Several different elements of this project were implemented at various times for a family just beginning their transition to a more autonomous lifestyle. A passive solar/geothermal greenhouse was built including a climate battery and perpetual soils growing beds. An Earth Cellar was constructed to provide a natural place to store the garden’s harvest into the winter and spring. This uses the constant earth temperature to provide a balanced and climate-controlled storage room.

A terrace and hugelkultur garden was created. This garden harvests the roof water from the house to a series of tree wells before directing it to a hugelkultur and terrace below. Using the diversity that nature relies upon for resilience, the garden produced a wide range of foods and flowers throughout the spring and summer to provide a beautiful space that yields and requires relatively little maintenance.