Exploring my in-lawsâ garden and I found this busy little guy!
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@solarpunkprogrammer
Exploring my in-lawsâ garden and I found this busy little guy!

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My compost is warm!
Iâve never been so excited about compost, but on what has probably been the coldest day of the year here so far, a few days before winter begins, I went out to add another weekâs worth of food scraps to my compost heap, and after digging a small well in the middle, there was a bunch of steam coming out of my pile!
Itâs warm!
Itâs not as warm as I think itâs meant to get, but itâs warm!
Hummus, brown rice, red kidney beans, kimchi, shredded carrot, and tempeh in a wholemeal Lebanese flatbread. The only thing missing was some spinach which Iâd run out of.
Itâs taken a while to get used to the tempeh but now I love throwing it into almost anything.
Trying out the kimchi this week. Itâs not bad but Iâm stilll not sure about it.
Just to add to this, we havenât fully switched over to a plant-based diet. Weâve cut down massively, but weâre still buying some animal-based products.
Some of that is out of convenience, and some is situational (like my pregnant wife having specific cravings, and thereâs not really any negotiating), and some of it is because after stressful and exhausting days, itâs just easier at the moment.
Itâs a slow but always forward-moving process.
Hummus, brown rice, red kidney beans, kimchi, shredded carrot, and tempeh in a wholemeal Lebanese flatbread. The only thing missing was some spinach which Iâd run out of.
Itâs taken a while to get used to the tempeh but now I love throwing it into almost anything.
Trying out the kimchi this week. Itâs not bad but Iâm stilll not sure about it.

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Urban Hacker Bench (uHbench)
A beautiful and sturdy public/garden bench from a standard euro pallet in 8 easy steps using only common tools. Almost no wood pieces are left out. You could also reuse the nails.
This project is totally free (as in freedom) and follows the principles of OSHW (Open Source Hardware). The first design, released in 2012, was published under The Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license. The actual version (v1.5) is now under the Free Art License 1.3
Read moreâŚ
The removal of seating is one of the primary ways capitalists turn public spaces into places of consumption, rather than socialization, play, relaxation, reflection, etc. By leaving no spaces for people to simply sit and exist, weâre forced to buy things to fill our time instead
It seems simple and insignificant, but reintroducing seating can be a radical act of reappropriation. Plus, they can be a place for rough sleepers, or make bus stops more comfortable, and open peopleâs eyes to the potential of direct action - itâs your community, and no one should be able to stop you from improving it
And, itâs free! Pallets are easy to find, building this takes like 15 minutes tops with a friend, and all youâd need to buy is maybe some nails. Easy praxis!
I would LOVE to see benches in more places!!! I have nerve damage in my ankle, and other chronic pain in my lower back/legs that make it really hard for me to go anywhere by foot (despite the fact that I love going for walks) A good walk can quickly become infuriating when I NEED to sit down and cannot find one /anywhere/ The most recent example of this is when I went to PA to visit my partner for Christmas. We took a walk down town to visit his favorite game shop and get some tacos, and half way through the trip I REALLY needed to sit down. I think we walked for about 20 minutes before we were able to find /anywhere/ for us to sit down.
I dont want to have to sit on the ground everytime I need a break, but Iâve done it, and gotten a ton of nasty stares.
We should really start doing this.! I think it would be a lovely idea for everyone, even if they arenât like me and just want a place to sit to people watch or wait for the bus
it was a hard and fun job
and im loving the end result
do note that you are probably gonna fuck up a board or five when doing this, especially if youâre unexperienced with crowbarring, so prepare multiple pallets so you dont run out of parts
Itâs right in the middle of Autumn here, and the weather has been terribly cold and wet for the past couple of weeks, so thereâs not much garden work going on at the moment.
The compost bin is already nearly full and smelling fantastic and earthy, but thereâs still a lot of breakdown to go. Thereâs a nice variety of items in there but I think my ratios are a bit out at the moment. Itâs not heating up as much as Iâd like, although I presume the cold weather plays a part in that.
Iâve started measuring out where Iâm building my first vegetable planter box. Initially Iâm planning on some tomatoes, capsicums, and cucumbers. If Iâve got some extra space for larger plants Iâll put some zucchini down too, since I love using the flowers in a recipe my family used to make.
Iâm super keen try some potatoes and pumpkin too. And Iâll have a variety of herbs in pots nearby.
