a survey signifying that most
urban farmers use community gardens. [30] This survey holds for permaculture practitioners as
they are also urban farmers. Furthermore, due to a lack of sufficient funding, there is a lack of
statistics solely on permaculture practitioners. So, even representative groups like TPPGTA rely
on general urban agricultural statistics. [5] Therefore, the whole community in Toronto can be
targeted using this specific location as our sole target for a solution. Lastly, many of the physical
barriers [Section 2.2.1.] are dependent on location. Specifying a certain location will make it
easier for designers to tackle a specific issue(s)/barrier(s).
This garden is located at 160 Bartley Rd. North York. It is around residential area and
―back into Toronto Parks land and about 100 Yards away are hydro lines‖. [4] TPPGTA can be
contacted to gain blue prints further, in depth detail for the location. This detail was to be
provided February 22, 2012 and could not be gained before submission date of this request for
proposal. The garden will start off with a rooftop garden but, after soil testing, gardens on the
ground will also be opened. Toyin, choosing this location, said that there is a lot of room and
potential on ground to be used in the coming future.
2.2.0 Need
2.2.1 Justification of Need
While the permaculture community in the GTA has many needs, we have focused on the
need to extend the growing season for permaculture practitioners in the GTA. This is because
this need is fully legitimate and is fully attainable by first year engineering science students.
We chose to focus on this need rather than water related needs (which was our original
focus) because of new information gained through additional research and a meeting with Toyin
Cocker from TPPGTA and a visit to Sky Garden, a vegetable garden located on top of Galbraith
building at U of T. Water related needs were not of primary concern to the TPPGTA and water
irrigation and transportation were not an issue at all with sky garden. [5][18]
The list of needs we identified comes from a study identifying issues urban farmers face
in the GTA. [31] While this study was done on the more general community urban farmers rather
than permaculture practitioners, Toyin Coker of TPPGTA confirmed that many permaculture

practitioners took place in the surveys conducted and that the statistics were relevant to the
permaculture community.
The criteria with which we judged the needs were based on the ability of the need to be
solved credibly by first year engineering students and the reality of the need to the community in
question. One iteration of our decision making process is provided in Table 1.0 as a Pugh chart.
A scoping process is also provided in Appendix C. It is clear from Table 1.0 that season extension
had the best relative score compared to other options. This was confirmed through further
iterations.
Toyin Coker was able to identify season extension as a legitimate need of the
permaculture community and one that will be important in their new community garden. [5] It
was also the only problem other than cost of equipment that Sky Garden faced. [18] While Sky
Garden is not part of the permaculture community; they face many of the same challenges
related to growing.
Another reason season extension is of significant importance to the permaculture
community is because they wish to design agricultural systems that are sustainable and are
modeled on the relationships found in natural ecology. [6] During the winter season, the
permaculture community is not able to agriculturally sustain itself and must increase its
dependence on commercial food, thus not practicing permaculture. [5] Because of this, season
extension is a need of the permaculture community by definition.
TPPGTA also actively promotes knowledge and education about permaculture. [6] During
winter, however, they have difficulty doing this because of lack of actual agriculture to show. A
solution that increases the growing season would benefit the TPPGTA and the permaculture
community by allowing access to a gardening site for more of the year.
A solution that increases the growing season will improve the quality of life of the
permaculture community by allowing them access to their sustainable lifestyle for more of the
year.
Table 1.0: Selection of Genuine a Need
Selection
Criteria
Needs
Water
Related
Knowledge
Sharing
Availability
of Land
Power
/Light
Spreading of
Permaculture
Season
Extension
Feasibility as an
Engineering
Problem
0 - - + - +
Accessibility of
Stakeholders
0 0 0 0 0 0
Reliability of
Sources
0 - 0 0 0 +
Stakeholder
interest
0 + + - + +
Urgency of Need 0 + + - + +

