1. Conservation & judicious management of a small forest maintains breathable clean air, cooler temperatures in the heat of the summer, protection from winds of the weather events, wood for heat, biodiversity in the area, assists in balancing geomagnetic forces of the property, and protects the property from air and sound pollution from electromagnetic
radiation, neighbours and community.
2. Instead of high-energy-use materials & labour for fencing the property lines deer dissuaders, berms and hedgerows are being built up year after year. Each year more limbs, prunings, and hard-to-compost detritus are piled up and ”planted” with species that plant, propagate, self-water and otherwise care for themselves. Eventually the
property lines will all be thick, growing, abundant and flowering. The berms & hedgerows are a haven for small critters—mostly birds seeking safety from neighbourhood cats.
3. The old pastures have been replanted (and naturally seeded along the edges) with trees that are beautiful, edible, medicinal and saleable, and ensuring well-being of insect and bird communities.
4. Ponds have been dug (some releasing underground water on a continual basis) to help build a sustainable ecosystem–self-perpetuating, natural, balanced air moisture for growing, irrigation as required, drainage in the wet months, and purification of the
water table water.
5. Edges of ponds are not weeded or mowed allowing for a thick 2 or 3 metre blanket of protection for nesting and resting ducks, small birds and many amphibian species. Mallards will nest and produce babies here now.
6. Gardens are “weeded” or “pruned” or “cut back” once a year to save on human labour and provide more seeds and building materials and nesting places for the birds—casual maintenance for the birds, as the garden club describes it. Once a year each part of the garden receives human attention—except around the main door of the house which requires attention a little more frequently to meet our human needs for tidiness, and
around the gates which would become un-openable without some pruning from time
to time.
7. Gardens combine techniques of heavy mulching, permaculture, biodiversity, guilds & companion planting, conservation of time and water, no (little) digging, low (casual) maintenance for the birds, and the scientific principles of Spirits of Nature and universal energies.
8. A policy is maintained where everything is recyclable in some way: little is sent to the dump, and each project has many lives. Odds & ends of building materials and old equipment are kept for future use and re-use. There have been no outdoor fires on the property for fifteen years contributing to healthy air, and impetus for finding uses for
fallen branches, tree fluff, old construction wood and fenced posts, and more.
9. The White Water Aerobic septic treatment system purifies grey and black water to irrigation standards without leaching of nitrates into the water table, all without damaging a large piece of land with digging, imported gravel and pipes as a standard septic system would.
10. The house is built from natural materials (straw and wood and earth) and will still be standing many hundreds of years from now (while modern gyproc, plastic/vinyl, and vapor barrier houses are being torn down and taken to the dump in less than 30 years).
11. Inside and outside earthen plaster finishes do not need to be constantly repainted saving time and money over the long term.