5 Inspiring Ways to Create a Sustainable and Resilient Outdoor Space

image: grow food sustainablyCreating a sustainable and resilient outdoor space is not only good for the environment but also good for your health and well-being. Here are five inspiring ways to create a beautiful outdoor space that is also ecologically sound:

1. Use Eco-Friendly Materials and Plants

Using ecologically friendly materials and plants is an important part of creating a sustainable and resilient outdoor space. Using materials that don’t harm the ecology of your local area is one way you can save money and keep your outdoor space healthy for you to use. Consider using recycled materials and low-maintenance plants native to your zone. Incorporating native plants in and around an outdoor patio will provide even more benefits, like promoting biodiversity and erosion prevention.

2. Apply Principles of Ecological Design and Permaculture Practices

When growing food in your outdoor space, it boosts productivity to apply principles of ecological design and permaculture.  This helps ensure that your food production and garden systems are integrated with the wisdom of the natural environment and avoids contaminating your soil and water. Sustainable residential landscape architecture practices can help build a network of productive and also resilient landscapes. Multifunctional plants can be used to regenerate degraded landscapes and provide critical habitat at home and in neighborhoods. When growing food, gardeners should look for organic and nontoxic products as well as follow the principles of permaculture to ensure the food they grow is healthy and supports beneficial wildlife that reduces maintenance.

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April 8, 2023 0 Comments

Texas Xeriscape Designs

In Texas Xeriscape Designs Can Be Lush As Well As Water Conscious

By far, most people tend to believe that in states like Texas xeriscape designs have to be dry-looking, mostly empty, and contain only cacti and gravel.  But this is due to a misunderstanding.  Xeriscaping is landscaping with less water, which in states with arid landscapes is an eco-conscious approach to take when redoing an existing landscape or developing a new property.

image: Texas xeriscaping designsMany deserts are actually desertified rather than natural.  The Chihuahua Desert, for example, was not too long ago a forested grassland; then mismanagement deforested the region and pulled up grass plants by the roots.  The area actually gets a large amount of water in the form of precipitation.  In the winter of 2022-2023, for example, an ice storm held millions of gallons of water in suspension for several days before it melted, giving it ample time to soak into the ground afterward.

Texas Xeriscape Designs That Match Nature

The issue is often degradation of natural landscape function, which frequently causes erosion and prevents infiltration of water back into underground aquifers.  The Big Bend region of west Texas has a varied hydrogeology, so that one land owner can dig down twelve feet for a well while her neighbor might have to go three hundred feet.  Despite this, precipitation can be captured and coaxed back into the soil instead of allowed to wash away.

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What Is Permaculture Farming?

Question: What Is Permaculture Farming?

It’s an unusual term, so I wanted to answer the question, what is permaculture farming?  Farming is pretty self-explanatory.  But how does the application of permaculture change farming exactly?  In this article I give my take on the combination of these two industries.

If you want to learn in-depth how you can apply these concepts in specific ways to your property, my Food Forest Mastery course is now open for registration.  Learn more or register.

Permaculture is a design system that empowers us to cooperate with Nature in ways that deliver powerful results we couldn’t otherwise achieve.  It has been demonstrated in the most extreme climate and region on Earth, the Sahara Desert, and it works in any other place!  Used in farming, permaculture radically improves soil health, restores vital habitat, attracts abundant wildlife that benefit your garden, yard, or acreage, filters and conserves water, replenishes underground aquifers, reverses desertification, increases food diversity, reduces costs, raises property value, and more.

Applying permaculture to your farm project is frankly a no-brainer.  Commercial agriculture is known to be damaging, and the term ‘degenerative’ has begun to come into use to describe practices of land use that do not take ecosystem health into account.

