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On chaos, decomposition, daily practice, and permaculture
Permaculture For Renters
Demystifying The Permaculture Base Map

Tales from the Underground: types of root vegetables to grow

5 Reasons You Should Take this Online Permaculture Design Course

How to grow garlic

Heather Jo Flores

How to write good
Timeless tools for writers of every genre I work with a lot of writers who are just beginning to publish their work, and though their steady flow of amazing ideas blows my mind on the daily, I notice a handful of…

How to Critique Writing, using the EMMA method
A writer who critiques her own work has a fool for a critic. We fear honest critique, but it is possible to learn how to critique writing in a helpful way. But a critical fool wielding careless words at a writer…

Anatomy of a Perfect Blog Post: Greater than the Sum of its Parts
A perfect blog post is equal parts niche, quirk, facts, assets, and carefully-targeted SEO keywords. Anything less will get lost in the abyss of the internet within minutes after you post it. There are a million articles on this topic, but…

How to make Sauerkraut: the Gateway to Home Ferments
Murder your darlings, but DON’T kill your heroine!
Why you should cut your ego out of your writing…but still let your strong female protagonist live to tell the tale. “Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it — whole-heartedly — and delete it before sending your…
Tropes, Women, and the Heroine’s Journey
Is There Such a Thing as a Feminist Trope? What do you think about these ideas? Check out these references: Start here with this awesome video by a man (gasp!) discussing feminist film tropes to celebrate. A lot of these characters…
To Bamboo or Not to Bamboo, and is there such a thing as non-spreading bamboo?
By Heather Jo Flores I recently received an interesting question from a reader,and it seemed like a great topic for this month’s column. She writes:“I just bought a house whose lovely raised garden beds are being strangled by invasive bamboo.…
How to Learn Permaculture for Free
Ten Medicinal Flowers that I always plant in every garden
By Heather Jo Flores I am primarily a food gardener, but there are a handful of flowering medicinal plants that I always include in my garden. Not only useful for home remedies, they provide beautiful cut flowers, improve soil and…
12 Plants to Grow When Gardening with Children
By Heather Jo Flores By no means an exhaustive selection of great plants for gardening with children, the following twelve plants can all be direct-sown, grow quickly and easily, and are fun to harvest for food, cut flowers, or seeds.Corn.Popcorn…

What permaculture is and isn’t
Front Yard Gardens: Rules for Growing Food Out Front
10 Benefits of having a greenhouse
they’re easier to build than you might think By Heather Jo Flores Ten reasons to build a greenhouse: Start seeds early (and late!) Many seeds need warmth to germinate and develop into healthy seedlings. If the growing season is short, getting…
What do weeds indicate about your soil?
By Heather Jo Flores What Weeds Indicate About the Condition of Your Soil “Weeds are weeds only from our human egotistical point of view, because they grow where we do not want them. In nature, however, they play an important and…
Gaining Ground: 8 places to grow food if you don’t have access to land
How to grow tomatoes in a temperate climate
By Heather Jo Flores Tips for cloudy skies tomato gardeners In a foggy, temperate climate, most of us know the drill: Start seeds indoors in early spring and use grow lights if you have ’em. Plant in fertile soil with…
How to grow melons: tips and tricks
By Heather Jo Flores a little ingenuity goes a long way If you’re a gardener and you feel like melons are easy to grow, please, message me! I want to learn your methods. I have found this crop to be one…
Marigolds as a Companion Plant
Why you should be growing marigolds in your permaculture garden By Heather Jo Flores What do you think of when you hear the word marigold? Maybe you imagine those 6-inch-high borders of orange and yellow flowers that your grandmother planted…
How to make gazpacho from homegrown tomatoes
By HeatherJo Flores Gazpacho is often called a “cold soup” by gringos, but around here, it’s served over ice as an afternoon drink on hot summer days. Delicious and refreshing! Here is a quick rundown of everything you will need…
Bring us a Shrubbery! Best plants for edible hedges
A baker’s dozen of easy to grow and disease-resistant perennial hedge plants. By Heather Jo Flores No garden is complete without a yummy patch of edible, perennial shrubbery! Even a small garden can squeeze in a few brambles, berries or ‘chokes.…
How to Prune Fruit Trees
By Heather Jo Flores Most basic pruning, especially on young trees that haven’t been previously damaged or badly pruned, can be done by anyone with some basic information Should I Stay or Should I Go? The main reason for fruit…