This simple system gives me unlimited compost
Share Post Pinterest reddit Email If there is one thing I can’t get enough of, it’s compost for my garden. I could use tons and tons of it if I had an endless supply. As you already know, compost is almost always the answer to any soil-related problem in permaculture and regenerative agriculture. Soil is not fertile enough → add more compost Soil is not alive → add more compost Soil is lacking organic matter → add more compost Soil is not draining well → add more compost Your spouse complains about your gardening obsession → add more compost …. So, having some on hand for my garden is always a top priority. And although I produce my own compost, I can’t keep up with the current demand. The required amounts quickly stack up beyond what I can produce in my backyard. The standard recommendation is to top up a…
Read MoreJohn Kempf’s 6 Principles: The Garden Soil Protocol That Changed Everything
Share Post Pinterest reddit Email You’ll probably hate me for saying this, but I think it’s true… “Stuff you do in the garden” is only 20% of a rich harvest. The other 80% is fixing your soil.. Because even the most inexperienced gardens can grow an abundance of healthy veggies with almost no effort – when they have super-quality soil. But the world’s greenest thumb cannot make a vegetable survive in soil that is bad for it. This line of thinking is an application of the Pareto Principle: the idea that 80% of effects come from 20% of the actions taken. So the question is: what 20% of the actions are the most important ones, the ones that cause the vast majority of effects in growing vegetables successfully? And therefore what are the 20% of actions that we as gardeners need to focus our energy on? The answer is: fixing…
Read MoreTools to assess your land like a pro
Share Post Pinterest reddit Email A few years ago, while I was doing some maintenance in my food forest, I saw an old, sick-looking tree. Excitedly, I thought, “It’s time to get some firewood.” I took my chainsaw, and since the tree wasn’t that big, I started cutting it without considering how things might play out. As I was making the final cut, the tree suddenly fell on my head. All while I had my chainsaw in my hands. Luckily, the tree was small, and I got only a few bruises. More importantly to my ego, nobody saw my failure except a few birds chirping in excitement, probably “admiring” my human arrogance. Now, I’m not an expert lumberjack, but I’m not a total rookie, either. I was hurrying to get things done and felt overly confident about what would happen with the tree. According to the cut I was about…
Read MoreNever buy mulch again: my simple method to produce free mulch forever
Share Post Pinterest reddit Email Today I want to show you how to ‘produce’ free mulch to improve the fertility of your garden or food forest, from the stuff already on your site, as a byproduct of things that you would be doing anyway. WITHOUT having to deal with dishonest landscape material suppliers or conventional farmers wanting to sell you mulch that might have nasty chemicals. SO THAT you can have peace of mind that you are not importing pesticides, herbicides, microplastic, or heavy metals and that the fruits of your labor will be beyond organic, as you deserve! Because permaculture is all about growing HEALTHY food in less time, with less effort and money invested — and this “hack” I’m going to teach you is a perfect illustration of that. I do it for the food forest on my farm, but you could equally do it for your garden…
Read MoreFood forest cover crop update
Share Post Pinterest reddit Email Somewhere up the family tree, my forebears must have offended a hag coven or something… Behold our ancestral curse: The limestone bedrock. My land is in the mountainous part of Croatia, a region characterized by this particularly challenging landscape feature that has determined the destinies of many generations of farmers before me. On the one hand, it’s the best type of rock for storing water in underground aquifers because it is very porous. On the other hand, due to its porous nature, rainfall far too quickly drains away underground through various cracks in the rock. Also, in addition to its high pH and lack of mineral diversity, the soil that forms on it tends to be shallow: a foot or so (0.5m) deep. That’s why the primary agricultural activity in the region has always been livestock. The conventional wisdom is that you can’t grow fruit…
Read MoreThe simplest way to grow thousands of plants
Share Post Pinterest reddit Email Suppose you want to plant a permaculture fruit orchard here: Let’s do the math and see how much this would cost… Area = 4 acres (1.5 hectares) Plant the trees an average of 6 meters (20 ft) apart and space the rows generously 10 m (30 ft) apart. When you run the numbers, it comes that you’d need to plant 270 trees. Each sapling costs $40 * 270 trees = Total $10800! That’s a lot of money to cash out just for plants. But here is the deal: if there is one thing you can save money on, it’s on plants. You don’t have to buy overpriced, expensive, and questionable quality plants from nurseries when you can grow a whole lot of them yourself. In this scenario, if you were to grow the plants yourself, you would save yourself at least $10000 (after accounting for…
Read MoreHow to improve the soil quality for your food forest plants
Share Post Pinterest reddit Email Almost daily, I get panicky questions from people starting their food forest from scratch and having a blank slate. It’s the analysis paralysis from the information overload that makes people do nothing instead of taking this simple but essential step in the food forest’s establishment. If you do this step, and do it correctly, your plants will thrive. But, if you don’t do it or do it poorly, there is a good chance that you’ll have to helplessly watch your plants struggle, and possibly somewhere down the line, you’ll be replanting your trees, shrubs, and other perennials. So, to answer the question on everybody’s mind about what you should do if you’re starting from scratch — the answer is simple, improve the soil. Make sure to do this before you do anything else because this is your golden opportunity to remedy the soil’s structure, texture,…
Read MoreWhat doesn’t kill you makes you discover permaculture
Share Post Pinterest reddit Email On a nice sunny day, this is how I see the world around me. The actual shape, size, and transparency of these black dots and squiggly lines differ slightly, but this is the annoyance I have to live with.… You see, some twelve years ago, I developed ‘eye floaters’ or these spots you can see in my vision. In most cases, as in mine, they are caused by the degeneration of the jelly-like substance (vitreous) inside the eyes. The onset of these was a very anxious time of my life. At first, I thought I was going blind. Luckily, that wasn’t the case, but the doctors told me there is no cure, and it will probably worsen with time. What was even more disappointing to hear was that this was an older man’s disease, something you were supposed to get later in your life, if…
Read MoreMy unfiltered thoughts about AI in permaculture
Share Post Pinterest reddit Email When I was a kid I spent my days watching Star Trek and then playing outside in nature. From my early days, I was very inspired by the future and technology, but at the same time, I adored exploring the outdoors. Today, when I’m in my early forties, I’m still wired in the same way. Always interested in technology and the world ahead, but also having nature as a big part of who I am. I would go even so far as to say that the most important value in my life (besides family of course) is being connected to nature. I enjoy nature, and for me being immersed in it is a spiritual experience where I can connect with God itself. I guess that you already know that nature plays a huge role in my life, I’m all about permaculture after all, what you…
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