Eight Principles of Rainwater Harvesting Begin with long and thoughtful observation: Notice what’s working and what’s not. 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. Start small and simple: Strategies are easier to…
The Big Idea: Learn how nature works. Then work with nature, instead of against it, to practice sustainable agriculture. Ch 1: Landscape Design Permaculture landscape design is about restoring a partially destroyed natural landscape. Keep water on your land as long as possible. Terraces are an important part of my permaculture system. With the exception…
The Big Idea: An efficient, eco-friendly homestead takes good planning and years of work to become stable and self-sufficient. Modern, industrial agriculture is incompatible with a rapidly growing population and resource depletion. Well-designed permaculture systems promote biodiversity and restore land back to health. Nut trees are the core of good permaculture. A nut tree is simply…
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…
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…
The Big Idea: Today’s level of overconsumption and resource-depletion is unsustainable. Ch. 1: Children, Chores, Humility, and Health 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%…
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…
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…