Underground and In Ground Construction of Shelters and Gardens

Hello Self Sustainers!

As I mentioned in the last post, I'm becoming quite interested in combining the small cabin with the surrounding land itself. This has led me to investigate the idea of using hills on the property or possibly having some underground sections of land, accessible to the house in all weather. In this way a small building footprint can be linked to a much greater amount square footage that is essentially hidden from view, while being available for use all year round.

Furthermore, I think both the surface and subsurface of the land can be carved away to provide places for growing plants. Ditches could be used as containers (rather than building wooden frames). Atypical shapes (in other words, non-rectangular) could act as gardens, plant beds, utilizing an arrangement of variously sized natural depressions and small elevations.

The more I study the idea of using the ground itself, the more advantages I see. Below a certain depth (about 3-6 feet in Maine), freezing is not a problem in the winter and cooling remains constant in the summer. Underground rooms average about 55° F all year round.

Here are a couple underground structures I found interesting... 

Underground Rock House

While I do see practical and aesthetic reasons for the cottage itself to be squared off in construction, I'm quite interested having some of the underground or in-ground rooms to be left with their organic curves as is shown in this unique cave-house in New Zealand...

It occurred to me that I'd never heard the rules for what one owns when one buys land; for the air above and the ground below. How far above or below a property's surface can be used? Well, it turns out the answer is a bit complicated but not discouraging. Check out this article...

If You Own Land, How Far Above and Below Do You Own?

Looks like in the US you can do what you want up to about 500 feet above your land. And, you can dig through and use the ground below as much as you want, provided you are being environmentally responsible and don't run across any archeological discoveries. This bodes well for underground construction.

With all of this in mind even extreme underground construction is possible. For the doomer, survivalist, prepper, or creatively paranoid among us, why not buy and convert an old missile silo?

From: Buy a Former Government Missile Silo, and Live the Doomsday Dream...

The original silo before construction sold for $400,000. According to the article...

"Due to post-Cold War agreements, the U.S. government must either sell or destroy many of these old silos. New technology has rendered them all but obsolete by military standards anyway. Due to ground-penetrating equipment, mobile missile storage units are much safer than these underground structures. That makes them useless for almost everything -- except day-to-day living."

Naturally, I myself am not interested in anything that dramatic. But it does go to show that building downward is an option.

Especially fascinating to me, is the concept of open or partial subterranean garden spaces, for fruit and nut trees, bushes and edible flowers. This place was neat...

From: Amazing Forestiere Underground Gardens Were Hand Carved With Only a Pick and Shovel...

Also see the site: Underground Gardens.

This incredible underground garden is located in Fresno, California. There are many things that I find useful about the idea of gardening underground. In California this would make for easy gravity fed watering and would be cooler for the hot dry summers. This property has quite a variety of edible plants too...

"The underground garden is rich with Almond, Pomegranate, Pear, Olive, Persimmon, Avocado, Loquat, Quince, Carob, Jujube, Arbutus, Black Fig, Tangerine, Grapefruit, Orange, Kumquat, Lemon, Date Palm and Mulberry trees. Forestiere, the son of a citrus farmer, even grafted one tree to produce seven varieties of citrus fruit!"

In a climate such as Maine's, I wonder if these rooms could be sealed off during the winter with clear roofs of some kind, allowing light in, while keeping the temperature a bit warmer than the outdoors would be (including a bit of supplemental heat)? It is all part of my investigation. 

There are other easier ideas for gardening all year round (check out the associated video as well)....

From: Build a $300 underground greenhouse for year-round gardening...

Now, I thought it might be nice to show you a couple of episodes from a great Youtube channel I found called, Exploring Alternatives. The first is related to this post and the second is just for fun. Check out their other videos and if you like what they're doing, subscribe!

Icelandic Turf  House

Life on a Narrow Boat

In will continue to investigate the idea of using the ground itself for shelter and gardening and share my results and subsequent plans to integrate these ideas into my own future property in future posts. 

Thanks so much for reading! If you would like to make a small contribution to help cover the expenses of this producing this blog blog, please click the PayPal button at the top of the page. And, stay tuned for next week's post, as we will explore some novel heating options.