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permaculture

Image | Introducing Chickweed
Introducing Chickweed
by Phil Williams

Stellaria media or common chickweed is a cool season annual “weed.” This plant will germinate in the fall or late winter and forms ground covering mats in the early spring. The plant starts to retreat in the middle of the spring and by early summer, it’s gone entirely.
Introducing Chickweed
 by Phil Williams

Stellaria media or common chickweed is a cool season annual “weed.” This plant will germinate in the fall or late winter and forms ground covering mats in the early spring. The plant starts to retreat in the middle of the spring and by early summer, it’s gone entirely.
Image | Toby Hemenway: Scaling Permaculture Principles To Other Systems
Toby Hemenway: Scaling Permaculture Principles To Other Systems
by Adam Taggart

Toby Hemenway has just released a new book, The Permaculture City: Regenerative Design for Urban, Suburban, and Town Resilience which explains how individuals, as well as society as a whole, can apply the same principles underlying permaculture to improve most if not all of the systems our way of life depends on.

Toby Hemenway: Scaling Permaculture Principles To Other Systems
 by Adam Taggart

Toby Hemenway has just released a new book, The Permaculture City: Regenerative Design for Urban, Suburban, and Town Resilience which explains how individuals, as well as society as a whole, can apply the same principles underlying permaculture to improve most if not all of the systems our way of life depends on.

Image | Zone 1 & 2 Food Forestry Project
Zone 1 & 2 Food Forestry Project
by Phil Williams

I’ve been planning a food forest project over the winter. My plan was to reduce the size of my annual garden, remove grass space, add diversity, and future habitat for ducks in the form of a zone 1 and 2 food forest. My plan was to have at least one nitrogen fixer per productive fruit tree, comfrey under fruit trees, and to use higher value and higher maintenance grafted fruit trees.

I feel that it is appropriate to have some grafted fruit trees in zone 1 & 2 because maintenance is easier close in, and management is more intensive in this space. When you move out to zone 3 & 4 I feel grafted fruit trees are not appropriate as maintenance should be less here. My zone 3 & 4 food forests contain native non-grafted species that do not require much maintenance but also produce lower quality fruit. There are three main areas that I designed.
Zone 1 & 2 Food Forestry Project
 by Phil Williams

I’ve been planning a food forest project over the winter. My plan was to reduce the size of my annual garden, remove grass space, add diversity, and future habitat for ducks in the form of a zone 1 and 2 food forest. My plan was to have at least one nitrogen fixer per productive fruit tree, comfrey under fruit trees, and to use higher value and higher maintenance grafted fruit trees.

I feel that it is appropriate to have some grafted fruit trees in zone 1 & 2 because maintenance is easier close in, and management is more intensive in this space. When you move out to zone 3 & 4 I feel grafted fruit trees are not appropriate as maintenance should be less here. My zone 3 & 4 food forests contain native non-grafted species that do not require much maintenance but also produce lower quality fruit. There are three main areas that I designed.
Image | The Permaculture City
The Permaculture City
by JW

A new book by Toby Hemenway. The Permaculture City provides a new way of thinking about urban living, with practical examples for creating abundant food, energy security, close-knit communities, local and meaningful livelihoods, and sustainable policies in our cities and towns. The same nature-based approach that works so beautifully for growing food―connecting the pieces of the landscape together in harmonious ways―applies perfectly to many of our other needs.

The Permaculture City: Regenerative Design for Urban, Suburban, and Town Resilience

The Permaculture City
 by JW

A new book by Toby Hemenway. The Permaculture City provides a new way of thinking about urban living, with practical examples for creating abundant food, energy security, close-knit communities, local and meaningful livelihoods, and sustainable policies in our cities and towns. The same nature-based approach that works so beautifully for growing food―connecting the pieces of the landscape together in harmonious ways―applies perfectly to many of our other needs.

The Permaculture City: Regenerative Design for Urban, Suburban, and Town Resilience

Image | Fire the Landscaper – How Landscapers, HOAs, and Cultural Norms Are Poisoning Our Properties
Fire the Landscaper – How Landscapers, HOAs, and Cultural Norms Are Poisoning Our Properties
by Phil Williams

We are please to announce the new book by Peak Prosperity member and permaculture contributing author – Phil Williams.  Below is the book trailer, the Amazon description, and a few words from Phil about his generous offer for a free download of his new book for Peak Prosperity members.  Congratulations on the new book Phil!
Fire the Landscaper – How Landscapers, HOAs, and Cultural Norms Are Poisoning Our Properties
 by Phil Williams

We are please to announce the new book by Peak Prosperity member and permaculture contributing author – Phil Williams.  Below is the book trailer, the Amazon description, and a few words from Phil about his generous offer for a free download of his new book for Peak Prosperity members.  Congratulations on the new book Phil!
Image | Direct Seeding Trees and Shrubs
Direct Seeding Trees and Shrubs
by Phil Williams

