permaculture Archives - Homesteader DepotHomesteader Depot

What Is Two Story Farming?

Originally hailing from the Mediterranean, two story farming is a sustainable and efficient way to multitask on your farm or homestead. It is essentially what it sounds, farming on two “stories”. Only this isn’t in a structure, like the visions of modern urban farms of the future. Two story farming combines agriculture with raising livestock, in a very cool way. Traditionally, farmers use trees as the “upper story” of the two story concept. Carob, olive oil, or some other tree, is grown above an area in which pigs, cattle, or goats roam, allowed to nourish themselves on whatever is cast […]

Composting Chicken House (Video)

When it comes to homesteading, I think the more (proverbial) birds you can kill with one stone, the better. After all, that’s a huge part of what homesteading is all about: creating your own little self-sufficient system. This plan for a composting chicken house is awesome. It’s well-known that chickens can be easily put to work both by contributing to a compost pile or soil amendment with their nitrogen-rich droppings, or by being let loose on a compost pile to unwittingly turn it for you as they scrape and hunt all the delicious little bugs. But these folks in Guatemala […]

Thriving 23-Year-Old Permaculture Food Forest (Video)

I recently had the pleasure of watching this amazing video on a 23-year-old food forest that Robert and Robyn Guyton have grown in the small town of Riverton on New Zealand’s South Island. This is the ultimate goal of permaculture, to create your own natural, sustainable ecosystem that you can live off of, but that thrives and grows on its own. It takes many years and a lot of patience to cultivate something like this, but hearing the couple talk about their relationship with their food forest and watching the blossoms, insects, and hearing and seeing the birds and other creatures […]

First-Time Permaculture (Infographic)

I have always been fascinated by permaculture. It seems like such a cool method of gardening, but also complicated and confusing. I’ve always wanted to study it more, but it’s hard to know where to start. I recently came across this great infograhic that breaks down a lot of the principal components of permaculture for beginners. It’s really detailed and extensive and was originally published on Fix.com with an accompanying article detailing the informatic contained in the graphic. Since we’re heading into winter, why not start to consider trying out some new permaculture methods for spring? This graphic has honestly […]

What Is Hugelkultur?

The name is funny, but for those seeking to have a garden that requires less water and fertilizing, hugelkultur is something to take seriously. The basic idea is to create raised beds on top of buried wood. It may take a little more effort to get in place, but in the years to come, it will require less attention and resources than conventional beds. Why Use Hugelkultur As with any other aspect of homesteading, resource conservation is critical in gardening. Hugelkultur allows you to make use of wood that is not suitable for fuel or building since you can […]