Invisible Helpers

Invisible helpers are everywhere in the soil, air, and water. We actually depend on healthy microbes for our very existence. When you build a natural system for composting raw materials into nutrients for growing food, you have given life back to the garden’s environment by adding living top soil, which ideally should be full of beneficial fungus, bacteria, and other decomposers. These Invisible warriors help keep roots protected from harmful invaders, and add probiotics to the food you grow.

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What is it like to Homestead?

Kai: What is it like to homestead? Well, here’s the truth: Homesteading is admittedly not for the faint of heart – not to say that we aren’t in certain areas of this lifestyle, but I think it’s important to come clean about it. It can be a lot of work, requiring spur of the moment changes, working in the bad weather, learning basic survival skills and much more.

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A Permaculture Fish System

Kai: When I first started breeding goldfish, I knew I wanted to do it in the most permaculture fashion I possibly could. This led me to challenge myself – no filters, no chemicals, no prepackaged fish food. To overcome the commercial ways, I partition the ponds often, and use an ecosystem strategy to keep them clean. When I partition water, it is used to water the garden instead of just getting dumped. It might be odd to say, but I did treat some ill fish naturally, and as for food, I used a Japanese method used for koi – feed from the garden! Meaning fruits, veggies, eggs and garden pests! This all worked well, but there were two things that I could not wrap my head around in the beginning. The first, was when fish would leap out of the ponds and kill themselves. The other, is when I put fry in seemingly “safe” crystal clear water, which caused them to perish. These were conundrums that first year.

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