How Large Should a Beginner Garden Be?

If you are new to growing your own, you might be contemplating creating a sustainable food producing garden for the first time this year. Many people feel a little overwhelmed when they start to consider creating a garden to grow their own for the first time. But it is important to recognise that gardens comeContinue reading “How Large Should a Beginner Garden Be?”

Market Gardening Tips

Making money is, of course, not the be all and end all. Permaculture food production can add value in many, more important ways. When trying to work out the value a permaculture scheme can add, it is important not to only think about money. It is also important to consider the environmental and social valueContinue reading “Market Gardening Tips”

Case Study: Market Garden Permaculture Design

This is a design for a 1/2 acre market garden. As you might expect, the primary goal for this design is to grow a range of edible produce for household use and for sale. One challenge is that the site is not grid connected, so water and energy were top priorities. This design is aContinue reading “Case Study: Market Garden Permaculture Design”

Energy Generation in Permaculture Plans

If you are making a plan for your garden, homestead or farm site, food production is likely to be your primary concern. But before you commit to creating your designs, it could be a good idea to think about how you might be able to integrate energy generation. In permaculture, of course, we always tryContinue reading “Energy Generation in Permaculture Plans”

A Few Simple Tips For Kitchen Garden Layout

If you liked my post from yesterday, you may also be interested in this other recent article that I wrote for Treehugger: The Kitchen Garden: Layout Tips and Ideas This piece is less about the details of bed shape and configuration, and planting schemes, and more about a few simple tips and ideas that canContinue reading “A Few Simple Tips For Kitchen Garden Layout”

Kitchen Garden Layout Ideas

At this time of year, you might be thinking about creating a new kitchen garden. You might be thinking about improving the layout of the garden you already have. There are, of course, plenty of different ideas to consider. In this article: 7 Vegetable Garden Layout Ideas to Grow More Food in Less Space IContinue reading “Kitchen Garden Layout Ideas”

Findings From My Forest Garden

I recently wrote an article for Treehugger: Findings From My 5-Year Old Forest Garden. This is just a few simple observations from experience that may help others as they move to create and improve their own forest gardens where they live. While there is nothing earth shattering, the idea of this article was to discussContinue reading “Findings From My Forest Garden”

Catching Snow Melt in Your Garden

The snow that we had here has now almost entirely gone. The temperatures are much higher. And all that snow melt from our roof now means that the rainwater harvesting barrels are full. I thought this could be a good time to talk about catching snow melt in your garden – to help you makeContinue reading “Catching Snow Melt in Your Garden”

Snow and Frost in the Forest Garden

The forest garden does not, perhaps, look at its best at this time of the year. Nor is it at its most productive. But there is a beauty to the garden in the winter too. Here are few pictures I took on Friday night, to capture the snowy scene before it all melts, as itContinue reading “Snow and Frost in the Forest Garden”

Case Study: Oregon Permaculture Garden

The primary goals for this permaculture design were to create a plan that would allow the residents of this historic property in coastal Oregon to grow food and other resources for themselves and guests that they will welcome onto the site in a sustainable way. The goal was also to create a garden that couldContinue reading “Case Study: Oregon Permaculture Garden”