outdoors

Eight Principles of Rainwater Harvesting

1. Begin with long and thoughtful observation: Notice what’s working and what’s not.
2. Start at the top of your watershed and work your way down: Collect water at the top, and then let gravity drive your water distribution downhill to meet your needs.
3. Start small and simple: Strategies are easier to implement and adjust when they are small. Small mistakes are easier to fix than big mistakes.
4. Spread and infiltrate the flow of water: Slow it, spread it, sink it. Don’t let water erosively run off your land.
5. Always plan an overflow route, and manage that overflow as a resource: Take advantage of heavy rains.
6. Maximize living and organic groundcover: Create a living sponge.
7. Maximize beneficial relationships and efficiency by “stacking functions”: Berms can double as raised walking paths. Plants can also cool buildings. Vegetation can also provide food for people, animals, or insects.
8. Continually reassess your system since it’s a “feedback loop”

Notes

• Good rainwater harvesting helps prevent mosquito breeding.
• Replace paved parking and driveways with pavers to reduce runoff.
• Native plants are a much better choice for water conservation.
• Using bio-compatible soaps allows you to use greywater to water plants.
• Consider waterless compost toilets.
• Plant shade trees on the east and west sides of buildings.
• Before you plant trees, you must plant water. (Implement rainwater harvesting earthworks.)
• Get a detailed topographic map of your land to identify watersheds and ridge lines.
• 1 inch of rain on 1,000 sqft of surface area can capture 600 gallons of water.
• The highest quality source of water is direct rainwater capture. Use this for drinking.
• Earthworks to learn: swales, berms, terraces, infiltration trenches, infiltration basin, imprinting, mulch, diversion swales, check dam, one rock dam, rock plunge pool
• Cisterns will be covered in Vol 3.
• Every foot of elevation provides 0.43 psi of water pressure.
• Orient buildings east-west, with long walls facing south-north) to maximize winter heating and minimize summer heat.
• Design roof overhangs and awnings to shade in the summer but not in the winter.
• Always pair a raised path with a sunken basin to capture runoff and grow shelter and beauty for the path. Plant a tree in the basin.
• Build a Zuni bowl to repair a headcut.
• A wide gully is more stable than a deep gully. Stabilize with rock check dams and vegetation.
• Stable floodplains are nature’s solution to flooding. Do not disturb.
• Exposed roots are an indication of erosion. Find and repair.
• Plant cottonwoods, sycamores, willows near water.
• Waffle gardens are the opposite of raised beds, used for capturing rainwater.
• In floodplain farming, grow more cold-hardy crops and use earthen walls to spread water.

The Big Idea: Grow Biointensive (a variant of organic farming) produces more food per square foot while also building soil, using less water, using less fertilizer, and requiring less fossil fuel.

• Industrial agriculture depletes 6 pounds of soil for every 1 pound of food produced.
• Organic agriculture also depletes soil as it produces food.
• Grow Biointensive and permaculture builds soils as it produces food.
• Grow Biointensive farming builds soil, uses less water, uses less fertilizer, requires less energy, and increases food production per square foot.
• Grow Biointensive relies on human labor instead of external inputs.
• Similar to Grow Biointensive: agroforestry, no-till Fukuoka farming, Asian blue-green algal wet rice farming, natural rainfall arid farming, and indigenous farming.
• Build compost (using earthworm) for soil fertility.
• Deep soil preparation (double digging) sets a foundation for building good soil.
• Companion planting enhances growth and plant health.
• Carbon-efficient crops produces carbon for compost.
• Calorie-efficient crops produces lots of calories.
• Open-pollinated seeds preserves genetic diversity.
• A holistic farming system minimizes waste and required inputs.
• Start small and build from there.

The Big Idea: With creativity and persistence, you can live well on a small homestead, even if the climate is difficult and the soil is subpar.