My wife and I have also started taking down a mental list of flowering plants we want in our garden too, including a bunch of Australian natives that we both love. Iâm super keen to get my hands on some of them, although weâll have to wait many years for them to grow as large as weâd love them to be :)
In my attempt to eat a more plant-based diet, Iâve settled on black beans and brown rice burritos as a staple for pretty much any meal of the day.
Oh and my hummus intake, which was already high, has gone up a lot.
Started a compost bin with some food scraps Iâve been keeping for the past week, some dried branches for aeration, some freshly plucked weeds and grass, and some dried straw thatâs out of the picture.
Iâll keep adding to this for the next little while and then in a few months Iâll use this to start growing some vegetables for spring! Any extra compost that I make will also go into the super sandy soil that I have around my property, so that I can start to fix up my garden beds.

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Basic Homesteading Skills
Crafts
quilting
embroidery
cross-stitch
knitting
crochet
sewing
Cooking and Baking
homemade bread
homemade butter
homemade extracts
dandelion jelly
Canning
26 canning recipes
canning jars 101
60 canning recipes
Gardening
edible trees to plant
what to plant to save the bees
cure and braid garlic
save seeds for next year
braid onions for long term storage
build a greenhouse
Animals
homemade chicken feed
raising mealworms for chickens
why to raise nigerian dwarf goats
Outdoors
starting a fire with sticks
trail signs
knotting
find true north without a compass
Medicine
homemade neosporin
all purpose healing salve
Iâm gonna take a moment to talk about the greenhouse link above. Greenhouses can be quite a bit of work, time, and money to build - and they take up space - so some thoughtful planning and research can ensure that whatever you build youâll get the most out of.Â
Most people, when first approaching greenhouses, just build a generic shed that has clear walls and a roof. Thatâs what you see in the blog post above, while the author kept mentioning how incredibly hot it is. The author is located in central Washington state, USA.
Greenhouse with no ventilation/cooling or heating or electricity or gas, in a hot climate summer climate, cool winter. While conventionally attractive, it is not particularly functional, and is only useful for a relatively short period of the year.
How best to design a greenhouse can depend on factors like climate and latitude.Â
If your greenhouse is located someplace very cold, youâre looking at issues with heating it, or else not using it at all during that time. Thereâs multiple ways to heat greenhouses, traditionally methane or propane gas, although in emergencies, and if it is wired for electricity, electrical heat may be used. Some people have even used wood furnaces (this is less than ideal) For any place with long winters this quickly becomes very expensive. Thermal mass is the clever trick to solve most, if not all, (depending on climate) heating issues in winter - no fossil fuels or deforestation required.
If your greenhouse is located someplace very hot, youâre looking at issues with cooling it, or else not using it all during that time. Thereâs multiple ways to cool greenhouses - fans/vents and shade cloth being the most common. Thermal mass can also help with this issue too. Â
My favorite website on greenhouses (which longtime readers may recognize) is Penn and Cord. Heating and cooling greenhouses so you can use them for more than 6 weeks a year can be very expensive and very energy intensive - unless you start looking at passive solar greenhouse designs, such as those by Penn and Cord. You do sacrifice some space in the back greenhouse for the thermal mass aka giant barrels of water.
Can be built out of used or scrap material.
Above, barrels are on the left, hidden behind the plants. Below, this is what the wall of barrels looks like before plant beds are installed.
These 55 gallon drums filled with water and painted black, all along the north wall, are the âbatteryâ that keeps these greenhouses usable year round. The roof angles are designed so that these receive direct sunlight (hence why they are painted black) in the winter, the sun heats the water, and they help keep the greenhouse warm all winter long. Theyâre working at high elevations in Colorado which means 1) wild temperature fluctuations 2) itâs pretty cold in winter there, down to -30F/-34C. The barrels also modulate the hot temperatures in summer. There are variations around this idea, but hopefully the concept makes sense. Sometimes people will create the northern wall out of concrete, and then put the barrels or bottles of water in front of it, for a similar âbatteryâ or modulating effect. The interiors are painted bright white, to reflect as much light as possible to the plants.
Granted, this extremely energy efficient and far more sustainable greenhouse style does not have the same âaestheticâ, but the space is actually far more usable. Penn and Cord and their crew are growing 365 days of the year, in greenhouses mostly made out of used materials. None of these greenhouses obviously have electricity or gas installed, but they donât actually need it either, thanks to their clever and regionally-appropriate design.
