An Eco-village in the Midst of the City

An Eco-village in the Midst of the City  August 3, 2013

I found an amazing eco-village evolving within an old urban neighborhood of Cincinnati this week.  Its name is Enright Ridge Eco-village.  It's only a few miles from the city's center, and I was just astounded at the network of green-space and wholesome ecosystem nurtured along 2 residential streets of this old working-class neighborhood where most buildings date back 100 or 120 years.

There are warm, vital connections within the human community, along with farmers and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in a network of backyards.  Many of the lots are only 50 feet wide, but go back 600 feet or so behind the homes, with extensive backyards that link into wildlife corridors pieced carefully together over the years.  

This has been the patient work of my hosts Jim and Eileen Schenk, with many others.

Rather than building new homes, using additional resources, and settling previously undeveloped land, this eco-village is these older solid homes and the surrounding land brought to new life.  

Owners have made simple but valuable investments in native plants, compost, and rain gardens, with fruit trees and vegetable plots that provide food and habitat for humans and a rich diversity of wild creatures.  

All of this is nourishing stable and interconnected families who have multiple reasons to walk down the street and support each other.  A few chickens here, a couple of Angora goats there, and beehives in yet another yard fit within the city's designation for pets, and variously help to eat the extra foliage of various garden plants AND of invasive plants the residents are working to control, and/or provide eggs, organic fertilizer, fiber, milk, pollination and honey.  

The barn for the Angoras is part of an old garage, given a new purpose!

A cistern pond collects roof water, irrigates gardens below and offers aquaculture potential for edible water plants and fish.

What they are accomplishing is an inspiration to me and my homesteading/community heart, and can certainly inspire such community in other towns and cities.  Jim offers that they are available by phone or Skype, willing to have people visit, or willing to come to your neighborhood to talk about setting up an urban eco-village. 

Watch their website at enrightecovillage.org also for a resource manual on Urban CSA's and for a mid-West conference they are planning for next summer.