Natural Garden Shed Ideas

Garden sheds can push the envelope of sustainable design and they can show how much can be achieved when architecture and garden design come together with interesting, practical, and beautiful solutions. When we integrate green roofs into our designs, we can add to our covered amenity space without reducing our plantable areas. There are a number … Read more

Ecological Living In New Zealand

Joe Lyth and his family live in a passive house near Auckland, New Zealand, which is a big change from their former home in London. The ethos that made this architect design such an eco-friendly home for his own family applies to all aspects of their life. “We hardly ever buy anything new,” architect Joe … Read more

Legendary Permaculturalist Jerome Osentowski’s Future Uncertain

Jerome Osentowski, the founder of the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute is known the world over as a gardening guru. But now he is facing a challenge from a pest he never anticipated: zoning. Around Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley, the legend is well-known: An eccentric old man living on Basalt Mountain had grown bananas at … Read more

Living Off-Grid in a Self-Built Cabin

Stephanie and Joel share their 14-year journey of building a home from reclaimed materials, living off-grid with solar power, and growing a lot of their own food, from fruits and veggies to milk, meat, and honey. They built their home on shared land using materials they salvaged from the dump, wood from a building they … Read more

Agroforestry in Africa Produces Food Security, Economic Resilience and More

Trees for the Future has released a report that shares the short and long-term effects of agroforestry systems on hunger, poverty, and landscape restoration. The report confirms that their Forest Garden Approach effectively achieves the triple bottom line of food security, economic resilience, and environmental impact. “Farming and agricultural land use are key factors in the … Read more

Mustardseed Earthbag School in Uganda

Localworks has created the Mustardseed Junior School in Uganda with organically shaped classrooms built from natural and locally sourced materials.  The earthbag walls are filled with soil from the site. The 1,146-square-meter (12,335 sf) building is used as both a kindergarten and primary school for local children. No two rooms are the same, which means … Read more