Permaculture
What is Permaculture anyway? Permaculture is a set of design principles that helps humans to work with nature to create healthy and balanced living webs that produce as little waste and as much natural abundance as possible. Waste is only considered waste if it’s not used! Permaculture design mimics patterns found in nature that use […]
Appreciating our Wetlands
Similar to our aquaponic system, wetlands provide multiple benefits to an ecosystem. Considered the “kidneys of the earth”, wetlands not only filter water of pollutants, but also provide habitats for animals, reduce flooding, and decrease soil erosion. Feeling inspired, we then created our own wetlands making sure to include elements to represent producers (plants), consumers […]
Learning about Aztec chinampas farming and setting up an aquaponics system
After introducing ourselves with our talking feather, we visited Mexico to learn about the chinampas farming design that was used for hundreds of years as a means of producing an abundance of food with little input. These finger-like “floating gardens” make the most of the complex interactions between water, plants and creatures to create a […]
Free play: Potting plants and sprouting seeds
There is nothing quite as grounding as working with soil! Spark explorers got to get their hands dirty first thing in the morning by re-potting our tomato and cucumber plants. We also started to sprout mung bean seeds in a dish and predicted how long it would take for them to grow.