HONDURAS

When I received the call to teach in Honduras, I was teaching the parents of these children 'how to grow more clean and nutritious food faster and get it to their tables' to help insure these children grew up

I was advised that the children in this village needed nutrition,
so I brought my own trace minerals.
With these minerals I could begin building the soil immediately.
They could not only grow nutritious food but also learned how 'biomass',
which is compostable for turning into finished compost,
was full of nutrients for the next season of crops.
so I brought my own trace minerals.
With these minerals I could begin building the soil immediately.
They could not only grow nutritious food but also learned how 'biomass',
which is compostable for turning into finished compost,
was full of nutrients for the next season of crops.

We grew lemon grass as a hedgerow on the terraces
to prevent erosion during the rainy seasons.
to prevent erosion during the rainy seasons.

This woman was the only person who could read and write and she took copius notes.
She told me her father sent all of his children to school.
Her father was the Mayan King.
She told me her father sent all of his children to school.
Her father was the Mayan King.
.... this was the village of La Naranja and most of the village had 15 feet of rock and mud on top of this town. Theses men and women were from this town and helped me to build the first 'tire tipi' in the test garden, they were so happy to be able to use tires to grow food in that they asked permission to use more used tires to stop the spread of mosquitoes and get more food to their tables

When I started to teach the first group of 8 men and women, the soil was flat and as black as I've ever seen. In one day all 49 men had been taught how to dig and shape beds for seeding; otherwise the soil was so poor, it wouldn't sustain any food crops to the end of it's season because of devouring insects.

In this scene we are double digging the first season because we need to add 'air' to the soils. This turns the raisded bed into a 'sponge' to hold ten times the amount of water
PRESCOTT
This project was a large undertaking with 199 pressure treated timbers. I called this job the '8th wonder of my world'.

Finished project and a happy client!
This client originally wanted a timber planter, but I showed her some pics of some large granite boulders and suggested a different look to break up the lines in her log cabin style home.
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Here we see how the boulders, annual and perennial plantings break up the lines in the house. The sod lawn is irrigated from beneath, watering by 'sub surface'.
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I loved designing and re-creating this garden!