Paul Coleman's Blog (109)

Just received this wonderful report from Food and Trees For Africa regarding the Permaculture Food Garden began by a community in the township of Soweto, that is benefiting from the US $1000 price we won from the Wiser Earth's Earth Day Living Contest and donated to them.…

Due to spammers I began to moderate all posts. I am hoping I have got the issue solved and from now on as soon as you add a blog, video or post, it will automatically appear.

Debido a los spammers empecé a moderar todos los puestos. Tengo la esperanza que tengo el problema resuelto y de ahora en adelante tan pronto como se agrega un blog, un vídeo o un mensaje, automáticamente…

Great! Just found the188 page complete version of Gernot Minke's 'Building With Earth'. This is a fabulous book, from a man with a long history in green building. Great read. Plenty to munch on. Free download!!

Next, I'll be seeking out the English version of his book on Green Roofs. I've seen the Spanish book, it's loaded with…

Gernot Minke, desde hace años una figura destacada en el movimiento de la arquitectura verde, autor del Manual de Construcción en Tierra, impartirá varios talleres en Uruguay y Argentina, desde septiembre 21 y 13 de octubre de 2012. 

Este es el horario, la información detallada se puede encontrar visitando los enlaces

Curso de…

Manual de Construccion en Tierra

Por Gernot Minke

Escrito en respuesta a un aumento en todo el mundo gran interés en la construcción con tierra, esta manual trata sobre la tierra como un edificio material, y proporciona un estudio de la totalidad de su aplicaciones y técnicas de construcción,incluyendo los datos físicos relevantes,…

English/Español/日本語

When we began this community the vast majority of members spoke English. Recently more Japanese and Spanish speaking people have joined. So, Konomi and I, are going to post all of our blogs in the three languages.  All members are free to post in their preferred language. I have just added a forum to…

The earth we've dug out to create the pit style greenhouse has been placed into earthbags and used to create a path to walk on and a the new pond to feed the plants. In the process we have created a new comfort zone, where we will make a bench, plant roses and have a nice picnic view zone.

This large mound of earth in the corner contains good soil that drains well and that we hope is suitable for cantaloupes and watermelons, a crop, up until now, not grown…

We're building a new greenhouse, hoping to grow Watermelons and Canteloupes, rare things…

We`ve finally got around to finishing the interior of the house. And I`ve decided to take a siesta! A great addition has been the very comfortable queen sized futon. Walls have been lined with Tepa, a local wood, and jute, which allows the earthbag walls to continue to breathe, which makes the air…

I have been busy making the furniture for our cabin. Here is a bench/storage cupboard. It`s very solid, holds a lot of food…

Felix Vargas, who lives up in the north of Chile, where it is much warmer and drier, is building a large earthbag structure and he`s doing a very impressive job, thanks to the help of more than one or two…

A month or so ago I entered Wiser Earth's, Earth Day Living contest, and two days ago I got a message to say that we had been chosen as the winners, for our work here in Patagonia to create a sustainable lifestyle, through our home and gardens.…

It's taken some time, but the turf wall I've been building almost completely surrounds the house and gardens. I just need to make a couple of gates and we'll be able to get the ducks. I have already begun planting local bushes, Chilco, that have lovely red and purple flowers, on top of the new wall. This should look very beautiful.

The photo #2 shows the new terraces I've created while getting the turf for the wall. We'll plant them more…

At the moment we have three places where we are planting and harvesting. The North garden which features, ten terraces and two ponds, with just three terraces planted at this moment, the south garden, where our earthbag polytunnel and future duck pond are located, and the North West garden, which is experimental,  but doing very well and features, Chia, linseed, mustard, along with more regular crops like peas, carrots, radishes and beans... coastal quinoa which we hoped…

I visited the earthbag building blog of Owen Geiger today. I go there often, loads of useful information, presented in a simple manner and read of a new PAHS home being built in the USA.. Above is a photo from the blog.

“Earthen Hand Natural Building recently has created an 800 sf earthbag house on…

We`ve begun the work on our new guest cabin, located in a secluded and well sheltered spot on our land. Joining us for…

February 27th was the Occupy Our Food Supply Global Event to highlight the need for people take control of their own food supply by going organic and discouraging the use of Genetically Modified Crops and seeds. We joined in by beginning a new greenhouse, which will be built in the Walipini style that…

Juts got a message from a friend who is a member here. He was spammed. I think the spammer only got to send two messages, but I am not sure. Anyway, she, he is gone. I check everyone who attempts to spam here and think we have done a good job to keep them away. 

This particular one pretended to be in  a members organisation. If any of you get spammed please contact us straight away and we will get rid of them. All the best to all of you.

We are now reaping the rewards from the garden and are very pleased with the Zucchini's, Basil, Oregano and Cucumbers from the poly tunnel. Soon we should be harvesting the Italian Plum Tomatoes. The Zucchini is presently roasting in the fire along with leaves from the local Tepa Tree, which had a nice…

Finally rain has started to fall heavily again after almost two months of unusually hot sunny days. And it's…