• Every homestead will be unique. Contours, zones and sectors should be mapped out on paper before getting started.
• Zones are concentric circles around your home. Zone 0 is your home. Zone 1 is next out and will contain herbs, etc. Zone 5 is further away and will contain less visited trees and bushes.
• Sectors are like slices of a pie-chart  that clearly define sunniest spots, wind tunnels, water courses, etc.
• Develop the land slowly so that you have time to experiment, adjust, and enjoy.
• Develop intimate knowledge of every corner of your land.
• Encourage what wants to stay and let the rest go away. This will lighten your work immensely.
• Soil is made of sand, silt, and clay. There is an ideal ratio of all three for plants.
• Important layers are: topsoil (2-8″), subsoil (12-30″), and bedrock.
• Only a few plants (comfrey, dandelions, daikon radish) have roots long enough to penetrate subsoil and bring nutrients up.
• Amend soil by adding good organic material like compost, humus, and worms.
• A well-designed compost bin can speedy up decomposition and keep things clean.
• Red Wrigglers are the best compost worm.
• Chickens can be a great help turning compost.
• Chicken manure must be aged one year before using on plants.
• Comfrey fixes nitrogen, attracts bees, can reach down into the subsoil, and can be used to supplement compost piles or as green mulch. Just be careful to plant comfrey in an unused area of land.
• Digging and tilling disrupts the organisms living in good soil. Try the no-till method instead.
• Instead of digging vegetable garden beds, use raised bed gardens.
• Try hugelkultur raised bed gardens.
• Try keyhole raised bed gardens.
• Try lasagna raised bed gardens.
• Copper mesh along the top sides of raised bed walls keeps slugs away.
• An herb spiral is a classic permaculture design.
• Every vegetable has its own growing preference. Proper timing and environment is essential to learn.
• Easy starter crops: garlic, chard, potatoes, squash.
• Crop rotation is essential to healthy gardens.
• Get at least on really comprehensive gardening guide to explain each plant’s preferences.
• Legumes are great for the soil.
• Greenhouses are not a luxury. They are integral to a successful homestead.
• You can find lots of inexpensive DIY designs online.
• Traditionally, greenhouses are placed with maximum southern exposure but this is not a hard rule.
• Three purposes of a greenhouse: starting seeds, growing plants that prefer warmth, prolonging seasonal growth. If you’re a gardening enthusiast looking to extend your growing season, consider buying a greenhouse.
• Brussel sprouts are underrated vegetables and should be started inside.
• Ladybugs are fantastic for dealing with an aphid problem.
• Even the smallest homestead should have a wild Zone 5. (Zone 4 is a food forest. Zones 2 and 3 are gardens, compost, and animals.
• Hugulkulture is ideal in colder climates because it creates a warmer environment for growing.
• Natural or manmade microclimates help protect plants from wind and cold.
• While not required, good livestock design makes permaculture easier.
• Chickens are great for eggs, manure, composting scraps.
• Chicken manure always needs to be aged before using.
• Chickens need to be well-protected from predators
• Ducks are great for eggs and slug control.
• Ducks are harder to keep because of their water requirements. Minimum 4 inches of water to dunk their heads.
• Rabbits are great for meat production.
• Rabbit manure can be used immediately in gardens.
• Turkeys are good for meat and eggs and very easy to care for.
• Build a chicken tractor and a henposter if you raise chickens.
• Principle 1: Feedback loops: accepting and responding to change.
• Principle 2: Integrated symbiotic support between all systems: every system must support other systems and in turn be supported by other systems.
• Principle 3: Cultivate local species: avoid introducing invasive species.
• Principle 4: Ensure the fair distribution of yield and empower others to become self-sustaining.
• Principle 5: Continuous and mindful observation.
• Principle 6: Intelligent design and the observation of naturally occurring patterns.
• Principle 7: Capturing and storing energy and the efficient use of resources.
• Principle 8: Ensure a yield.
• Principle 9: Start small and move slowly.
• Principle 10: Introduce renewable, biological resources only.
• Principle 11: Celebrate and value diversity.
• Principle 12: See creative solutions not problems.
• Save any valuable seeds in labeled pill bottles or envelopes.
• Learn to preserve harvest with canning, drying, root cellars, cold rooms, freezing.
• Cold frames and greenhouses help to prolong the growing season.
• Read Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets.

• Historically, children had chores and responsibilities that taught them how to be an adult.
• Our children were homeschooled, never had television, and were encouraged to pursue entrepreneurial adventures.
• I don’t believe in allowances.
• 50 years ago, 50% of produce grown in America came from backyard gardens.  Gardening teaches children about responsibility and nature.
• According to the hygiene hypothesis, sheltering children from dirt and minor pathogens leads to allergies, asthma, and a weaker immune systems.