What is Permaculture Farming then?  It is farming with rather than against the natural patterns and systems given to us by our planet.  Permaculture offers us a set of principles that can be applied to any landscape project.  Most people I’ve spoken to about it, however, have told me that they have trouble applying the information.  They spend money on books or even design courses, yet they don’t feel confident enough or know where to begin.  That’s why I created the Food Forest Mastery course, to give permaculture enthusiasts my step-by-step process.  With it anyone can create their own permaculture food forest – an excellent way to combine permaculture with farming.  I eliminated the worry people have told me they felt about making expensive mistakes, too.  So students can achieve food independence.  And the other big thing I heard when I asked people trying to answer the question what is permaculture farming and how do you apply it to your project is the strong desire to inspire communities to be more sustainable.  So I built that into my course too.  If you’re interested in learning my effective, powerful system, which I developed over 17 years as a professional permaculture designer, you can learn more or register HERE.

I hope this article helps you understand more about what the combination of farming and permaculture can do and how you might apply it to your property or project.  If you have questions, feel free to reach out to me via my contact form.

 

February 1, 2023 0 Comments

DIY Permaculture Project

A Client Install

This recent client shared photos of their installation and told me they loved doing the work themselves.  They also said that their neighbors were very pleased and interested.  These homeowners are thrilled to be able to share what they learned to inspire others to use permaculture.

Here is a video of their process.

To learn more about getting a plan that you can install yourself and make adjustments to while you work, start HERE.

image: food forest mastery
November 16, 2022 0 Comments

NEW! Food Forest Mastery mini course

 

Grow A Food Forest

If you’ve been paying attention these last few years, you’ve probably noticed a few alarming developments.  From inflation to millions of undocumented persons flooding across our southern border to the globalist ‘elite’ plan to take control of the world’s food supply, the U.S.A. is heading down an unsavory path.  Essentially, yesterday was a great time to start using permaculture.

Luckily, you can still take targeted, strategic action to secure your family’s access to fresh food, no matter what the nutjob elitists try to do.  A permaculture food forest is perfect for DIY implementation if you’re:

  • overwhelmed by the amount of info out there on the subject
  • don’t want to change careers to become a designer
  • or simply desire to get some roots in the ground as soon as possible.

Like I said, yesterday was the ideal time to get started on this.  At least you can begin before the store shelves empty again or plants and seeds become scarce or too expensive.

I know this all sounds dire, but trust me; I have been paying keen attention, and it’s simply the fact of the matter today.  If you want to survive what is in progress as I write this, you will need to take steps now to grow our own food, cache storm water, build soil, attract and feed precious pollinators, become more interdependent with your neighbors, earn an income at least partially from your home or yard, and establish or fortify shelter from the elements and intruders.

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November 4, 2022 0 Comments

Permaculture in Oregon

Oregon Permaculture: Challenges and Opportunities

Do you want to engage permaculture on your property in Oregon?  If so, it helps to understand the unique challenges and image: Oregon permacultureopportunities you have in this green state.  Permaculture was developed by an Australian, so it is uniquely capable of healing desertified lands.  However, with the amount of storm water many parts of your state receive, you can make the best of what this powerful discipline has to offer.

Challenges for Oregon Properties

One of the biggest hurdles my clients face is the abundance of water.  Combine that with colder temperatures during the winter season and you can get frost pockets.  A frost pocket is a patch where the ground is frozen or covered in frost for longer periods, making it tough to grow plants there.  Another aspect to this combination of seasonal conditions for Oregonians is drainage issues.  This is likely familiar to you as you read this, because it is a common issue.  If you’re new to the state or have just purchased property, this happens when soil is either slow-draining, high clay content, or the grade of your yard does not support good drainage.

Luckily, these issues can easily be solved by the application of permaculture principles.

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August 4, 2022 0 Comments

Southampton New York Top Five Plant List

Plants To Boost Your Southampton Property

In permaculture design, I use elements that offer multiple benefits.  This is known as stacking functions.  This is no different if you are considering plants or hardscape features.  Today I’m going to share my top five plant picks for Southampton yards, plants with more than just one beneficial quality.

image: southampton plants

      1. Agastache nepetoides – Yellow Giant Hyssop is a beautiful native plant that is threatened statewide.  Planting it in your yard can help save this plant as well as provide critical habitat for birds and other beneficial pollinator species which rely on it for food and shelter.  Agastache as a genus offers many colors, and this species has the same beautiful greyish-green leaves as others in this genus.  The scent is no less than glorious, explaining what drives bees so crazy around these plants.

     

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