Allowance for
divergent
solutions
0 - - 0 + +
Ability for a
solution to be
made by first
year engineers
0 - - 0 - +
2.2.2 Physical Barriers
The effective growing season for Toronto urban farmers generally ranges from May to
October, and this very much limits their productivity.[18]
The most direct reason that plants cannot grow in winter is temperature. According to a
study done by F. W. Went in 1953,[12] the optimal temperature for growth of most plants lie at or
above 25 0C and any temperature below 0 0C will cause serious damages to and even, kill the
plants. Although this cold tolerance differs from species to species, 00C is the minimum possible
temperature for germination among the plants being studied.[12] Plants generally cannot grow
below this temperature because ice crystals may form inside plant cells and prevent the plants
from regular metabolism. Also, this low temperature will affect the plants‘ enzyme activities as
well as the fluidity of their cellular membranes. [26] However, the average minimum temperature
in Toronto is below zero from December to March. [2]With the consideration that data are
collected from the most cold-tolerant species, these researches generally agrees with the
situation at Sky Garden: majority of plants can only be growing within the 6 months duration,
from May to September.
With regard to the particular community garden that we have chosen, another important
factor that limits the duration of growing season is the wind. The community garden is south-
facing and very exposed to wind. [4]Wind can cause damages to plants both mechanically and
biologically. Mechanical effects include uprooting, leaf tearing, and stem breaking. [19] Biological
effect, according to an experiment done by F. H. Whitehead, [11] will resist the growth of the
leaves and cause lethal desiccation (loss of water) of the plants. Some other causes for the short
growing season include low light intensity and debris as Toyin mentioned in the interview.[4][5]
2.2.3 Problem Framed as an Engineering Problem
The need to increase the growing season for permaculture in the GTA is inherently an
engineering problem because the solution is in the form of a physical entity that must be
designed to solve to problem while keeping several criteria and constraints in mind. This is in
accordance with our definition of engineering design (see appendix A).
A solution to this problem is attainable to first year engineering students primarily
because of its allowance for divergent solutions. A few examples of season extension
technologies include choice of crops, simple covers, low tunnels [31] cold frames, LED glow lights,
and greenhouses (see Section 4). Many of these previous solutions are simple conceptually and
aspects of them may be combined to tailor a solution that will work for our given community

and location.
The Metcalf study on urban growing says with respect to innovation in season extension
technology ―creative thinking will necessitate innovation by many different actors, particularly
in universities‖.[31]
3.0 Stakeholders
This section will give a description of each major stakeholder involved with a solution to
the lengthening of the urban growing season for permaculture practitioners. It will also explain
how each stakeholder relates to the permaculture community and for what purpose they should
be contacted with respect to the solution. This will act as a system model for the permaculture
community in the GTA. A summary of this section is presented in figure 1.0.
3.1 City of Toronto
The City of Toronto‘s primary concern with urban agriculture is whether it conforms to
the zoning laws specified by the city. However, this factor does not need to be considered for our
purposes since the location has already been labeled as a community garden. The building of the
community garden will already have taken into account the by-laws, and so any solution for
agricultural basis will obey the law. If the solution has any component which extends further
than the land issued for the community garden, then as precaution, the by-laws of the city
should be re-visited to determine if solution is acceptable. Toronto has also identified serious
food concerns that require them to look for food sources closer to home. [34] The city will benefit
from an example of the implementation of season extension technology. As the technology‘s
development was a part of the action plan recommended to the city by the Toronto Food Policy
Council due to lack of food sources in the city.[13]
3.2 Health Groups
Health groups like Toronto Public health enforce bylaws and regulations that any
solution should also take into consideration. These groups will provide an outline that designers
must take into consideration regarding what sort of systems they can allow for in their solution.
Primarily, the solution must conform to safety regulations and the food must be handled
accordingly. Many of the basic restrictions for food can be found through Toronto Public Health
or Canadian Acts concerning agriculture. [35] [15] It is highly critical this information is given
attention when designing solutions. A lack of adherence to the code will not allow the solution to
be legally viable to implement.
3.3 The Permaculture Project of GTA (TPPGTA)
This group aims to create a hub where knowledge and tools concerning permaculture can
be shared by the community of practitioners in Toronto. [5] TPPGTA, while a specific instance of
representative groups of permaculture practitioners, will have a fairly large involvement in
designing the solution. This is because the location at which the solution is to be implemented is