First kumquats are coming though đ
One of the few trees I have that produces good fruit.
Usually Iâve offloaded these to other people, but Iâm gonna try making jam with them this year.
http://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/many-benefits-hugelkultur
VĂĄrias dicas sobre diferentes tipos de Hugelbeds [em inglĂŞs]/ Lots of tips on different kinds of Hugelbeds [in english]
Hugelkultur is so cool!
What can I do? (Solarpunk edition)
It warms my heart to see so much support and interest in solarpunk! I know a lot of people are wondering how they can contribute, and hopefully this answers most questions.
Firstly, I think everyone has something they can contributeâeven simply listening and sharing is a HUGE help for solarpunk as a whole. Arts, design, fashion, architecture, engineering, farming, forestry, pharmaceuticals, medicine, travel/transit, fiction/nonfiction writing, industry, politics, education⌠whatever you work with, whatever your passions or hobbies are, you have something to contribute.
Solarpunk does not just mean solar-powered, in the same way Steampunk does not only refer to steam power.
It means looking towards a brighter future, for all of us sharing this Earth. It means seeing the options weâve been shown for the future (post apoc trash or corporate dystopias) and saying âI refuse to accept thisâ.
Solarpunk is our present day -punk genre. It has the ability to spread and enact true change, if we nurture it enough.
And in that vein, to answer the question âWhat can I do?â We can break down solarpunk into three branches (for now):
Diversity: celebrating our differences, being empathetic, understanding and sharing multiple perspectives. Diversity in our sociopolitical lives as well as diversity for our ecosystems and economies.
Accessibility: advancement in technology cannot truly help humanity if certain classes or countries cannot access them. Disabilities (physical and mental) must be accounted for when we redesign cities for people; we must ensure everyone can get around them.
Sustainability: our current for-profit system is killing us and the beautiful creatures we share our planet with. We are wardens of Earth; we are here to protect and nurture it. Production based on need not profit, and de-industrialized agriculture. Communities should be able to function independently from the whole, in terms of necessities (food, water, power, shelter).
Along with these branches, I believe there are three other movements that will inevitably intersect with Solarpunk, if they havenât already.
Permaculture: bringing back ancient/indigenous/sensible farming practices that we lost or considered âprimitiveâ. Agroforestry, crop rotation, urban/vertical farming are good places to start.
Right-To-Repair: in response to companies like Apple denying our ability to maintain our own devices, there is a large movement dedicated to repairing tech in order to elongate their life cycle and prevent further waste. Why buy a phone every two years, when we could upgrade one continuously over ten?
Afrofuturism: Africa is finally beginning to get back on its feet after the imperialist Rape of Africa era. African Americans are strengthening their voices and cultural ties in this Eurocentric digital age. I cannot properly do this movement justice; it isnât my voice that should be telling you. Supporting and uplifting the voices within this movement is crucial to not only Solarpunk, but to the wider goal of harmony and reparation.
The most important facet of Solarpunk is perspective: not everything will work for everyone, and listening to marginalized people is absolutely essential to growing our movement.
Be safe, be kind, and spread some love.
Eating responsibly
Okay, so this is also something really important when it comes to living a more eco-friendly life: eating responsibly.
Personally, I know Iâm not going to start a vegan diet and remove every animal product from my diet. Instead what I do now is eat responsibly.
Keep reading
Over the past few months Iâve been leaning heavily towards a plant-based diet, and my wife and I have been trying to source any meat products that we buy from local farms, which weâre lucky enough to live only 20-30 minutes away from.
Beans and rice burritos are my jam.
And tofu scramble.

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Can't afford to buy things for your garden?
*Re-posting, with new information
A store-bought bag of topsoil, a roll of landscaping fabric, or a bag of cedar chips doesnât go very far if you have a large garden or a very limited budget. Here are some ways to create the materials you need for a beautiful, organic, productive garden, by both re-directing household waste, and foraging in your local area. I use a lot of these tricks in my garden to make it almost completely free for me to continue growing new things, and expanding the workable area every year!