• Traditional agricultures has always used grazing animals to replenish the soil.
• The circle of life demands that something must die for something to live.
• Animal activists will learn more working on a functioning organic farm with animals than sitting in air-conditioned home, reading articles on the internet.
• Chickens and pigs are great for turning scraps into fertilizer.
• Nobody in the world goes hungry because of lack of food production.  What kills people is food distribution problems.
• Heifer International is getting it right, by starting with livestock.
• Not all plants are good.  Many grains, grown industrially, devastate our topsoil.
• If people knew more about where food came from, we would all be better off.
• Can you name four vegetables that grow underground?  Above ground? Legumes?
• Spend some serious time on a farm.
• Start a backyard vegetable garden.
• Eat more grass-fed beef and less chicken and less pork.
• Raise small livestock (rabbits, chickens).
• Take your kids hunting.

Ch. 3: Hog Killin’s and Laying in the Larder

• The average town only has three days’ supply of food.
• The first supermarket in America appeared in the 1940’s.
• Nobody goes hungry because of lack of food.  They go hungry due to a lack of distribution.
• Having all food available all year is not natural.
• Lack of food security, caused by our current system makes us vulnerable.
• Buy more food from local farmers.
• Learn how to preserve food.
• Buy a big freezer and store more food.
• Start a 19th-century hobby.
• Grow some food on your property.

Ch. 4: Wrappings, Trappings, and Foil

• Book: Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman
• Learn how to preserve your own food.
• Learn how to extend your gardening season with cool-season crops like brassicas, carrots, beets, and greens.
• Take your own containers to the farmer’s market and grocery store.
• Reduce or eliminate buying processed foods.  They are responsible for all the wasteful packaging.
• Get a ton of stackable, reusable containers.
• Get a good thermos.

Ch. 5: Lawn Farms and Kitchen Chickens

• Long distance distribution now defines the modern food system.
• Half of all food fit for human consumption never gets eaten.  Much is lost to long-distance transportation.
• Lots of farmland is going underused because farmers are getting older and the children are not farmers.
• You can’t preserve farmland without preserving farmers.
• Urban farm example: raised beds, chicken yard, worm farm.
• Will Allen, Growing Power in Milwaukee: fish, hoophouses, warm farm.
• Small Plot Intensive Farming (SPIN): half-acre, vertical stacking, polyculture.
• Combining plants and animals gets the best of both worlds.
• America has 35mm acres of lawns and 36mm acres of land for recreational horses.  And much more for golf courses.
• Cheap energy masks the true cost of our food system.
• We’ve traded our backyard gardens and neighborhood farms for Chinese imports and mega-crops filled with diseases.
• Plant edible landscape.
• Use marginal land.
• Eat locally.
• Raise backyard chickens.

Ch. 6: Dino-the-Dinosaur-Shaped Nuggets Don’t Grow on Chickens

• People today have forgotten how to cut up a whole chicken.
• Get a slow cooker.
• Today’s kitchen is nothing more than an unpackaging center for packaged food.
• Learn how to cook a complete meal from scratch.
• Process something simple for yourself, like applesauce.
• Everyone pitches in with cleaning up after dinner.

Ch. 7: We Only Serve White Meat Here

• A quarter of all food is now eaten in automobiles.
• Eat more home cooked meals and save more leftovers.
• Eat more soups.  They are easy to prepare/store and way better than fast food.

Ch. 8: Disodium Ethylenediaminetetraacetate-Yum!

• Quit buying processed food with ingredients you can’t pronounce.  It’s terrible for your gut biome.
• Buy organic and local from farmer’s markets.

Ch. 9: No Compost, No Digestion

• Food that doesn’t decompose isn’t normal.
• Get chickens to turn kitchen scraps into fertilizer.
• Get earthworms to turn kitchen scraps into earthworm castings for your garden.
• Buy only perishable food.
• The only stable foods at ambient temperature are normally nuts and dehydrated foods.

**Ch. 10 The Poop, the Whole Poop, and Nothing but the Poop

• On some farms, half the workload can be shoveling manure.
• Cities in the early 1900’s would suffocate in horse manure.
• Soil fertility is linked to manure.
• Cheap energy led to chemical fertilization.
• Soil is fundamentally a living organism.
• Book: The Complete Book of Composting by Rodale
• Composting + intensive pasture management with herbivores and electric fencing = productive soil.
• We should not be feeding herbivores grain.  It’s not their natural diet.

