Episode-407- Ten Permaculture Projects for Modern Survival
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We have talked a lot about permaculture principles, design strategy and even problem solving in the past. Today though I want to get down to decisive action with ten simple projects you can get started on right away. These projects will improve your sustainability, self reliance and ability to feed yourself if times get tough, or even if they don’t.
Tune in Today as we Discuss…
- Drawing a “zone map” and “energy map” of your property
- Building a herb spiral
- Building a rain garden
- Installing a rain harvesting system
- Create bird habitat
- Build a worm bin
- Keep a wildlife journal of back yard activity (with photos)
- Build a mason bee habitat
- Build a trellis or arbor and plant edible vines
- Barter for seeds
Additional Resources for Today’s Show
- Members Support Brigade
- TSP Gear Shop
- Join Our Forum
- Sawtooth Tactical – (sponsor of the day)
- Safecastle – (sponsor of the day)
- Building Mason Bee Habitat
- Building a Worm Farm
- Bill Wilson’s Rain Garden – Youtube Video
- Heirloom Seed Swap (Please visit, sign up and list seeds)
- Ron Hood’s Survival.com Magazine
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.
Another great show Jack.
One comment on something you said.
You mentioned how plants respond to rain water better than other sources.
I noticed that to be the case some years back and I also noticed that the more lightening rich the storm the better my plants responded.
I don’t have an answer to the lightening issue, but when water falls thousands of feet through the sky it slams into nitrogen in the air. Remember, 80% of air is nitrogen. As that rain falls it gathers nitrogen and when is slams into the ground it releases some of that nitrogen into the soil. So every rain storm is like a little mini-dose of fertilizer.
Keep up the great work!
Hey Jack,
Great week of show’s. I wanted to thank you form answering my question on Monday about the A/C and irrigation. I thought today was a great show because I’m feeling like the person you mentioned at the beginning. I’ve been reading a lot, but I just want to start that apple tree guild. I think these are some good starting point’s.
Thank You
Ditto, great shows this week! You answered a lot of my questions about seeds and I’m looking forward to hearing about “doing” vs. “reading.”
Smiles, you’re the best!
Jack,
You are on fire. Shows are timely, targeted, practical and empowering. Built the worm bin today in about 30 minutes. Cleaned up some cardboard and kitchen scraps as a three fer. Cross cut office shredder work great to shred cardboard. I used the cuisinart to dice the veggies to increase surface area. Tonight, worm harvest begins.
I also picked up a Chandler walnut, and lemon, orange and grapefruit trees today. Will plant on Monday.
So, since I started listening at about episode 267, I’ve planned and constructed a trellised and irrigated 80 square foot garden (5 4×4 beds). Planted multiples of the following trees: nectarine, peach, apricot, pluot, pear, fig, almond, walnut, cherry, apple, orange, lemon and grapefruit. Planted about 10 different varieties of blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. Planned and constructed a compost bin and worm garden.
Tomorrow, on to mason bee habitat creation.
Hey Jack, you will love this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjEOd_zze_M
Hey Andrew,
I’m not sure how mean by that? but I don’t think Jack would endorse such irrational, irresponsible, immoral and wasteful behavior.
I don’t care how you look at it, be it from the point of a left-wing hippy or Conservative republican, if you got half a common sense and little bit of morals then that sorta wastefulness is incomprehensible and appalling to say the least. Set politics aside for sec, In a world (including US) where people increasingly don’t have the means to heat their rooms in the winter or to have enough electricity to have light for their kids to do their homework at night this sort of behavior is asinine and irresponsible.
I don’t see how this is any different than the actions of some of the early settlers here in the US and elsewhere that went on and pointlessly slaughtered massive numbers of wildlife just for fun.
And if you or anyone else endorses such a irresponsible behavior then you are technically a sociopath!
Jack, I’d like to hear your take on this. And for anyone that thinks this sort of behavior is OK then I challenge you to justify it– be it politically, economically, morally, psychologically, ecologically.
