San Mateo
Cooperative
San Francisco Bay area
intentional
community/urban retrofit co-housing/mini-ecovillage
We are forming a small
urban community 20 miles south of San Francisco. In February 1998, we purchased
one of 8-4 unit apartment buildings facing the lagoon between San
Mateo and Foster City. We expected
to be purchasing an adjacent second 4-unit building (in which we have rented
an apartment for five years) in summer 1999, now summer 2000. We are seeking
other "families" and individuals to co-own/rent in some form of
a cooperative or partnership--something between intentional community and
cohousing. We hope to share some meals, gardening, and other interests.
There are fruit trees and room for expanding organic gardens. We enjoy the
view from our spa. This location is wonderful: lots of birds, sunrise over
the water, access to a bike path a 1/2 block away, large park with playground,
tennis courts, etc., one-two blocks away, other recreational opportunities
nearby with the city amenities of proximity to freeway and public transportation
including express buses to the San Francisco Airport and to downtown San
Francisco as well as Caltrain a mile away. We took a series of pictures
on a walk
around the lagoon in June 1997 (reposted on Yahoo.) Pictures taken in
March 1999 provide a virtual
tour. There were others taken in July.
I've posted some from early spring 2000 on Yahoo.
I have continued posting numerous
pictures inYahooscrapbooks
since that time... saves space on our server. The latest
are for our April 2002 garden party.
I know this is not the
way cohousing usually forms but
it seems like a viable alternative in the high priced San Francisco Bay
area. It does not seem too different that the N
Street model. I have heard this type of model called virtual cohousing
or urban
retrofit development. There is cohousing core group in the Peninsula area working on developing the traditional
cohousing model. (We even have rooms to rent on occasion. )
We have begun the process
of preparing the soil for organic gardening in the yards behind both buildings.
We did mostly soil building the first year though planted a small garden.
We used "chicken tractors" and brought in compost and soil. The
chickens continue to help us compost our kitchen scraps and "weeds";
they also love snails and we have discovered additional sources of organic
compost. We have studied a variety of organic/sustainable gardening techniques
over the years. We explored the use of Permaculture
and have also been very interested in Biodynamic Agriculture.
Penny Livingston of the Permaculture
Institute of Northern California brought her Introduction
to Permaculture workshop to this area to provide information to local folks
about how to apply these principles to an urban backyard. This workshop was held in March.
1998 and began our landscaping process in the front yard with a demonstration
of sheet mulching with cardboard covered with straw and building an "herb
spiral." One of the participants came all the way from Reno,
NV and has a great Permaculture website.
We hope to schedule other hands-on workshops in the future. Since
the workshop, we have planted fruit trees, herbs, and flowers in the front
yard. We ended up growing grain since we used some hay from the local
race track instead of all straw. Drip irrigation is in place.
In 1999
we explored a method that seems to combine several techniques, biointensive
gardening. We began the lengthy process of double digging garden beds. By
of the end of May 1999, two 30 foot beds had been dug and one bed was planted.
Several more have been laid out.
In this picture taken in
July 1999, you
can see that things are growing. A third bed was rototilled and planted
with corn at that time.
In the fall, some of the beds
had been planted with some veggies for the winter and we have constructed
two new beds framed with wood (which we recycled from a construction site)
and raised. One has been planted with garlic. The field behind the second
building has been rototilled and planted with cover crops. (The owner had
told us that we could begin gardening.)
Later that fall, we planted the second box with strawberries. We also planted our first year's garden bed (literally a recycled bed frame) with strawberries and started a raspberry patch next to it. We began to make plans for two more boxes for asparagus.
We put that off because
it was going to be on the second property, the purchase of which was delayed
again. The plants had been ordered last fall and were waiting. We finally
went ahead and built the boxes, brought in compost and soil, and planted
in March 2000.
In March
1999 we constructed a green house, mostly of recycled materials. The chickens
have spent the winter in it as their chicken yard was just too muddy. We
had a very wet winter. They also helped get rid of the weeds and prepare
the soil for planting. The second week of March 2000, they finally went
back to their chicken house. I hope to be able to start seed flats (rather
belatedly, by the end of the month.
We have also planted more fruit trees, some with the courtesy of an educational project sponsored by Magic Community. Spring 1999 the front yard was filled with cover crops like clover and vetch with flowers and herbs on the spiral. There is even a little water fall and pond.
Later that summer, we even
grew some veggies in the yard. We began to have neighbors walk by and comment
that they were always looking forward to the surprise of seeing what we
would do next.