a a community garden being built by TPPGTA. Therefore, as the garden is a TPPGTA project,
many of the requirements and factors to take into consideration will be defined by this
stakeholder. The designers should contact this stakeholder to gain specific information
concerning the location and the community garden project from this group. They also hold
valuable information on the current season extension technology present in Toronto urban
gardens.
3.4 Permaculture Practitioners
The practitioners who grow food will be the primary users of the season extension
technology. Their need is being addressed and therefore it is important that designers work
alongside this stakeholder. Their needs and the consequential criteria can be found in section
2.0 and section 5.0 respectively. Previously, TPPGTA was mentioned as a stakeholder due to
their ownership of the specified location. However, TPPGTA is a specific instance that falls
within this category as well since they themselves practice permaculture. [5] Therefore, as
primary users and a representative group, designers can choose to simply work with this group
to get input from both stakeholder categories.
3.5 Environmental Groups
Environmental groups in Toronto are aiming to improve the quality of urban agriculture in the
city; a specific example is Metcalf. [31] These groups encourage season extension technology to
encourage environmental initiative year-round. Therefore, the affiliation of these groups to
urban agriculture requires that designers consider the environmental impact of their solution.
This will help permaculture practitioners as environmental groups will continue to promote
their cause.
3.6 Residents
Toyin Coker, the founder of TPPGTA and head of the community garden project
confirmed that the community garden will be around a residential area. [5] Therefore, solution
designs should take the well-being, safety, and acceptance of the residents into mind. Mainly,
consider how your design will affect them daily (ex. any smell, any noise). [5] Refer to Section
2.1.2. for the location of the garden.
4.0 Prior Attempts and Reference Designs
This section will explain current solutions to the issue of season extension for urban
farmers. The inadequacy of these designs with respect to our community's criteria and
constraints will also be addressed. Our reference designs are cold frames, indoor growing with
LED technology, and greenhouses.

Figure 1.0: System Model of Permaculture in the GTA
The figure shows the connections between the stakeholders and the permaculture
practitioner community.
Legend
Community Community‘s effect to Stakeholders
Stakeholders Considerations on design due to stakeholder
Permaculture
Practitioners
Health Groups
TPPGTA
City of Toronto
Residents
Environmental
Groups
Must follow Health
Regulations; Food
safety
Must follow
Law, by-laws
Restrictions on
Design; Cannot
disturb
residents
Sustain and do
not harm the
environment
Solution is
sustainable and
not harmful to
environment
Provide organic,
healthy food.
Help with
Local Food
Crisis.
Healthy
community,
self-sufficiency
Part of their
Initiatives
Healthier,
cleaner
environment

4.1 Cold Frames
Cold frames are very common in cool temperature areas. In fact, Sky Garden, a rooftop
garden on top of Galbraith at the University of Toronto is currently attempting the use of cold
frames. [18] Pictures of their cold frames are attached below in figure 2.0 and solution designers
can contact Sky Garden for further understanding of this reference design if required. The
primary focus of cold frames is to protect plants from frost. The cold frame is limited to
increasing the temperature by 10-20 0C. ―A cold frame is a box-like structure with a transparent
lid that rests directly on soil‖. [37] The transparent lid allows for light to reach the plants and for
certain plants, cold frames can last the whole winter. [37]
Cold frames are effective for cool season vegetables but are not able to grow some of the warmer
season plants. Sky Garden explained in their meeting with us, as well as in an interview by
Torontoist, ―It‘s still cool in there, so you can‘t grow tomatoes or peppers‖. [14] [18] Keeping in
mind the community in question, permaculture‘s policy is to become self-sufficient. Therefore
objective one (1) [Section 5.1] cannot be accomplished if basic fruits like tomatoes and peppers
cannot be grown. This is the primary problem with cold frames which make them an
unreasonable solution to the needs of the permaculture practitioners. Another factor that Toyin
discussed was the cost problem with cold frames. The cost for an average lumber cold frame is
not expensive, however, Toyin explained, ―... and with communities often concerned with the
aesthetic value of things, cedar is often used and [very] pricey.‖ [4] The average construction cost
of a wooden cold frame is approx. $900 for a 544 ft2 as stated by Cooperation Extension Services
of New Mexico State University. [29] This cost is without taking into consideration the added
cedar wood value.
Figure 2.0: Cold Frame on Galbraith Rooftop

