13
votes
Accepted
What countries favour people who want to live a sustainable lifestyle?
If you're currently in Western Europe, then Eastern European countries may be very interesting for you to look at, because compared to Western Europe:
The cost of living tends to be lower, so you ...
- 256
9
votes
What's the best way of getting an eco-friendly off-grid house?
I think you're right that building your own is likely to be necessary (we're in the same position). What I've discovered in Australia is broadly applicable in the global north, so:
An earthship can't ...
- 3,875
8
votes
What's the best way of getting an eco-friendly off-grid house?
I suggest that you question some of your assumptions.
Difficulties of off-grid.
Off-grid is HARD, and generally isn't worth it unless you are a long ways from the power lines. If you are looking at ...
- 7,207
8
votes
Removing agricultural plastic film waste after 10+ years degradation
Get the plastic itself analyzed. It is likely Polyethylene. PE itself is harmless -- chemically it is essentially a very long chain wax. If there were any solvents in it, by now they have leached ...
- 7,207
6
votes
Accepted
Are bats and chickens good animals for pest control?
My wife and I have about 100 free-ranging chickens. For bug control, they are a mixed blessing. Chickens eat just about any kind of insect they can find, excepting small ants, and thank goodness ...
- 386
6
votes
What countries favour people who want to live a sustainable lifestyle?
I can only tell you about my country, Chile, where I've been watching the situation closely. But since I'm living in France now (for the moment), I'm also familiar with the situation in France and ...
- 442
6
votes
What Permaculture solutions are there for slugs?
You could try slug nematodes. These are parasites of slugs that can kill them. They occur normally in the soil, but their numbers are normally in balance with the slug population. The trick is to ...
- 111
4
votes
Are there any commercially available endophytic fungi to protect fruit trees against rusts?
It is true that some endophytic fungi have antimicrobial effects on their microscopic counterparts be it of fungal or bacterial origin.
This paper whose study employed the use of fungal extracts ...
- 141
4
votes
How much land can a full-time organic farmer take care of?
Research
This is probably extremely variable depending on the specific crops you are talking about. I tried to gather information from various sources. I looked mostly at studies of subsistence ...
- 1,067
3
votes
Sizing a stormwater detention pond
Start here: Quality Farm Dugouts
When doing this for a farm, the usual calculation (Central Alberta Climate) is to plan for 2 years use, plus 2 years evaporation.
Dugouts should be as deep as ...
- 7,207
3
votes
What Permaculture solutions are there for slugs?
Human work as a permaculture intrant
A solution that wasn't mentioned there is to collect them by hand day after day. I dispose the slugs collected into my composting pile where they feed, breed and ...
- 161
3
votes
What is the relationship between permaculture and sustainability?
I think this is a very good question which is quite a challenge to permaculture. The answer depends on what it is you are trying to sustain.
My understanding of the aims of permaculture is that it ...
- 31
2
votes
How can I build a spinning wheel?
It seems the bottom line of the question is low cost spinning wheel.
The Dodeca wheeldesign is available free on line. This has been noted in another post. Porter also sells this wheel and a ...
- 123
2
votes
What is a permaculture solution for dealing with deer in a suburban environment?
I put up an electric fence. The deer wire is about 3 foot off the ground. I take a piece a tinfoil the size of my hand put a dab of peanut butter on it and fold it over, in half. The deer are ...
- 21
2
votes
Soil Restoration Issue - How to deal with thousands of small pine stumps?
The small ones aren't too bad. Conventional rototiller will take care of them. Two inch is pushing what a rototiller can handle. If you are running 10/sq foot there won't be many 2" ones.
This ...
- 7,207
2
votes
Accepted
Soil Restoration Issue - How to deal with thousands of small pine stumps?
If you have a tractor that can drive over them a flail mower should work. If you intend to mow anything on the property it would be worth looking into a flail mower because they're very useful (and ...
- 3,875
2
votes
What's the best way of getting an eco-friendly off-grid house?
We would like to implement as many sustainable strategies as possible, ideally being nearly off-grid, with solar panels, rainwater storage, grey water recycling, humanure / methane tank toilets, ...
- 4,786
1
vote
Quantitative comparison of the economics and output of permaculture versus industrial farms
A back of the envelope approach to this is to ask how many people can a permaculture farmer feed?
And the answer is, "Not many" While permaculture can get outstanding efficiency in terms of ...
- 7,207
1
vote
Quantitative comparison of the economics and output of permaculture versus industrial farms
I don't think "mid- to large-scale commercial permaculture farms" exist in big enough numbers to give a meaningful answer, even if they'd been studied. I suspect that because there's no ...
- 3,875
1
vote
What countries favour people who want to live a sustainable lifestyle?
Wales (in the UK) has a planning policy called "One planet development" which substantially relaxes planning restrictions for new dwellings which will "have an initial ecological footprint of 2.4 ...
- 1,042
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible