Vertical Hydroponics – The Great Space Saver

Hydroponics is defined as “the cultivation of plants by placing the roots in liquid nutrient solutions rather than in soil”. Vertical hydroponics is simply put the vertical distribution of water. It takes up wall space instead of floor space and works much like normal hydroponics. Many people opt for this … Read more

Growing Herbs Indoors: Beginners’ Guide

If you use herbs, either medicinally, or as food, or both, but either don’t have the available space or climate to do so outdoors, growing herbs indoors may be right for you. Indoor gardening allows you to tightly control your growing environment to a degree where you could coax even … Read more

Farming With Horses

How To Farm With Horses In the olden days we relied on the natural resources we had at hand to cultivate agricultural land. Today, many again have turned to these old techniques to save on costs and reduce the carbon footprint cultivation of agricultural land leaves behind. Commonly, horses are … Read more

Water Conservation- Key to Reforestation

For most of my life I thought reforestation was an effort led by tree planting. The concept seemed straightforward; cut trees need to be replaced. Certainly this is how the timber companies do it in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. But what happens if the landscape habitat is … Read more

Sustainable Packaging: Making A Difference?

Sustainable packaging design is one viable way of providing packaging that is environmentally smart and responsible. Ideally, minimal to no packaging is ideal, but not always practical. So alternatively, choosing carefully choosing packaged products for purchase can make a difference in how we preserve our resources. Sustainable packaging, like the … Read more

Drying Herbs at Home

Herbs can be used for a variety of purposes: as culinary flavoring, adding spice and depth to meals, or as medicine to treat or prevent common ailments. Having a home medicine chest of medicinal plants is extremely useful and growing ones own herbs and preserving them for later use past … Read more

The Ancient Mayans, A Lesson on Sustainability

The ancient pre-Columbian Maya culture was one of the great and flourishing civilizations. Mayans used their traditional ecological knowledge to modify their landscape in stable and resilient ways; in essence, they were early practitioners of ecological engineering. One example of ecological engineering is their method of rainwater collection. The Maya … Read more

What is a Water Table?

If you’ve decided to go off grid and become a modern homesteader, you’ll likely need a well. While rainwater harvesting methods can help conserve and reuse the Earth’s precious blue gold, a well is a reliable source of water. Before purchasing land, you’ll need to assess if and at what … Read more

Traditional Yurts as Sustainable Homes

It seems that yurts are popping up everywhere – campgrounds, spas, vacation homes, guest quarters, even a home office. And why not, yurts are low impact and comfortable. Traditional yurts, called a Mongolian Felt Tent or Ger, are designed to be portable, carried by a single pack animal, and set … Read more

The 100 Dollar Laptop

The 100 Dollar laptop, also known as the Children’s Machine, 2B1 and better known as the XO-1, is an inexpensive sub notebook computer. It was created with the goal of distributing the laptop to children in developing countries, effectively giving them the opportunity to explore and learn, in the end … Read more

BP Oil Leak: The Deepwater Horizon Incident

On the 20th of April, 2010, a series of events on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig in the Gulf of Mexico, caused an explosion, the animals, ecosystem and waterfront towns paying paying the biggest price in terms of damages. BP today is still in operation. The Deepwater Horizon was working … Read more

What are Free-Range Eggs?

More than just a trendy term at the supermarket, “free-range” embodies an ethical idea of raising animals in a humane, natural way where the animal is free to roam in open spaces during its life. “Cage-free” is an interchangeable term with “free-range.” Eggs are a common food item that is … Read more

Medicinal Plants and Their Uses

You’ve heard the adage that “food is medicine”. This alludes to ancient holistic health practices, like the Indian Ayurveda, which prescribed different diets for different types of people, with a goal of maintaining an optimal energetic balance for the practitioner. Food can also be understood as preventative medicine, the idea … Read more