I am being asked what is syntropic farming and whether we apply the syntropic farming methods to our permaculture gardening and designs, and also, what is the difference between Permaculture and syntropic agriculture? Is there any difference? Here are my "two cents" on this topic.

PodPonic's recycled shipping container now growing lettuce Take an unused parking lot in the middle of downtown Atlanta, Georgia on Ponce de Leon Avenue, put five 320-square foot recycled shipping containers tricked out with proprietary technology to reduce overall energy consumption and increase crop yield and then grow three tons of [...]

Aquaponics is an amazing system that allows you to integrate a fish-filled pond or tank with grow beds for vegetables and herbs.These very cool systems are a great approach to sustainability and they can be quite simple to build.Check-out this project featuring Charlie from Ecolicious showing you how to build a really stylish looking grow bed!If you’d like even more information about setting up your own successful Aquaponics growing system click here. If you like this idea, be sure to share it with your friends and inspire someone you know. Anything becomes possible with just a little inspiration…

The basics of permaculture, one of the most innovative gardening systems. Work your garden less, get higher yields, eat healthier.

Part 2 of the Permaculture 101 series, this covers Permaculture zones.

Designer Damien Chivialle re-imagines how we feed our cities, one container at a time, combining aquaculture & hydroponics. So, urban agriculture. It's important, right? That’s certainly the conclusion I've come to when pondering the future of food production, our future on this planet, and sustainability in…

This solar powered vertical garden is an Off Grid World original design developed from a need to grow food in a small space using high-yield-high-density aquaponics growing techniques. The system is originally based off of a

Chicago's first vertical farm is located in a former factory and is quickly being renovated to be a zero energy, aquaponics indoor farm.

Make your space more sustainable with the latest information on industrial design and product design.

Discover insightful articles on For a Sustainable Climate and Food System, Regenerative Agriculture Is the Key. Join us in exploring solutions for a just, sustainable, and compassionate world. #For a Sustainable Climate and Food System, Regenerative Agriculture Is the Key

Bioswales are landscape elements designed to remove silt and pollution from surface runoff water. They consist of a swaled draina...

Having never heard of Permaculture, After doing research, what we discovered was a very interesting and earth-friendly concept.

UPDATE: I wrote an in-depth article on Edible Landscaping for Green Builder magazine on "Edible Landscaping 02" pages 31 - 37. 7/18/11 Update: Drudge Report is now reporting that the city of Oak Park, Michigan has seemingly dropped the anti-veggie fines but now wants to impose an unlicensed dog fine equivalent to the same fine and incarceration time. Sounds like a vendetta to me... After Oak Park City failed in its bid to charge Bass with violating a local ordinance for using her front garden to grow organic vegetables, no doubt put off by gargantuan media attention on the case, they are now pursuing Bass for a similarly ludicrous misdemeanor that carries an identical penalty, 93 days in jail, for owning unlicensed dogs. However, Bass’ dogs are fully licensed, the city is merely reinstating an earlier charge that Bass has already complied with. 7/15/11 Update: The city of Oak Park, Michigan is delaying any further action on the Bass's front yard vegetable garden. 7/11/11 Update: My interview this morning with Julie Bass on WLBE 790am (My790am.com) was very informative. Not only did Mrs. Bass check with the city of Oak Park, Michigan regarding any ordinances restricting raised beds, they told her there should be no problems if she did it. There is Michigan legislation that protects people who want to grow their own food. And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together. - Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels Has the world gone mad? In an amazing turnip of events, Julie Bass, homemaker, mother of three, and simple gardener, could go to jail for three months for growing vegetables in her front yard. The Oak Park, Michigan resident was only trying to make a sustainable garden out of the front yard that had been demolished by the City of Oak Park utilities fixing the sewer system in the spring. Passers-by admired her efforts. A single complaint from a neighbor not green with envy - but with mean-spiritedness - encouraged the Code Enforcement department to issue a warning to Mrs. Bass to remove the raised beds of warm season annuals and vegetables. When Mrs. Bass didn't comply, she was issued a ticket and charged with a misdemeanor. She goes to a pre-jury trial on July 26th. "In order to live off a garden, you practically have to live in it. - Frank McKinney Hubbard The reason for the citation is a code that says a front yard has to have suitable, live, plant material. Oak Park City Planner Kevin Rulkowski stated: "That's not what we want to see in a front yard." Is Mr. Rulkowski a horticulturist, landscape designer, or a landscape architect? Does the City of Oak Park have a horticulturist on staff to help them dig through all the dirt on what is a suitable plant or not? Is it based on USGBC green certification, best management practices, asesthetics or personal opinion? Is turfgrass a suitable plant? Are cookie cutter designs a government regulation? Everbody has to have the same landscape? See Julie Bass's edible front yard here. Edible landscaping is still a popular gardening trend in the United States with 43% of households surveyed by the Garden Writers Association Foundation planning on establishing a vegetable garden this year. Vegetable gardening is even being encouraged by the White House - why does the City of Oak Park even want to get involved in such a pickle?  This is not the first case of gardening interference between a regulating body and residents. Confrontations between HOA's and homeowners has increased over the last few years with homeowners emboldened by new water conserving ordinances. Not In My Backyard On In Your Backyard Yard Wars - Homeowner, City Declare A Truce I'm interviewing Mrs. Julie Bass on "In Your Backyard" tomorrow, at our new day and time: Mondays at 11:30am to 12:30pm. Please plan to tune in about this outrageous attack against individual homeowner's property rights. You can also check out the Bass family's Facebook page: Oak Park Hates Veggies. You can also sign the Bass's petition to stop the persecution. The word 'vegetable' has no precise botanical meaning in reference to food plants, and we find that almost all parts of plants have been employed as vegetables - roots (carrot and beet), stems (Irish potato and asparagus), leaves (spinach and lettuce), leaf stalk (celery and Swiss chard), bracts (globe artichoke), flower stalks and buds,(broccoli and cauliflower), fruits (tomato and squash), seeds (beans), and even the petals (Yucca and pumpkin). - Charles Heiser, Seed to Civilization More with Teresa on edible landscaping: Edible Landscaping: So Good You Can Eat Them Right Up More resources:  Lawns are a European invention. Napa-Valley Landscaping - Florida Style, Green Builder magazines, Jan 2011, Feb 2011, April 2011, Edible Landscaping "TheEdible Landscape" - An Urban Farming Renaissance? Florida-friendly Landscape Guidance Models For Ordinances, Covenants and Restrictions Edible Landscaping, University of Florida/IFAS Edible Landscaping, Ohio State University Gardening Quotes - The Spirit of Gardening Carrot Juice Is Murder - Arrogant Worms The garden should be adorned with roses and lilies, the turnsole, violets, and mandrake; there you should have parsley, cost, fennel, southern-wood, coriander, sage, savory, hyssop, mint, rue, dittany, smallage, pellitory, lettuces, garden-cress, and peonies. There should also be beds planted with onions, leeks, garlic, pumpkins and shallots. The cucumber growing in its lap, the drowsy poppy, the daffodil and brank-ursine ennoble a garden. Nor are there wanting, if occasion further thee, pottage-herbs: beets,herb-mercury, orache, sorrel and mallows, anise, mustard, white pepper and wormwood do good service to the gardener.- Alexander of Neckham, Of the Nature of Things, 1187