4.2 LED Grow Light
An alternative way to cope with the season extension problem is to grow plants indoors
with the technology of LED Grow Lights. LED Grow Light is a type of electrically powered,
artificial light that enables plants to undergo photosynthesis in an indoor environment lacking
of natural sunlight. [7] LED grow light is optimized to provide a light that matches the peak
absorption wavelengths needed for healthy growth. [22] This enables it to be efficient in terms of
energy and electricity consumptions. A typical LED Grow Light Panel only consumes 10W-40W.
[20]
However, this is a very recent technology and many researches are ongoing about this
technology in laboratories. [28] It is generally not accessible to our commercial urban farmers in
Toronto. Another problem with the LED Grow Light technology is the choice of wavelength. [36]
As it is shown from experiments, depending on the type of plants and the stage through its life
cycle, a plant may require light with different wavelength. This will cause an economical
problem as the user has to replace LED Grow Light with different models when he/she grows
different plants or plants with different stages. Moreover, it is expensive to build a room just to
grow plants indoors, especially in the situation of City of Toronto. Although LED Grow Light is
an energy-efficient way to produce plants indoors, [18] and it solves the season extension
problem, its high cost in terms of modularity and land usage makes it not suitable for our
targeting community ---- a pure volunteer-organized group.
4.3 Greenhouse
One of the most common ways to extend seasons is to build a greenhouse. A greenhouse
is a transparent glass or plastic structure that is able to control temperature and humidity to
protect plants from the unsuitable weather outside. [27] Greenhouse works mainly by the varying
transparencies of its walls. It starts with heat-carrying sunlight enters the greenhouse and
internal soil, air and plants absorb some of the radiation energy and reflect lights with a greater
wavelength. The reflected long-wavelength light, however, cannot be transmitted out through
the wall and is trapped inside. [24] This circulation process will continue and heat up the internal
of the greenhouse. In general, greenhouse allows different types of plants to be grown in
different time periods of a year.
However, a big obstacle with regard to the greenhouse solution is cost. The greenhouse
structure itself costs about $300 per square meter of floor area. [17] For a small garden that can
feed 10 people, this will cost $20,000 just for installation. This, apparently, is not suitable for
our pure volunteer-organized targeting community. Moreover, depending on the location and
material chosen, more money and efforts are needed to perform regular maintenance and
cleaning jobs. [10]

5.0 Requirements
This section will identify and develop engineering requirements for solutions to the need
of the permaculture community. Criteria, Metrics, and where applicable, Constraints will be
established.
5.1 Objectives:
High-level objectives:
1. To allow Permaculture practitioners to continue their initiatives past the natural growing
season
2. To extend the growing season using technology cheaper than their current technology for
season extension
3. To accomplish objective 1 by developing a solution specific for the TPPGTA community
garden which acts as a hub for permaculture practitioners
Objective number 3 still helps the whole community of permaculture practitioners since the
location specified sets examples from the community and acts like a hub. For more details on
why this specific location is chosen to help the community, refer to Section 2.1.2.
Detailed Objectives:
1. To Understand the specified location and its constraints on your solution
a. What it provides for permaculture practitioners (ex. Rooftop Garden,...)
b. Which technology can be reasonably implemented in the garden
c. Refer to Section 2.1.2.
2. Choose one (1) or more (1+) causes for limited growing season (ex. temperature, wind)
a. Refer to section 2.2.1 for some critical barriers
b. If designers wish, other (not mentioned) barriers can be chosen
To develop a sustainable solution that accounts for the barriers selected and does not
contain the constraints noted in the reference designs with current solutions.
To make the solution in accordance with bylaws and health regulations
5.2.1. Criteria: Cost
Permaculture practitioners are a minority as are any general urban rooftop farmers.[18] [5]
Toyin stated, ―Not too many can get any support from the government to do actual
Permaculture which is something we are all working on‖. [4] Apart from that, they are a non-
profit, volunteer organization. Therefore, as TPPGTA design their community garden, they must
be very careful with the financial cost and use their resources wisely. Due to this factor, the

