Seattle Solar Installation Q&A with Amy from West Seattle Natural Energy

Seattle Solar Installation

Seattle Solar Electricity Q&A with Amy Beaudoin I sat down last week with Amy Beaudoin of West Seattle Natural Energy, a solar & wind energy installer based here in West Seattle. We talked about a bunch of questions that I had as well as questions submitted by readers on topics like: Things you can do [...]

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2012 Homestead Goals & 2011 Year in Review

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Photo: Front yard is coming together as the retaining wall takes shape, and most of the yard is sheet-mulched. The bushes are on their way out and so is the chain-link fence, in order to make way for the garden wall. The new year is here and we’re approaching one year of living here at [...]

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Douglas Bullock’s Fruit Tree Recommendations for Seattle

Best Fruit Trees For Seattle

At my permaculture design course last weekend the guest speaker was Douglas Bullock, of the well-known Bullock Brothers Permaculture Homestead on Orcas Island. Douglas was lecturing on the overall topic of soil, and specifically spoke about nitrogen-fixing plants, sheet mulching, microclimates, and last but not least, orchard design and his personal fruit tree recommendations for [...]

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Early June Homestead Photos

Water Droplets on Spinach

We took some photos during early June of how things are doing in the garden. We got a late start on planting, so typically you’d see a little more activity from most of these plants by now, but they’ll catch up during June. Click on any image to see the larger version: All photos by [...]

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6 Reasons Why I Chose Clover as a Living Mulch

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I mentioned in my post about building raised beds that I chose to add New Zealand white clover to the edges of the raised bed to act as a living mulch.First off, I should explain what a living mulch is, and how it differs from a cover crop: “A living mulch is a cover crop [...]

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How to Build a Raised Bed with Grass Sod Walls

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Pictured Above: Here are our finished raised beds before planting. All together there are 7 beds, all roughly 5′ x 9′, totalling about 450 sq feet. It’s May, and I need to overhaul a large section of the yard to make way for this year’s vegetables.  I have big plans in store for replacing the [...]

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Our Year 1 Fruit Tree Order

Golden Sentinel Columnar Apple Tree

One of my goals for year one was to have some basic fruit in place.  Most will not bear fruit this year, but giving them a full season to set roots and grow will mean a decent crop in 2012.  So, I just put in a last minute fruit order at Raintree Nursery, thinking I [...]

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Seattle Homestead Goals for Year 1

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We have a huge list of things we’d like to accomplish here at the homestead, but to keep things in perspective I’m creating a list of project goals for 2011. Take Care of Zone Zero – I’m going to have more information on the permaculture concept of zones soon, but for now a quick link [...]

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