– Dax
I live in the shadow of 3 nucular power plans, I am not worried about my greenhouse gas emission of firing up the lights.
If you don’t know the Global warming cultists wanted us to turn out our lights from 830 to 930 last night. I did the opposite
you mean you live by nuclEAR power planTs?! No wonder why you reasoning ability is diminished…lol
Alright seriously, forget about greenhouse gas emissions for a second. Do you think it is wise to throw away precious electrical energy that could be channeled to do something constructive? What about your money? I take it it cost you money to pay for the extra electricity/energy? Are you that dumb to throw away your hard earned money? and lastly if you think that nuclear energy is an endless form of energy you are sadly mistaken. This is the way people thought about Atlantic salmon and so many other things back in the early parts of 20th century. Salmon was harvested and wasted like it wasn’t even food. Now wild Atlantic salmon is literally non-existent and the one’s you can find in the supermarket are farmed and they are totally polluted and very expensive. anyways hope you get my point. =)
@Dax
IF and I mean IF Andrew did that all the time I would think of him as a nut and a loon and yes wasteful. I am pretty sure he doesn’t do it all the time, I think this was in response to the nonsensical “earth hour” and as soon as the hour was over I am sure he went back to his normal living arrangements.
See his point was the Al Gore drones wanted the US to look blacked out for that hour. The even SPENT MILLIONS on TV advertising (money that could have oh I don’t now BUILT A FRICKEN SOLAR FARM).
Earth hour was nothing less that a failed attempt at mind control of the masses. I would probably have turned on all my lights to had I remembered about the “big day”.
I think it may have helped if Andrew explained this a bit more in his video but if you were familiar with earth hour I think you would have gotten it. Like I said anyone that would do this all the time just to do it would be a loon in my book but on one hour in response to Gore based propaganda, I say well done.
Andrew,
Glad to see you took time to protest the ecconazis.
Wish I had remembered. I was too sick (cold) to do much but it is important to let your voice be heard.
In A practical sense I don’t think it will change any minds , but it is not a waste it is a protest in the hope that some may listen .
Jack, I agree about Al Gore and what a big hipocrit he is. I can’t stand hypocrits. If you believe in something then go actualize it. Don’t just talk about it or use it for gaining power. Lately I’ve noticed a lot green-washing from the left.
I guess I wasn’t aware of this extravagant campaign since I try to avoid the brainwashing tube as much as possible. Anyways, I understand where you are coming from but that is not a useful way to go about protesting it. If you do that then you come off as being against resource conservation all the while hurting your own pocketbook. That’s a silly way to protest against gov. control. Why don’t you instead take some measures to become more independent from the national electrical grid. Go get that extra solar/wind power device or work on making your home more efficient so you won’t have to rely on public utilities. I know you are already well ahead of many in this regard but I’m sorry to say your logic does not add up in this case.
– Dax
@DAX
A protest is an individuals form of expression, how does this hurt you ? Give a person a little freedom .
@Dax
I agree with you that it’s a great idea to get off the electrical grid altogether. However, when you want to protest one specific thing such as “earth hour” the best thing that you can do is to show non-conformity to the ideologies that you disagree with. How much extra do you really think that he spent for that hour? Even if we guess really high, we’re looking at an extra $2, and I’m pretty sure that’s a lot more then what it actually cost him to do this. How far can you go to energy independence for $2? Considering all the other options that there are for protesting “earth hour”, I’d say that what he did was probably the cheapest, and quite likely the most effective. I know I poster it to my Facebook to do what I can to get the message out. I would have been doing the same thing myself if I wasn’t out of town visiting my little guy at the hospital.
Carson
@dax
If you’re going to make fun of people for their spelling mistakes, you’d better make sure your spelling is flawless, HYPOCRITE.
A trellis over a deck has been mentioned on several podcasts. The word you’re looking for is pergola.