makeMIsustainable

Work with me

The menu

The systems

Everything I build, run or have tried in my own yard. Pick what you like, add it to your list, and ask about it — or come and see it running first.

  • Works hereBuilt in this yard and doing what it should.
  • Partly worked hereWorked some of the time; the difference is written up.
  • Didn’t work hereBuilt here and failed. Kept as a record, never sold.
  • ResearchedWell documented elsewhere, not yet built here.

Food

Growing it — in the ground, in bags, on walls and in water — wherever the yard has room and sun.

  • Food

    IBC aquaponics

    Fish and a grow bed on one pump, built from a reused IBC tote. A lot of food per square foot, and its water feeds half the other systems here.

    Roughly $300–650, mostly the pump, media and fish

    Details

  • Food

    Felt wall pockets

    Felt pockets hung on a wall or fence: herbs, strawberries and cut lettuce at the back door, on almost no ground.

    About $4 a pocket, mix included

    Details

Soil & fertility

Turning kitchen scraps, yard waste and woody junk into the stuff that grows the food.

Water

Catching the rain that already falls on the place, keeping it, and getting it to the roots.

Got a yard nobody wants to touch?

Shade, a slope, a wet corner, a layout that makes every contractor wince. The awkward ones are the interesting ones — and the answer is rarely to start over.

Tell me about your yard