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Earthius is.......an effort to buid true community through face-to-face interaction to build trust and collaboration
.. a permaculture property that provides produce to our family, friends, and community ... a blog about my thoughts on how permaculture can be used to make decisions from the personal to the national and international level ... a test site for experimentation with permaculture principles and Three Zone Gardening design for habitat restoration ... a social effort to educate the public on-site and online about regenerative techniques and social and economic transformation BUT MOST OF ALL, Earthius is a state of mind to which to aspire; a place of love, for Mother Earth and all her creatures. |
What’s Happening at Earthius?
Building community is top priority at The Earthius Project. Here, our collaboration group is taking a nature walk to learn how to ID the best trees for mushroom inoculation!
Lake Earthius enchanted by mist in the rising sun.
Everyone wants to help! The earth is in our genes... learning that healthy soil and clean water is our birthright and that trees talk and take care of each other are vital lessons my generation did not receive. It is high time we made up for it!
Even at the beginning of December, Earthius is still producing! This is our first harvest of Tumeric.
I spread white clover seeds everywhere and succeeded in replacing much of the weedy grass with it. It stays green much longer and looks much more whimsical, don't you think?
Even the individual planting beds are on contour with a mini swale on the uphill side of them. Here you can see the 10-12" deep trench on the left. The loose dirt, grass, weeds and all are thrown on the location of the future bed. On top of those, we place a thick layer of cardboard to suppress the weeds and add carbon; on top of that about 6-8" of free woodchips and topped with compost made by the chickens. The ditch/swale gets completely filled in with course woodchips. It is amazing how well these beds manage moisture.
Every once in a while, one of the tree trimmers will graciously drop off a load of woodchips. These piles rot away when not used... I've seen them steaming in the cold morning air. The partially decomposed chips make a wonderful base for planting beds. The newer chips go on walkways and in swales. Once a year I have a bulk load of rich organic compost delivered that lasts me throughout the year for beds and seedling trays.
This is the typical breakfast harvest most days. Sometimes I have to wait 2 days before I have 2 eggs, but that will change once the flock doubles to 4 hens soon! By the way, these ingredients make a fantastic omelette.
This greenhouse is built to withstand the strong wind gusts we experience here.
An enchanted landscape.
Another bouquet from the orchard. Flowers are as important as production plants. Feeding the hardworking pollinators is a top priority!
Robust spinach leaves like this one provided much of the basis of my omelettes and smoothies in spring, before the weather gets too hot.
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Let's teach our kids that nature matters by making it a part of their school day! Here I am teaching the kids at Envision Science Academy how to do a soil test in the school garden that Earthius designed. Just look at the excitement on their faces!
Our chickens are the best compost machines in the world!
A job that would have taken one person hours of painful pounding took the group all of 15 minutes! The power of collaboration groups!!
There are three kinds of berries growing wild on our property: blackberries with vicious thorns, black raspberries with thorns, and some sort of thornless blackberry that has sprung up voluntarily in my front garden! I simply placed an arched trellis at its base and had an arch of blackberries in no time!
The Earthius Hybrid Greenhouse is a great success. All winter long, we harvest hardy crops like lettuce, bok choy, mustard greens and collards.
Another bed that already has the swale filled in with woodchips. These chips not only look good and create a nice footpath, they also keep the weeds at bay and, most importantly, prevent evaporation of precious water that sits in the swale after a rainfall, giving it time to percolate into the soil under the planting bed.
The Earthius Hybrid Greenhouse is a cross between a wood frame (bottom 3') and hoop-house (upper portion). We attached a 12-year, 12-mil, weave-embedded poly using the wiggle wire system.
Sunrise over the lake at Earthius. It is breathtaking and unique every morning.
Here is the annual garden and Hot Spot meadow in the front of the house in winter. Snow is rare here in eastern NC, so it is extra magical.
Our happy, healthy chickens, fed on critters they dig up and fresh kitchen scraps, manage to vastly outperform commercial eggs in color, nutrients, and taste. Can you guess which one is from our own coop? Yep, it's the top one.
One of the stunning zinnias. A multitude of charming bouquets grace the house throughout the spring, summer and fall.
Zinnias, marigolds, purple sage, flea bane, periwinkles, and a few more, make a happy dance of vibrant color for the dinner table.
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