Inspiring Suburban Permaculture Example

Permaculture Paradise in an LA Backyard

These guys are my heroes, and this video by Kirsten Dirksen of Faircompanies.com is one of my favorites about backyard permaculture! They do today what I'm building toward.

Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne have been farming their yard in Los Angeles for over a decade. In addition to a mini orchard and extensive veggie garden, they have all the instruments of an urban homestead: chickens, bees, rainwater capture, DIY greywater, solar fruit preserver, humanure toilet, rocket stove, adobe oven. But they don't like to talk about sustainability of self-sufficiency, instead they prefer the term self-reliance. 

"I don't like the goal of self-sufficiency, I think it's a fool's errand to chase that goal," explains Knutzen. "I think we live in communities, human beings are meant to live, and trade and work together. I think self-reliance is okay, in other words, knowing how to do things."

In the video, Erik also says something about how he doesn't believe in wholesale in organics and other trends. He and Kelly are self-sustaining, as much as reasonably possible, for the freedom from having to work for other people more than they care to.

Check out their website, www.rootsimple.com, and their books, "The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City" and "Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World."

#permaculture #self-reliance #backyardchickens