Ch. 11: Park, Plant, and Power

• We are too dependent on cheap oil, even as we are reaching or have reached peak oil.
• Before petroleum people acquired their own energy.
• Before petroleum, people didn’t commute.  They lived where they worked.
• Without petroleum, the suburbs will have to become more self-sufficient or else collapse from lack of food.
• Green trend: living where you work
• Green trend: passive solar gains at home
• Green trend: edible landscaping
• Green trend: backyard chickens and rabbits
• Green trend: biodiesel

Ch. 12: Roofless Underground Dream Houses

• Earth-sheltered home are naturally cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
• A methane digester can take care of human waste.
• A solar water heater would run showers and hot water faucets.
• A clothesline would replace a dryer.
• Gray water would irrigate vegetables and fruits.
• Rain water would collect in the cistern.
• A small woodstove would supplement passive solar gain.
• A solar array or windmill would supply energy.
• Earth berming would keep the house cool in the summer.
• Tiny houses are replacing McMansions.
• Buy tiny homes that are built with local materials.
• Book: Fire in America: A Cultural History of Wildland and Rural Fire.
• Book: The Moving Feast
• Hogs in forests help to stimulate growth.

Ch. 13: Grasping for Water

• Water is the most essential and overlooked resource.
• Less than 22 inches of annual rainfall is brittle (vs. temperate.)
• Permaculturists are deep ecologists who understand the need to collect, preserve, and use water efficiently.
• The key concept is to slow down and hold onto rainwater on your land.
• Use water barrels.
• Use greywater instead of clean water for toilets and landscaping.
• Consider alternative toilets like composting toilets or moldering toilets.
• Dig more ponds.

Ch. 14: Mob Stocking Herbivorous Solar Conversion Lignified Carbon Sequestration Fertilization

• Traditional farms used to be very diversified, with varieties of plants and animals working together. Modern farms specialize in one crop or animal.
• Perennials and herbivores build soil naturally.
• Perennials are great for building soil because they put all their energy into accumulating root reserves. They sequester lots of CO2.
• Herbivores forage on these grasslands and close the loop.
• Too much grain production leads to deserts.
• Herbivores + grazing management + grasslands + compost can build great soil on eroded bare rock.
• Traditionally, herbivores (cows, sheep, goats) were a stable and omnivores (chickens, pigs) were a luxury. Grains were expensive.
• Cheap oil reversed this. Omnivores > Herbivores.
• Grassland is as efficient as trees at sequestering carbon.
• Grass + herbivores is nature’s miracle cycle.
• Eat more grass-fed beef, less chicken, less pork, less soy.

Ch. 15: Let’s Make a Despicable Farm

• Today’s animal farms are kept alive only by cheap oil, animal pharma, and money.

Ch. 16: Scientific Mythology: Centaurs and Mermaids Now in Supermarkets

• Buy organic, local, unprocessed, non-genetically modified food.

Ch. 17: You Get What You Pay For

• Farmers are often synonymous with peasants.
• To save our environment, farming needs to attract more of our best and brightest people. Even at the very small-scale with backyard vegetable gardens and chicken coops.
• Buy less, but higher quality food and be willing to pay more if needed.

Ch. 18: Get Your Grubby Hands

• When you tax inheritance, you destroy farms.
• Prosecute anyone who pollutes, especially industrial agriculture.
• Reign back eminent domain.

Ch. 19: Sterile Poop and Other Unsavory Cultural Objectives

• Our legal system is set up to support industrial, mono-species farms, not small, diversified family farms.

Ch. 20: I Hereby Release You from Being Responsible for Me

• Frivolous lawsuits cost millions of dollars.
• Due to the risk of litigation, people confuse safe with sterile.
• Our legal system needs reform.

Ch. 21: I’m from the Government, and I’m Here to Help You — Right

• The two enemies of the people are criminals and government. –Thomas Jefferson
• If we want to raise responsible children, we cannot protect them from every risk.
• Quit buying from industrial food systems.
• The answer is not regulations that limit competition but favor industrial agriculture.