For soil
Save your food scraps to create a rich compost for growing veggies and amending your soil. There are numerous options for every size of dwelling and yard. Small space solutions such as Bokashi and vermicompost work indoors and donât produce bad smells, so you can keep them underneath the sink.Worm towers, compost heaps, and outdoor compost bins are a great solution if you have more space. The more you add, the more rich, nutritious material you can make for your garden. I like composting because it means I donât have gross smelly garbage bags to deal with, because food waste is diverted. It seems like a lot of work at first, but it actually saves time, money, and transportation.
Seaweed or kelp is one of the best things for your garden, with over 70 essential nutrients, and acting as a weed barrier and a moisture-retentive mulch. I collect seaweed nearby on the beach with my bike trailer, or, when I go for a walk I bring a little home with me each time. Itâs an absolute miracle for your soil.
Worm tower
Fertiliser
There are three things that are essential for plant growth. These are nitrogen for leaves and vegetation (N), phosphorus for roots and shoots (P), and potassium for water movement, flowering, and fruiting (K). Commercial fertilisers will give the relative concentrations of each of these compounds with and âNPKâ rating. Plants like tomatoes also need calcium to produce healthy fruit. You can create amendments for your garden and soil at home so that you do not have to purchase fertiliser.
For nitrogen
Grass clippings contain 4% nitrogen, 1% phosphorus, and 2% potassium (NPK = 4-1-2).
Human urine contains 12% nitrogen, and itâs sterile. Dilute before adding directly to plants.
Legumes such as beans, clover, peanuts, and alfalfa fix inorganic nitrogen into the soil with mycorrhizal organisms and nodules on their root systems. Plant these crops every few years in rotation with others to renew the soil organically.
For phosphorus
Human urine is also a great source of phosphorous and trace amounts of potassium.
Ground up bones or shells add a slow-release phosphorous to the soil
Had a baby recently? Bury the placenta in the garden.
For potassium
Hardwood ashesÂ
Composted banana peels
For calcium
Break down all of your eggshells, or seashells you have found, in a plastic bucket, using vinegar. This creates a soluble calcium solution you can add to a watering can.Â
Soil Acidity/Alkalinity
Many plants are particular about what the soil pH should be.
To make soil more acidic: add oak leaves, pine needles, leaf mulch, urine, coffee grounds or sphagnum.Â
To make soil more alkaline: add wood ash, shell, or bone.
Mulch
Mulch is decomposing organic matter that adds nutrition to the soil, while simultaneously keeping out weed growth and retaining moisture. It also attracts worms, fungi and other beneficial creatures to your soil. Free sources of mulch include:
Leaves
Garden waste
Grass clippings
Straw (often straw bales are given away after being used for decoration in the fall. You can also plant vegetables directly in straw bales using a technique called straw bale gardening).
Wood chips (if you can borrow a wood chipper after youâve collected some wood you can have attractive wood mulch for free)
Straw bale garden
Landscaping fabric
When mulch isnât enough to keep the weeds down, many people opt for landscaping fabric. It can be quite expensive and inorganic-looking. Free solutions that both attract worms and can be replaced in small segments as they break down include:
Newspaper*
Cardboard*
Egg cartons*
Printer paper, looseleaf, etc. in thick layers*
*try to make sure you are using paper that has vegetable-based dyes, so you arenât leeching toxins into the soil.
Soil density/drainage
If your soil is compacted and you have plants that require low levels of water, or excellent drainage, add sand. I donât recommend stealing it from the beach, but ask around and youâd be surprised at how easy it is to get for free. Sawdust also improves drainage. Adding organic matter and mulch encourages worms, who also till and aerate compacted soil.
If the area still needs drainage, dig a hole and fill it with bricks or rocks to create a âdry wellâ
For drainage in pots, add crushed bricks, terra cotta pot fragments, packing peanuts, small stones, marbles, orsand to the bottom under the soil layer. I find these in construction sites, on craigslist, or at flea markets.
Pots and growing containers
If you have space, raised beds are a great no-dig way to establish growing space. If you are pressed for space (like working on a balcony) there are many cheap or free options for container gardens.
Creating raised beds allows you to build up the soil without digging. Free ways to do this include using rocks or lumber (like my DIY âlasagna gardenâ made with the sheet composting technique), using the âwattleâ method with sticks and posts you have found, using discarded straw bales, old bricks,paving stones, cinder blocks or really anything else you have lying around.