A giant, winged vertical farm for NYC.

A Brooklyn researcher says raising fish in city warehouses could be a solution to depleted oceans, chemically raised farm fish and mislabeled seafood. Plus, think of the fertilizer! Would you grow your vegetables in a tank of tilapia?

Here is example of a home scale gravity feed constant flow aquaponic unit that I set up in a front yard in Ocean Beach, California.

What do you get when you cross a greenhouse with aquaponics and stick it in (and ON) a 20' shipping container? An urban farm in a box! Literally. Urban Farm Units, designed by Damien Chivialle,

Sky Greens' vertical farm Introduction The wealthy island city of Singapore with an area of 710 squa

The Urban Food Jungle by AECOM aims to provide a space where food is produced right where its consumed, an incredible conceptual urban farming design.

I finally reached my Brother-in-law, Don Larson's place in Leesburg where I stayed for a week. He is one snappy dresser and those bright colored shirts are for the benefit of the 'widow ladies' that keep his social calendar full all the time. Don has this balcony on the 4th floor of his apartment and one day I told him that if that balcony were mine I would fill it with plants and have a virtual greenhouse out there. Don loves to buy fresh flowers and always has a bouquet or two in his apartment. When I suggested he might grow his own flowers on his balcony his reply was, "I could hardly carry dirt and water up four floors without upsetting the building manager." So, I suggested hydroponics (growing solely in water with nutrients added). So Don scouted out a hydroponic farm and we went to investigate. The farm amazed even me. The tower above holds 20 gallons of water and 20 plants. It is totally self contained, requires no piping, dirt, weeding or insecticides. More sections can be added to the tower if you wanted more plants. Does it work? Holy Cow! It is fantastic. Water is sprayed up into the tower with a fountain-like motor to feed the plants and they grow like crazy (1/3 faster than if planted in the ground.) Anything will grow except bulb plants (potatoes, beets, gladiolas, etc). You can also mix herbs, vegetables & flowers. The tomatoes were amazing (we bought some heirloom varieties) and just look at the eggplant on those vines above. I don't think I have ever seen prettier lettuce. We bought one of the butter lettuce with roots in tact. If you stand it in a glass of water in the fridge it will keep for days (maybe even weeks) without wilting. The Living Towers Farm is in Eustis, Florida and they open on Tuesdays and Thursdays for tours and to sell herbs and vegetables. www.livingtowers.com I think Don will be growing his own salads in a very short time--and those 'widow ladies' will be more than happy to help him eat them.

If these Georgia entrepreneurs succeed, shipping container farming will yield "local everywhere" food

The world’s current food system is flawed. With so many mouths to feed, western society has resorted to intensive agriculture that relies heavily on petroleum-based technology, like tractors, plows and seed drills. With increasing population and advances in technology, farms are now competing on a global scale. Food is often flown in from all over […]