designers have to consider the solution from an economic standpoint. The cost has to be
minimal for the solution; some of the conflicts with the references designs mentioned are cost as
well.
The cost is ideally expected to be minimal and less than the cost of a similar solution that
produces the same return (5.2.3) (concept of return vs. cost is discussed in the next paragraph).
Designers should refer to the reference design section to gain an approximate cost of the various
forms of solutions. The solution, however, may vary from the forms of reference design
solutions, which stresses the importance of other objectives. The designer must assess how well
the other objectives are accomplished compared to the cost. This relationship can then be
compared with the reference designs and then the designer may make the judgement if the
solution really is viable.
In terms of the criteria, the cost restrictions will vary depending on the type of solutions
and the fulfillment of criteria [5.2.3]. There is a connection with the cost and the return criteria
because designers have to try to achieve the greatest return with minimal cost. There has to be
balance between these two criteria. As a basic example, consider the situation where solution A
allows growth of 12 plant species and costs $1200 while solution B costs $800 but allows the
growth of only 7 plant species. The designers will have to contact the stakeholders (TPPGTA
primarily) and use their judgement to decide what is the better trade-off. For a general rule,
considering the policy of permaculture for self-sufficiency, if there is reasonable fluctuation
within the cost, then optimal return is preferred; once again, designers are encouraged to
contact stakeholders for their specific situations.
5.2.2. Criteria: Length of Season Extension
An important criterion with regard to our targeting problem is how long the season is
extended. The length of time period extended directly determines what types of food can be
grown and amount of return being yield. For instance, the LED Grow Light design (section 4.3)
is able to extend the growing season to the whole winter as it grows plants inside and is
independent on the outside temperature. The cold frame (section 4.1), however, extends the
season depending on its material and size. [37]
Solutions with regard to this criterion will be judged how long the design is able to
extend the growing season in terms of weeks. Solutions that have longer growing seasons are
preferred as they better accomplish objectives of our targeting community.
5.2.3 Criteria: Return
In terms of return as a constraint, there are two distinct categories: amount of produce
made available by the solution and number of species that may be grown in the extended season.
Amount of produce made available by the solution will be measured in mass of produce
per area of garden space and a good solution will provide more. We do not constrain this to be
strictly better than current solutions because a cost difference may justify a lower yield. This is
an important criterion because a garden that can produce a sustainable food source is an

