Soil & Compost

If you’re looking to cut your landfill waste, undo the effects of erosion, reduce your climate footprint, and fall in love with the regenerative magic of soil, your best first step is a simple [...]

“Produce No Waste.” This core permaculture principle sounds like a green ideal to reduce pollution, yes? But that’s just the beginning: this principle also reminds us that nature transforms its [...]

Cruise through suburbia one spring or fall day, and you’ll see them: rows upon rows of paper bags of leaves, lawn clippings, and yard waste, waiting for municipal pickup. Ironically,  the [...]

It’s been a number of years since we moved from our first homestead in suburban Calgary, but we still love to hear the gasps of awe and admiration as we show its Before and After pictures: from a [...]

“Food forest” – “forest garden” – “agroforestry” – if you grew up seeing farms with single-crop fields stretching away into the distance, these terms may provoke some cognitive dissonance. [...]

Work is a Failure in Design – it’s a motto I use again and again, and it’s especially true when you look at composting. The common problems that gardeners struggle with are usually red flags, [...]

Imagine a garden where every plant, insect, and drop of water plays a vital role in a vibrant ecosystem. This is the heart of an epic permaculture garden, a space that transcends traditional [...]

When your farm is located, like ours, in a zone 3B spot challenged by wind, drought, erosion, and cold, protecting the soil and collecting water become major concerns. And so we’ve settled on the [...]

Rob Avis recently had the chance to chat with Kamea Chayne from Green Dreamer Podcast about the poor condition of our soils and the solutions to address this problem, how we can eat a truly [...]

Here is part 1 and part 2 of the Land as Insurance series. In an attempt to understand how to create insurance for my family around food, water, energy, and money, I came up with the idea of [...]

This is a three-part series based on an idea I recently had around the subjects of farming, black swans, and creating a product that can help insure against risk. In this first article I’ll [...]

Join us for a beautiful and info-packed video tour of our permaculture homestead! This is a 3-part series where we explain and explore our: – thriving food forest complete with fruit trees, [...]

 I’m sitting at my computer this morning with my cup of coffee, watching a video called “Soil Carbon Cowboys” and getting inspired. Here, take a look: Like many technophiles, I often get swept [...]

Last weekend both Jordan and I had an amazing opportunity to be part of Rob Avis of Verge Permaculture’s Design Team, participating in an applied Design Practicum at the Groundswell [...]

Permaculturists everywhere are crazy about their compost teas and extracts. They have turned building compost tea brewers into a science and concocting the perfect tea recipe into an art. We [...]

Join Verge and the Calgary Horticultural Society for an evening with International Soil Expert & Foodweb Advisor, Doug Weatherbee, a.k.a ‘The Soil Doctor’. This is a unique [...]

A few weeks ago we had our amazing interns prepare a soil sample to be sent off to the Soil Food Web Lab in Vulcan. (See the blog,

Michelle, Rowan and I were driving home from a vacation in the mountains when we passed by a swale on a farmer’s field in the middle of Alberta cattle country. Naturally, it piqued my [...]

This year at Verge headquarters (i.e. our home & backyard), our goal is to continue to improve the topsoil and grow nutrient dense food. Since we know that the secret to healthy plants is [...]

For the last three years we have been working hard to convert our Calgary inner city home into a thriving permaculture project complete with a front yard food forest, water-harvesting features, [...]

I'm not sure why it took us so long, but we finally have installed our new composting toilet - which cost us $25 to build. All we are missing is some sawdust, which I plan to pick up this week-end.

If you’ve been following permaculture in Calgary, then you’ve probably been hearing about Permablitz – the transformation of lawns into productive, abundant landscapes. You may be [...]

Following my recent blog post on the Do-It-Yourself Vermipod, I've been receiving a ton of questions from folks who [...]

For some time now I’ve been anxious to get a worm composting system for our kitchen scraps to turn our “waste” into a valuable resource – soil! Inspired by some pretty neat worm systems [...]

What is the difference between soil and dirt? Soil is alive. Dirt is dead. A single teaspoon of soil can contain billions of microscopic bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes. A handful of the [...]

 History has shown time and time again that civilizations have risen and fallen based on the quantity and health of their topsoil. Since food is the basis of civilization and topsoil is the basis [...]