In addition to our focus on earthbag building, occasionally we cover related sustainable building topics. For instance, if you’re going to live lightly on the land in your earthbag home, you’ll want to produce your own healthy food. Today’s post about how to build low cost, durable garden beds is from the Instructables.com website. Most … Read more
You can control storm water runoff with gravel bags to minimize sediment and other pollutants from entering the storm drain system. The idea is slow rain related run-off long enough that the sediments settle or dropout behind the bags. The photo above shows a check dam. Berms are gravel bags stacked along contour lines, which … Read more
The photo and following text is from a vetiver website Patti Stouter found. Please send us links to any relevant articles you come across. There are situations where slopes are so steep, where rainfall is so intense, and where the soils are so fragile that applying the Vetiver System by itself will not work. There … Read more
From time to time we answer reader’s questions. James: I wanted to build with straw bales, but a builder friend advised me not to go with this type of construction here in Texas because of the problem of fire ants building nests in the straw. Owen: No one building system is perfect for every situation. … Read more
We get a lot of questions about privacy walls. The blogger at Sunflower River provides lots of photos to help illustrate the process. Instead of trying to recap what they say on their blog, I suggest following the links below for a detailed look at what they’re doing. Beginning process Wall almost finished Or … Read more
Greenhouses are very popular for extending the growing season, but heating them in cold climates is expensive. In contrast, pit greenhouses — greenhouses built into the earth — use free solar energy from the sun for heating. The temperature of the earth (usually around 55-58 degrees Fahrenheit) helps stabilize the temperature in the greenhouse. One … Read more