Ch. 22: The Church of Industrial Food’s Unholy Food Inquisition

• The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund is the small farmer’s version of the NRA, built to protect small farmers and food rights.

The Big Idea: Aquaponic gardening is a symbiotic, permaculture-friendly version of gardening in which fish supply nutrients to plants, which then remove all fish waste from the water.

• Aquaculture dates back to 5th century B.C. China
• Benefits of aquaponics: completely organic, cheaper than hydroponics, minimal maintenance, minimal fertilizer, lots of vegetable production, fewer diseases, no weeding, no watering, growing fish is a bonus
• In warm weather states, you can have an aquaponics system outdoors year-round.  Just watch out for insects.
• The “basic flood and drain” setup is good for beginners. In this system, gravity carries water from the grow bed to the fish tank and a pump carries it back.
• Use a 1:1 grow bed volume to fish tank volume for the basic flood and drain setup.
• More advanced setups: CHOP, CHOP2, Barrel-ponics
• Stock your tank with 0.1-0.2 lb of fish per gallon of tank water.
• Place your fish tank in the shade if you put it outdoors.  Also partially cover it to help prevent debris and algae growth.
• IBC totes are ideal for aquaponics systems. You can also use a bathtub for a vintage look.
• For your grow media, use gravel or expanded clay (Hydroton). Grow media is the replacement for soil, and houses beneficial worms and bacteria.
• Use only dechlorinated water.  Protect your water from changes in temperature, pH, oxygen levels.
• Fish that work well: tilapia, goldfish, catfish, koi, shrimp.
• Choose a fish depending on your needs and climate.
• Supplement commercial fish feed with duckweed, worms, black soldier fly larvae.
• All plants (except those requiring acidic or basic soil) grow well in aquaponics systems.
• Nitrosomonas and Nitrospria bacteria convert fish waste into nitrites and nitrates, which are less harmfell to fish and nourish the plants.
• Worms digest solid waste and dead root matter into valuable vermicompost tea for the plants.
• Cycle the system with half of your fish to get your system started.
• Check system levels of ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates regularly.
• Check pH. temperature, and check for insects regularly.

As a beginner, gardening can be quite overwhelming, but learning from experience is key. Last year, I jumped right into creating a square root, raised bed vegetable garden without much prior knowledge or preparation. However, this year I plan to approach it differently and do some research beforehand. In addition to learning about plant care and maintenance, I will also research how to properly dispose of unwanted soil and other waste materials that may result from the process. This will not only make the gardening process more efficient but also more environmentally conscious.

I decided to explore gatreecompany.com as we have several stumps and I really want to get rid of them asap.

The Big Idea: Square foot, raised bed gardening will give you more vegetables with much less work, money, and space. For the home gardener, smaller is better. 

Why square foot gardens?

• Makes your work easier since there is less soil and less garden to take care of
• Makes water faster since there’s less garden to water
• Makes weeding easier since there’s less garden to weed
• Creates living mulch which helps create healthier soil and keep weeds away
• Is more pleasant to look at, which makes you more like to spend time caring for your garden
• Makes vegetable garden more practical for urbanites, since you can have a productive garden almost anywhere
• Makes protective plants from the weather or pests with a cage or box possible since the garden is smaller
• Gives the soil the right texture since you will never be walking on the soil.

How do you get started?

• Build or buy a box with sides about 12″ high.
• Place the box in an area with lots of sunshine.
• Fill the box with good soil and compost.
• Divide the box into 12″ x 12″ squares.
• Each 12″ x 12″ square should get one type of vegetable.
• Decide what you want to grow (look this up in a reference book or web site.)
• Some vegetables (peppers) require the entire 12″ x 12″ square.  Other vegetables (carrots) can fit 16 to a 12″ x 12″ square.
• Keep tall-growing plants on the north side of your garden.
• Support your tall-growing, vining plants like tomatoes and cucumbers with stakes, cages, or trellises.
• Look up which month to plant which vegetables.  (The average growing season is May to September.)
• Water with a bucket of warm water and a cup.  Daily, when they are just starting, then weekly, or more, if you live in a hot climate.
• Weed your garden once a week.
• Remove pests by hand if you can, or use natural pest deterrents.
• Fertilize as needed. Worm castings can also provide increased yields.
• Harvest when ready (look this up in a reference book or web site.)