integral part of permaculture. [6] A high value here will allow the food source to affect a larger
part of the community.
A greater variety of species made available by the solution is preferable. As it is the goal
of permaculture practitioners to become self-sufficient, a solution that allows them to grow
enough species to fulfil a larger part of their diet is of great importance. While visiting Sky
Garden, they expressed discontentment with the fact that the cold frames they had could only
grow a very limited variety of crops.[18]
5.3.1. Constraint: Laws and Regulations
The solution designed must conform to the bylaws and regulations of the city so their
solutions are viable and legal to be implemented. The stakeholders involved with by laws can be
found in Section 3.0 (Mainly 3.1 & 3.2). Firstly, the City of Toronto bylaws have recently been
tailored for certain expansion of urban agriculture. Policy 3.39 under Natural Environment and
Energy reads supports rooftop and community garden initiatives. [32] However, if the final
solution is to be implemented on the rooftop then it must also comply to the Code outlined in
Chapter 492 in the Municipal Code legal document. [33] The code mentions fire safety, wind
uplift, and water proofing which are all important factors that designs should consider.
In terms of regulations, food and safety regulations are the primary concern. Under the
Canada Agriculture Product Act, there are certain regulations that will have to be noted for the
sake of design. The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Regulations outline the conditions for food to
labeled safe in terms of health. [15] Designers have to make sure that any solution does not
surpass any restrictions outlined by such regulations. This is a very general regulation on food,
however, designers must also to look towards other regulations acts depending on their specific
solution since all of them cannot be accounted for in this Request for Proposal (ex. if it involves
the transport of water).
5.3.2 Constraint: Sustainability
Because sustainability is a central part of the permaculture model (see appendix A), a
sustainable solution is vital for a project so closely engaged with this community. The way the
TPPGTA currently accomplishes a sustainable lifestyle is by modelling their designs after
relationships found in natural systems. [6] They also state as a goal to train individuals to ―build
increasingly self-sufficient human settlements — ones that reduce society's reliance on industrial
systems of production and distribution that Mollison identified as fundamentally and
systematically destroying Earth's ecosystems.‖ As such, a design that accomplishes self-
sufficiency by reducing the community's reliance on industrial systems is a requirement. This
will address social and environmental sustainability.
In ―Developing Indicators of Urban Sustainability: a Focus on the Canadian Experience‖,
Several measurable factors for sustainable design are identified. The most important for this
project in terms of the design itself will be dependence on grid power and water (a decrease),
and the use of replenish able materials. Other identified factors for Urban Sustainability are not
relevant to season extension in a community garden. [5]

As described in section 5.1.2, cost is a limiting factor for this community. Therefore this
design must not have long term maintenance. This is justified because current solutions (such as
cold frames) do not have long term maintenance costs.
One specific instance of a sustainability constraint that TPPGTA mentioned was that
treated wood could not be used. [5] Because the problem of season extension allows for divergent
solutions (see section 2.2.3), it would be unfeasible to place materials related constraints for
sustainability. The specific constraint will be that TPPGTA must approve any design to ensure
that it conforms with their sustainability requirements.

Appendix
A. Definitions
These are the definitions we are using for important keywords throughout this document.
Community
A group of individuals who share common interests and work towards a common goal.
It should be noted that despite that fact that we focus on TPPGTA's new community
garden as a site of implementation for a solution to our community's need, permaculture
practitioners remain our community. This is justified by the fact that this is a community garden
that will be available to all permaculture practitioners in the GTA and the fact that it will serve
as a model garden for future permaculture establishments. [5]
Permaculture
Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems
that are modeled on the relationships found in natural ecologies. Permaculture is sustainable
land use design. This is based on ecological and biological principles, often using patterns that
occur in nature to maximise effect and minimise work. Permaculture aims to create stable,
productive systems that provide for human needs, harmoniously integrating the land with its
inhabitants.[6]
Permaculture is also very concerned with the environmental and social sustainability of
every aspect of their lives. Part of how they accomplish this sustainability is growing their own
food in an urban environment, thus decreasing their dependence on the market.
This is very distinct from urban agriculture, a general term for agriculture within an
urban setting. The gardening part of permaculture, however, may be looked at as a subset of
urban agriculture.
Engineering Design
Engineering Design is an iterative and reflective process which aids engineers to solve
problems and develop solutions. This is based off of accepted definitions ad concepts described
in ―Engineering design: a systematic approach‖. [16]
Sustainability
Sustainability has four key aspects: social, economic, political, and economical.
For each, sustainability is the capability of continued with minimal long term and
continual effect on the given aspect.
For our given need and community, sustainability is of extra importance because it is the
basis of their lifestyle. Sustainable design to them is the ability of a community to be self-

