Taipei resident Meiru has two tiny balconies, each with a planter rack no more than 25 centimeters wide, but in this minuscule space she is able to grow all kinds of vegetables, and even some passion fruit and peppermint.

Amateur handyman Mr. Xu tore down a tumbledown old brick wall behind his home to make a brick retaining wall for a flower garden out by the street. The garden is small, but every extra bit of plant life is an extra bit of water retaining capacity for the city, and an extra bit of moisture to evaporate into the hydrologic cycle.

Environmental activist Robin Winkler believes that sustainable management of a company must start with concern for the environment, and a serious effort to learn to live in harmony with the earth.

Bill Mollison wrote that "permaculture is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems." The core strategy is to move food production systems back into the cities.

He pointed as an example to the bushmen of the Kalahari, who have a native bean called the morama bean. They used to go out and collect it. But after they were pushed off their lands the morama bean was hard to find. Mollison sug-gested that they plant it in their gardens. Up to that point, they never actually thought of planting something. It stunned them that they could actually do that.

Over a decade ago, the Fairmount Waterfront Hotel in Vancouver began using the herbs, vegetables, and honey produced on the hotel roof to develop new dishes for its restaurant, saving its kitchen US$16,000 a year on food.

With this rooftop garden eco-toilet, sawdust and straw are thrown over a person's leavings. The toilet is completely odor-free.

In Taipei there is a similar rooftop garden at Winkler Partners, a law firm founded by environmental activist Robin Winkler.

The law firm is located on the 12th and 13th floors of a downtown office building. The building's original design didn't take into account the need for ventilation and shade, so the firm had to spend a lot each summer for cooling. To promote environmental protection, Winkler wanted to build a rooftop garden that would bring down the temperature in the office. The firm hired Peter Morehead in 2006 to design the garden and oversee its construction.

As Morehead explains: "The microclimate of a rooftop garden is quite different from that of an ordinary farm. The sunlight and wind are much stronger, and the evaporation rate is much faster. You have to select your plants carefully, and to weather storms, and especially typhoons, presents big design challenges."

To create a moister environment, -Morehead put in a small pond to regulate the microclimate. In addition, because the rooftop only offered 165 square meters of usable space, he included several multifunctional elements in his design to achieve a cycling of resources, most notable among them being an eco-toilet that composts human waste.

Winkler proudly informs visitors: "It has absolutely no odor!" After using the toilet, you simply throw a bit of sawdust and straw over your leavings, and there will be no unpleasant odor. Once the bin fills up, it is sealed for two or three years, by the end of which period the waste is converted into fertilizer.

A few other large bins are set out next to the toilet. One is used for composting leaves and kitchen waste. Another is for collecting rainwater. The planters, in the meantime, were made by stacking old tires and binding them together. Creeping vines cover the safety wall at the roof's edge.

The setup does an outstanding job of blocking the heat. The rooftop temperature on a scorching day in September 2010 was 43.5°C, but a cool 30°C underneath the vines on the safety wall. The rooftop garden, plus the fact that employees have got in the habit of turning off lights whenever possible, have enabled the firm to cut its electric bill by 17%.

(facing page) Tammy Turner (left) recently helped the residents of Garden City community in New Taipei City's Xindian District revive the greenery in a barren patch near their homes by planting a garden and orchard that now produce a bumper crop of fruits and vegetables.

Community activists have scored notable successes turning trashy looking plots into visually pleasing gardens.

More than 20 different kinds of plants flourish in a patch of land next to the bus lane at Garden City community. Looking at it today, you would hardly guess that nothing at all was growing on that same swatch of land just two years ago. German resident Patricia Kortmann reports that although the bus lane is paved over with concrete, the top layer of the road bed on which the bus lane rests is very sandy, and a lot of this road bed has been washed out over the course of successive rainstorms, leaving a road surface full of potholes and cracks. Now the bus lane turns into a muddy quagmire on rainy days, while the winds after a summer drought kick up dust storms.

Kortmann discussed the problem with Tammy Turner and the two decided to take active steps to restore greenery alongside the bus lane.

Because the road travels a steep 15% gradient, Turner suggested digging pits to slow the speed of rain runoff. They arranged with other residents to rig up simple plumb line contraptions using three bamboo rods with a rock or hammer hanging by a string. Using these environmentally friendly tools, they surveyed isoclines, dug pits along the isoclines, then filled the pits with tree branches and palm fronds from the community gardener's refuse heap to slow the runoff. Between the pits and over the surface of the bus lane they laid burlap cloth to hold the soil in place.

Turner also led a group of community residents in a project to revive the greenery there using the "seed ball" technique pioneered by Masanobu Fukuoka of Japan. A seed ball is made by enveloping seeds in a ball of clay, into which various plant matter may be mixed. After the clay has dried out, the balls are scattered directly on the ground, where the clay keeps the seeds from getting eaten by birds and other animals. Rainfall eventually dissolves the balls, by which time the seeds are ready to germinate and put down roots.

The residents also placed hollow construction blocks along a wall, filled them with soil, and planted them with pumpkins and potatoes. On the slopes they planted cypress, bishopwood, and golden rain trees, as well as papaya, custard apple, and other fruit trees. Within just a few months, the blossoms of the Spanish needle were already attracting the Taiwan yellow butterfly, while skinks and other lizards were also making frequent appearances. The pumpkins and papaya grew plump, and more importantly, collaboration between family members and neighbors brought people closer together. Children, in the meantime, came to understand what a permaculture lifestyle involves, and what it means.

In addition to the space in and around one's home, urban parks and greenbelts can also be put to excellent use.

The movement known as "urban repair" got underway in 1996 in Portland, Oregon when a group of young people took it upon themselves to paint murals and plant gardens at certain street corners, turning no-nonsense intersections into pleasant places where the locals can interact.

Acting as "urban guerrillas," they would converge on street corners and empty lots by night to quickly clean up debris and plant flowers. In a flash, trashy bits of wasteland turned into beautiful gardens. Once planted, however, the gardens would have to make it on their own without further tending. The guerrillas found that low-maintenance permaculture methods best fit their needs.

"Urban guerrillas" such as Morehead, members of the Earth Passengers group, and Yamman have at different times taken cues from the urban repair movement, inviting community affairs activists to go out late at night into abandoned or overgrown parks and greenbelts, where they quickly clean up the area before moving to step two-planting a garden using the "sandwich method." They start by putting down a layer of organic matter. On top of that go biodegradable cardboard, banana leaves, and the like. This is all then covered over with a layer of soil, and then a layer of straw, rice bran, or other mulch material. Finally, they seed the garden and depart.

Yamman reports: "When people take a stroll in the park and find that an unsightly corner has been cleaned up, and then later discover tomatoes, yams, and such things growing there, they are surprised. Nearby residents have been known to take it upon themselves to tend such gardens." He further adds that replanting a park is a good thing not only because it's pleasing to the eye, but also because it yields edible plants. Beautification is accomplished without causing any harm whatsoever, and the food can be shared with the poor and needy. At a time when food sources are growing increasingly scarce, local governments would be well advised to focus seriously on permaculture and begin promoting it.