If you’re thinking of raising chickens, one important thing to consider is how to keep them comfortable on hot days as well as cold days. We’ve had some hot weather during the last five or so years, but we haven’t lost a single bird to heat, even when it got to
What can you do to make your garden more sustainable? If you search the internet, you’ll find all sorts of answers, and this may seem confusing, but there are some basic practices that are easy to understand and implement. In Permaculture we talk about reducing inputs and waste, and this is
This is part of a new series of blog posts for beginner gardeners. These posts may be a little shorter and more specific in nature. The Three Sisters garden is a companion planting technique that maximizes the amount of food harvested, while organizing the plants in a way that gets them to
This is part of a new series of blog posts for beginner gardeners. These posts may be a little shorter and more specific in nature. Every gardener asks the question, what should I plant now? Many of us end up planting lots of annuals: tomatoes, beans, peppers, corn, squash, to
Ever since I completed my Permaculture Design Certificate, I’ve been searching for ways to engage the public on Permaculture garden design and various environmental topics. I did some consultations, started writing articles, and gave workshops on topics ranging from seed saving and sprouting to no-trash challenges for school kids. I’ve been studying herbalism, foraging,
It’s that time again, the time when the rains come, and the plants turn brown, their flowers going to seed. It’s time to collect and save seeds. Seed saving may be the most neglected element of gardening. Every winter, most of us feast our eyes upon the pages of seed catalogs, drooling over the
The practice of Permaculture is grounded in ethics and principles, and many new permaculture students get bogged down by them, impatient to move forward and learn the actual design system. “Why all this philosophy?” they ask. “I just want to learn to design amazing gardens and grow a lot of food.” It’s easy to
Every year I do a species inventory of my garden. I make note of which plants are growing where, and how well they tolerate the level of sun, the soil, and their neighboring plants. Sometimes I discover that plants fail to thrive in our clay soil; such is the case with our blueberry and
If we look around us, we can see evidence of environmental degradation. We might see a stand of trees that has been chopped down. We might have friends or relatives who have lost their homes or towns to a wildfire. Perhaps we hear about the extinction of a species we know and love. Now
You can go ahead and call me a nerd, and it would be true. I engage in many nerdly pursuits and thought patterns. When I’m driving my car, with my phone charging, I find myself wondering if charging my phone in the car lowers the car’s performance just a tiny bit, so that the car
