Choosing the best location for your farm or garden

By | Homesteading, Permaculture | 4 Comments

How do you choose the best location for your permaculture garden? Most people are aware that gardens, orchards and pasture have specific needs such as sun and water, but what else is there to consider to find the best location for a garden or farm on your land?

This is not that hard of a question to answer with some protracted observation and a handful of tools.

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permaculture drought mitigation mulching

Drought Mitigation: Mulching

By | Ecological Gardens, Permaculture, Water | No Comments

As a Grass Valley permaculture consulting service the topic of drought mitigation is always important – especially with the current drought conditions we are experiencing in Northern California.

Mulching with organic matter has many benefits that make it worth while even without drought conditions and yet it is a simple and cheep action most anyone can use to reduce water use, water needs and water loss on any property. Read More

Soil Restoration

Pine Needles & Compost Acidity

By | Permaculture, Soil Restoration & Building | No Comments
A common debate in the gardening / farming community is whether or not pine needles increase compost or soil acidity. In permaculture soil restoration we use large quantities of compost to aid in building soils back to a healthy state.

For our compost we use a large quantity of manure from a farm here in Grass Valley that is free and also full of pine needles.  So much so that others would not even take it as they believed that it would be more acidic than without. Their loss or ours?

This begged the question – what was the truth behind pine needles and soil acidity? From a Permaculture standpoint this is important as pine needles are a natural occurring resource and we need to know:
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