sufficient agriculturally. In other words, to reduce the community's reliance on systems of
production and distribution that are destroying Earth's ecosystems. [6]
Need
The necessity to accomplish the common goal of a given community. A community is in need if
there is something preventing them from attaining their common goal. This is the same
definition as used in our topic pré
cis.
Quality of Life
The definition we use for quality of life is ―personal satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) with
the cultural or intellectual conditions under which you live (as distinct from material comfort)‖.
[9]
This is particularly relevant to our community of permaculture because a key part of
permaculture is to change the cultural conditions in which they live in order to increase personal
satisfaction.[6]
Permaculture
Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems
that are modeled on the relationships found in natural ecologies. Permaculture is sustainable
land use design. This is based on ecological and biological principles, often using patterns that
occur in nature to maximise effect and minimise work. Permaculture aims to create stable,
productive systems that provide for human needs, harmoniously integrating the land with its
inhabitants.[6]
Permaculture is also very concerned with the environmental and social sustainability of
every aspect of their lives. Part of how they accomplish this sustainability is growing their own
food in an urban environment, thus decreasing their dependence on the market.
This is very distinct from urban agriculture, a general term for agriculture within an
urban setting. The gardening part of permaculture, however, may be looked at as a subset of
urban agriculture.
B. Discussion of References (& Biases)
This section will serve to identify and contextualize any biases of the main sources used in this
Request for Proposal.
TPPGTA (Toyin Coker)
Toyin Coker was a primary source for information for the creation of this request for
proposal. Toyin is a permaculture practitioner as well as an advocator for permaculture. This
source is a reliable source for a number of reasons. Firstly, they have personal involvement and
the most recent information for the community of permaculture practitioner. Secondly, since

they are the leaders of the community garden project, they also were the only source for
information on the location. Since their involvement in permaculture enables them to get
firsthand experience, they could also represent the community of permaculture practitioners
and grant reliable knowledge on their needs. This source was critical for the scoping of the needs
since there is very little data on permaculture separately. Therefore, Toyin provided the
evidences for why one need was more crucial than another; this helped to erase stereotypical
assumption concerning urban agriculture.
Even though a large amount of information was gained from this source, their bias for the
promotion of permaculture did not affect the credibility of information. This was because both
the needs and community were not represented falsely since TPPGTA is non-profit, volunteer
organization working alongside the community.[5] Since there goal is not to gain self-profit, even
a large amount of information was not tainted by bias or self-interest.
Metcalf Foundation
Metcalf is a foundation that encourages environmental initiative and promotes urban
agriculture. The specific report ―Scaling up Urban Agriculture in Toronto Building the
Infrastructure‖ was used throughout this request for proposal in a variety of section. It was
mainly used to provide data on urban agriculture. The data is certainly not specific for
permaculture practitioners since permaculture is much more than urban agriculture. However,
the conflicts and challenges faced in urban agriculture are the same as the ones permaculture
practitioners face. This is due to two main points. Firstly, while the causes are different, the
method of urban farming in Toronto is more or less the same unless the location differs. [5]
Secondly, Toyin Coker from TPPGTA confirmed the credibility of Metcalf for the use of
permaculture data as she said she herself knew permaculture practitioners who participated in
the study. [5] Furthermore, Toyin explained that the statistics and data specific for permaculture
are not present at the moment due to no support from the government. Thus, they relay their
information and data through foundations like Metcalf Food Solutions which encourage their
activities.
Sky Garden (Heather Wray)
Sky Garden was a rooftop garden established in the University of Toronto on top of the
Galbraith Building. This was a garden that the praxis team personally visited, photographed,
and studied. The host for this visit was Heather Wray, a mind behind Sky Garden, who gave us
valuable information. They also have a fair amount of publicity over the internet, reported in
varies articles. Sky Garden is not permaculture however. Yet, their information on the current
status of urban agriculture in the city and rooftop gardens is judged credible. Once again, for
similar reasons as the Metcalf Foundation source, their data can be used for our purpose
because rooftop permaculture practitioners also face the same challenges and conflicts as any
other rooftop gardeners in Toronto. Therefore, their information is reliable and can be used for
solution development without hesitation.

