For Humans, Bugs and Beauty — An Urban Food Forest Demonstration (333)

“This place is famous. People loving coming by here because at any time of year you can get something to eat.” Architect Mark Lakeman, co-founder of the City Repair project, gives a tour of the corner sidewalk outside his Portland office building, where a food forest is … [Read more...]

Share-It Square: Creating Neighborhood Gathering Spaces (330)

Every year for the past two decades, the neighbors near Sherrett Street in southeast Portland repaint their colorful street intersection. Resident Mighk Simpson gives us a tour on painting day. On the sidewalk corners are spacious cob benches (with roofs), a children’s … [Read more...]

I’ll Farm Your Lawn (298)

"I'm not a millionaire but I feel like one," declares Gabriel Pliska. This Vancouver, B.C. urban farmer gives a tour of a residential front yard garden, including planted boxes in the boulevard strip beside the curb. Several homeowners provide him yard space and water for … [Read more...]

The Animals are Allies at Inspiration Farm (294)

"My worms are my hardest working critters…along with all my other critters." Brian Kerkvliet shows the mobile chicken house area where chickens scratch, eat bugs and plant seeds, spread the compost pile, and fertilize the soil. As they clear one region, they're moved to … [Read more...]

Grow Your Food in a Nook and Cranny Garden, part 2 (290)

"We're here to help form things. We have a food forest mimicking what the natural forest does." Ann and Gord Baird's edible gardens make use of less-than-ideal growing spaces on their rocky knoll. Nook and cranny gardens optimize micro-climates — water catchment for … [Read more...]

Grow Your Food in a Nook and Cranny Garden, part 1 (289)

"Chickens are naturally forest birds." A tour of Gord and Ann Baird's edible landscape starts at the off-grid chicken house and yard, containing fruit trees that provide a protective canopy against flying predators. Roof rainwater becomes drinking water for the chickens, … [Read more...]

Peak Moment TV in a Doctoral Thesis

We feel very honored to be referenced with the following personages in Marie Little's doctoral thesis on Climate Change Adaptation through the School of Public Health, Curtin University, Western Australia. Her proposal includes radical mitigation and reduction in … [Read more...]

Handmade Tools Make Simple Work at Inspiration Farm (269)

Watch Brian Kerkvliet cut thick grasses easily and quickly with his hand-built scythe — a far cry from a noisy weed whacker! He demonstrates three tools whose design he has honed over the years: the scythe, grass rake and U- bar or broadfork. "It took a few years to get the … [Read more...]

Shaping Water and Soil at Inspiration Farm (267)

"If you grow good soil, everything else falls into place. You grow good plants, you grow good animals, you grow good people." Permaculturist Brian Kerkvliet shows how he gently shapes soil to form ponds which overflow into connected swales (ditches on contour). They slow … [Read more...]

A New Season at Inspiration Farm

We stopped for a quick springtime tour with Brian Kerkvliet and Alexandra King at Inspiration Farm in Bellingham, Washington. After staying there for a month last fall, I wanted to see the other side of the yearly cycle.  Brian Kerkvliet gave the grand tour to us and … [Read more...]