Hugelkutur raised beds, which fix carbon and provide drainage, can be made by stacking sticks and untreated wood, and then piling soil or compost over it. (Thanks milos-garden)
Rubber tire gardens retain heat in the night and allow for great drainage. They can also be painted in fun ways.
Herb spirals (here is mine: 1, 2, 3) can be built with stones, bricks, and other found materials.
I often use old cooking pots, barbecues, teapots, or other found objects as planters.
Making wooden planters is easy, and scrap or salvaged wood is also easy to come by. Iâm not a fan of using wooden pallets for DIY projects, but they are also a free source of lumber for things like planters.
If you can track down peat moss, cement, and vermiculite, you can make an easy Hypertufa planter in whatever shape you would like, provided you have a form in which it can dry.
Iâve made hanging gardens out of soda cans.
You can build a self-watering container with a 2L pop bottle.
Start seeds in eggshells
Make biodegradable pots out of newspapers.
Wattle raised beds
Rubber tire gardens
Hugelkultur
An herb spiral
Hanging gardens in cans (2)
Trellises and supports
Many plants need external support, such as stakes of trellises, to thrive.
Rebar can almost always be salvaged cheaply or free and makes a great trellis, arch, or purgolaÂ
Build trellises and supports out of the pliable young stems of plants like willow
Rebar trellis/arch
Living willow arch/trellis
Paving
Paving often requires a foundation of sand or another stable and well-drained substrate, and a covering of stones, bricks, or other weatherproof elements. Slowly collect stones over time, or free paving stone fragments to create a mosaic-type walkway. Often people give these things away on craigslist. I made a patio and fireplace out of free salvaged bricks, for example.
Salvaged garden walkway
Greenhouses and cold frames
Here is a gallery of greenhouses made out of salvaged windows and doors
A cold frame is easy to make with salvaged lumber, and plastic sheeting.
Window greenhouse
Palet cold-frame
Seeds and plants
Swap seeds with other gardeners
If you see a plant you like at someoneâs house, ask for seeds or cuttings
Save seeds every year and build a library of options. Here is a great guide to seed saving.
Save seeds from foods you like from the grocery store: consider growing peanuts, ginger, garlic, peppers, or a walnut tree: all of these and more can be planted from store-bought produce.
Learn to take cuttings. There is a tonne of info on the web about basic cutting propagation, layering, (like I do with rhododendrons) air layering, and numerous other techniques to take clones of plants you like. This saves going to a nursery and shelling out big bucks for all the variety you want.
For cuttings, willow tea and honey are great rooting hormones/antiseptics/anti-fungal agents, which can save you $40 if you were thinking of buying commercial rooting hormone.
You can root cuttings in a potato! (See my methods for rooting "borrowedâ plants here)
Air layering
Rooting cuttings in potatoes
â-
I hope this helps you build your garden outside of the usual capitalist channels! It can be a cheap or free hobby if you are willing to think outside the box, and maybe put up with things that donât look as clean or crisp as a hardware store catalogue. If you have any further ideas, please add them! The more information the better.
This is just under the current annual emissions of the US, the worldâs second largest polluter after China.
âProtecting whatâs still in the ground and rebuilding the soil carbon in our agricultural systems is pretty much a no-brainer, because of all the multiple benefits that we get. In a lot of our farming systems, soil carbon levels are at a state where, if you improve them, you get benefits in terms of water regulation, water quality, stabilising production and resilience in the systems.â
This is why we need to push for municipal composting as hard as our parents did for municipal recycling (in addition to implementing the things talked about in the article)
But while youâre campaigning, you can also get started yourself. Composting is dead simple, since it really is just letting stuff rot until it turns into dirt. Guides online tend to get really complex talking about ratios, what not to put in, turning it regularly, keeping it moist, etc - and that stuff will make it happen faster, but rotting is rotting. Itâs gonna rot. All you really need is a corner of your yard to throw organic waste onto. No meat or dairy because it stinks like high hell, nothing cooked or salted, but egg shells work, as do most any plant products (including paper/cardboard). Put your waste in one pile until itâs decently large, then start putting it in another pile nearby while you wait for the first one to decompose and turn into rich black (carbon-filled!) soil
Or if you donât have space or a garden to put the soil in, you can use services like ShareWaste and MakeSoil to connect with others in your area who are already composting. But all this is assuming you donât already have a municipal program - there may be one that youâve never heard about! Either way, restoring soil is free and easy and something we can all help with! Get composting!