C. Notes on Process
We have demonstrated engineering design in the writing of this RFP by using systematic
methods of scoping (scoping diagram as seen in figure 2.0), decision making (based off of
relative scores represented in a Pugh chart), framing (Based off of requirements given by key
stakeholders), and pivoting (rationally decided based off of information from stakeholders and
research).
Contact Info for Key Primary Sources:
Sky Garden (Heather Wray):
urbanagriculturesociety@gmail.com
http://uas.sa.utoronto.ca/
TPPGTA (Toyin Coker):
TPPGTA Home Base:
12 Lyndale Drive
Toronto, Ontario
Email: tppgta@gmail.com
http://www.thepermacultureprojectgta.com
Engineering Design Process:
The followings are diagrams representing key decisions made in the process of creation of this
report.
Figure 2.0: Scoping the Community

This diagram was used to scope down to the community of Permaculture Practitioners in the
GTA. As visible, urban agriculture was the first community in mind. We started off with an area
that interests us ---- urban agriculture. By doing some further research, we decide to focus on
permaculture, which is an agriculture system that is intended to be sustainable and self-
sufficient. Further scoping it down to GTA area, we got into contact with TPPGTA (The
Permaculture Project in GTA) group and selected one of the currently-developed community
gardens as our targeting community.
Figure 3.0: Scoping the Need
This diagram was used to determine the most genuine need of season extension. Originally,
dealing with water (transportation, sanitation) was the need. However, further information led
the team to focus on season extension.
Important Email from Toyin (Answering Questions asked):
Purple and black text represent our questions, orange text represents her replies.
We are focusing on season extension. We were also hoping to frame our report in a way that the
solution would be made specifically for your new community garden. Is this viable?
Yes this is viable. We have a large rooftop and want to grow food on top the roof is south facing
but very exposed to wind and debris in the off season.

Does the new garden need season extension i.e. cheaper cold frames or a better way of growing
things inside? (We don't know exactly what the solution will be yet. This document will be a
request for a solution).
The garden will need season extension, soil remediation and small demo areas and cost is a big
factor. Focused on Season extension. We are well versed with the latest in cold frame and season
extension technology, however, due to the soaring costs we go the salvage way and try to make
the tech we use more affordable. This way it accommodates everyone.
I terms of what kind of solution you would want, what are your primary constraints and why?
We already have that it should be cheaper than existing technologies and be sustainable. We are
wondering if you could help put a cost specific cost constraint on the solution so that it is viable.
Sort of solutions would be, cold frames, raised beds to unsure soil quality, greenhouses ect.
Cold frames - issue with lumber, trying to find non treated, and with communities often
concerned with the aesthetic value of things cedar is often used and soooo pricey.
Some more statistics about the current state of permaculture in the GTA would be helpful such
as how many permaculture practicability have small farms or ideally how many find some way
of growing in the winter.
There are little to no stats on Permaculture right now as I have addressed, it is very hard to work
in a field that is only accessible as a volunteer. Not too many can get any support from the
government to do actual Permaculture which is something we are all working on. We need the
practise to spread before we get another food collapse and then people will want to offer the
skills to all. So the issue im speaking to here is how Permaculture is easily co-oped by those
looking to make quick or big cash. These individuals usually miss the significant elements of
Permaculture such as the spirituality part and the urgency. Cold Frame tech alone is NOT
permaculture. it is MUCH more than gardening.
To answer the question about season extension use, all small farms we have worked with grow
something in the winter. Either for the livestock feed or for fresh greens.
This is easy to google as well.
Most importantly, we need a bit more information about the new community garden. i.e. how
much space is there and what kind of space (indoor, outdoor, rooftop). Could we have the
contact information of somebody more involved with the new garden itself?
As mentioned before we have a rooftop site. This is a project where our capacity is very limited.
It is very important for you guys to come and visit the site as there is no one to speak to other
than myself at this point. Permaculture is not a widley supported practise yet. When we change
all that in the next few years we will see it all over the city. With healthy relationships and less
money and financial focus, more community and love focus, as well better food and
farming practices.
I will be on site weds morning can you come by?
D. References
1. Bailkey, M. a. 200. Brownfields to Greenfields: Producing Food in North American
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Feb 17.
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<http://www.amazon.com/LED-Wholesalers-2501RD-Square-
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<http://www.heathcote.org/PCIntro/2WhatIsPermaculture.htm>. Accessed 2012 Feb
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