How to Save and Invest Regeneratively: The FIRE/FREE Path to Financial Freedom

For a lot of us homesteaders, permies, eco-minded people, artists, activists and simple-livers, money is part of the problem, “the source of all evil” and even bringing it up makes people suspicious that you might be some sort of counter-revolutionary capitalist stooge. In our crowd, it can be tough to convince people that talking about money just might be as important as eating weeds. Continue reading How to Save and Invest Regeneratively: The FIRE/FREE Path to Financial Freedom

Why Completely Failing at Gardening is a Sure Sign of a Great Gardener – Transformative Gardening, Part 1

Whenever there’s a completely failed, overgrown weedy tangle of an abandoned garden, I know I’ve discovered a gifted high value gardener with true natural intelligence, just waiting to flower. It’s the surest sign there is. As I am a natural gardening teacher and Permaculture designer, these poor discouraged gardeners frequently seek me out at social gatherings for a sort of gardening confession and penance. If you listen carefully, you can hear keen insights and clever observations through their exasperated sighs, gnashing of teeth, wails of garden guilt: “It’s been two seasons since my last confession…” “I just couldn’t keep up … Continue reading Why Completely Failing at Gardening is a Sure Sign of a Great Gardener – Transformative Gardening, Part 1

The FIRE Path to Freedom – Part 2 FIRE or FREE?

In part 1, we discussed how changing our relationship with money and work is one of the key leverage points for transforming our lives, our society and the world. We explained that designing our interaction with money is a leverage point for creating viral change, because it has a huge “payback” for individuals, can help us fund our dreams, has a huge impact on the success of our projects, and it can be a fun adventure, too. “Hey, wait – sure it can help us invest in successful community organizing and regenerative projects, but money? An adventure?” Yes! Once we … Continue reading The FIRE Path to Freedom – Part 2 FIRE or FREE?

Fire path to freedom

The FIRE Path to Financial Freedom (and The Most Important thing We’ve Learned about Permaculture)

The FIRE Path to Freedom? (The Most Important thing We’ve Learned about Permaculture)   Well now that’s quite a loaded headline! Clearly, we’re going to talk about money and the current popular “FIRE” (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement – but … Continue reading The FIRE Path to Financial Freedom (and The Most Important thing We’ve Learned about Permaculture)

Permaculture and Money: Investing in Transforming our Lives, Livelihoods, and Society

  “I’m not interested in what you do in your garden. You can read any one of 1,000 books on the topic. What I want to talk about is where you’re banking your money, and how you’re spending it.”  Bill Mollison, the Founder of Permaculture As a system of design, Permaculture can be applied to almost every aspect of our lives, including how we structure our finances and fund our endeavors. It’s worth noting that far less than half of the Permaculture Designer’s Manual is about growing food. And for me and Kim, it is the materials on Social Permaculture … Continue reading Permaculture and Money: Investing in Transforming our Lives, Livelihoods, and Society

The Era of Edible Forest Gardening has Arrived

(Edible Forest Garden at Lillie House, filled with food, flowers and medicinal and culinary herbs.) Nature is calling us home, and people all over the world feel it, the urge to reconnect with their landscapes in a more meaningful way than the endless struggle against lawn and weeds. And the forest garden – a designed ecosystem filled with ripe fruits, lush vegetables, craft materials and medicine that integrates native plants and wildlife habitat – is the ideal representation of our rightful human relationship with the world, cultivating the wild, working with ecosystems to meet our needs instead of reaping them … Continue reading The Era of Edible Forest Gardening has Arrived

Forest garden at LIllie house

Forest Gardening Articles and Resources

Why is it that nobody ever walks into a healthy forest and says, “boy, does somebody ever need to do some mulching in here! Somebody needs to weed, water and fertilize this forest, too!” For the most part, healthy forests … Continue reading Forest Gardening Articles and Resources