I have planted well over a thousand trees and shrubs on my permaculture site. I have tried bare root, potted, long tap root pots, and seedlings. The problem with all of these options for plant material is that it is not the same as a tree that is planted from seed and is never moved. A tree that is seeded in place has a huge advantage in that it has its taproot intact, and it never had to go through transplant shock. The negative is that for certain seed like apples and pears, you will not get a true to type plant. If you plant a seed from a Gala Apple, the apple tree will not be a Gala.
Direct Seeding Trees and Shrubs
 by Phil Williams

I have planted well over a thousand trees and shrubs on my permaculture site. I have tried bare root, potted, long tap root pots, and seedlings. The problem with all of these options for plant material is that it is not the same as a tree that is planted from seed and is never moved. A tree that is seeded in place has a huge advantage in that it has its taproot intact, and it never had to go through transplant shock. The negative is that for certain seed like apples and pears, you will not get a true to type plant. If you plant a seed from a Gala Apple, the apple tree will not be a Gala.
Image | Farmer Phil’s Permaculture: The Original Permaculture Children’s Book
Farmer Phil’s Permaculture: The Original Permaculture Children’s Book
by Phil Williams

Most of the permaculture books and material you see is geared toward adults with at least a basic knowledge of the design science. My wife Denise and I feel strongly that children are under served in the permaculture world.

This is why we wrote a permaculture children’s picture book. This book is a great way to introduce young children to permaculture concepts. It is the original and the only permaculture children’s storybook in existence. As a thank you to Peak Prosperity readers, I am giving away a free PDF of the book for everyone to try. The download is at the bottom of this article.
Farmer Phil’s Permaculture: The Original Permaculture Children’s Book
 by Phil Williams

Most of the permaculture books and material you see is geared toward adults with at least a basic knowledge of the design science. My wife Denise and I feel strongly that children are under served in the permaculture world.

This is why we wrote a permaculture children’s picture book. This book is a great way to introduce young children to permaculture concepts. It is the original and the only permaculture children’s storybook in existence. As a thank you to Peak Prosperity readers, I am giving away a free PDF of the book for everyone to try. The download is at the bottom of this article.
Image | How to Build and Plant Large Hugelkultur Berms
How to Build and Plant Large Hugelkultur Berms
by Phil Williams

Hugelkultur is basically soil over wood. Hugel beds can be any size, use different sizes of stumps and branches, and different decomposition stages of the wood & different types of wood. There are allelopathic trees that you would not want to dominate your wood. It is OK to have a little black walnut, spruce, or hackberry but these alellopathic trees should not predominate. Also, if you use mostly pine, you will end up with more acidity in the soil.
How to Build and Plant Large Hugelkultur Berms
 by Phil Williams

Hugelkultur is basically soil over wood. Hugel beds can be any size, use different sizes of stumps and branches, and different decomposition stages of the wood & different types of wood. There are allelopathic trees that you would not want to dominate your wood. It is OK to have a little black walnut, spruce, or hackberry but these alellopathic trees should not predominate. Also, if you use mostly pine, you will end up with more acidity in the soil.
Image | Paul & Elizabeth Kaiser: Sustainable Farming 2.0
Paul & Elizabeth Kaiser: Sustainable Farming 2.0
by Adam Taggart

Here at Peak Prosperity, we're continuously on the hunt for new models that offer promise for a better future. These tend to be models of stewardship and sustainability, which contrast starkly with society's current focus on resource consumption and exploitation.

The farming model being pioneered at Singing Frogs Farm, a small micro-farm in northern California is one such example of doing things "right". Developed over years of combining bio-intensive land/forestry management theory with empirical trial & error, the farming practices at Singing Frogs have produced astounding results.

Paul & Elizabeth Kaiser: Sustainable Farming 2.0
 by Adam Taggart

Here at Peak Prosperity, we're continuously on the hunt for new models that offer promise for a better future. These tend to be models of stewardship and sustainability, which contrast starkly with society's current focus on resource consumption and exploitation.

The farming model being pioneered at Singing Frogs Farm, a small micro-farm in northern California is one such example of doing things "right". Developed over years of combining bio-intensive land/forestry management theory with empirical trial & error, the farming practices at Singing Frogs have produced astounding results.

Image | Growing Nitrogen Fixing Plants
Growing Nitrogen Fixing Plants
by Phil Williams

For those of you into permaculture, you know the importance of nitrogen fixing plants. These plants, especially when pruned release nitrogen into the soil, helping to boost fertility to the plants nearby. By practicing chop and drop when moisture exceeds evaporation, you can supercharge the establishment of a food forest, or a timber forest. These plants can also be great companions in a garden or orchard. Be careful in the garden, as some nitrogen fixers can be invasive.
Growing Nitrogen Fixing Plants
 by Phil Williams

For those of you into permaculture, you know the importance of nitrogen fixing plants. These plants, especially when pruned release nitrogen into the soil, helping to boost fertility to the plants nearby. By practicing chop and drop when moisture exceeds evaporation, you can supercharge the establishment of a food forest, or a timber forest. These plants can also be great companions in a garden or orchard. Be careful in the garden, as some nitrogen fixers can be invasive.
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