Healing Soil, Healing Ourselves
Saturday was Soil Day in my permaculture design course. But if you really want to learn all about soil – from how to determine its texture to how to manage its structure and prevent...
Welcome to the San Francisco Permaculture Guild Blog
Ecotopian Democracy
A few years ago I had the chance to sit down with Ernest Callenbach and discuss solutionary governance ideas. I posted this after the interview. Any reference to state referendum bills and their numbered...
Garden City Part IV – Other Public Land
What public land might be underutilized or vacant that could be used for food production or other ecosystemic uses in San Francisco? We’ve already assessed the opportunities of Recreation and Park Department land, but...
Garden City Part III – San Francisco Parks
After backyards, Recreation and Parks Department (RPD) land seems like a logical place to seek space for food cultivation. Although RPD has over 4,000 acres of land, I am not certain that prioritizing that...
A Roof is a Terrible Thing to Waste
As the buzz around urban agriculture reaches a exciting pitch I frequently hear students, friends and associates ask “what about growing food on the rooftops in San Francisco?” It does seem odd that in...
Garden City Part II – Kitchen Gardening
Once we examine the city as a whole and assess space for growing food, how do we prioritize our growing energy? It seems to me that space where water is available and where people...
Garden City Part I – Calculations
If it is the case that fossil fuels are scarce and not renewable on human time scales, then it follows that any sustainable or permanent culture must develop a food system that is independent...
Urine Charge!
Practical Guidance on the Use of Urine in Crop Production: A Review The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), a non-profit research institute based in Sweden, launched it’s latest publication September, 2010: Practical Guidance on the...
Concrete Actions
So often when speaking to urbanites in the Bay Area and beyond about growing food, I hear the resigned, nearly mantric lament, “my apartment does not have any access to any gardening space.” How...
Ethics and Manure
My first permaculture task? Mix equal parts of manure with mulch and spread it out! We did this – sort of because it was rather hot – at one of the urban eatable gardens....
