Introduction Community resilience & permaculture design course

The permaculture principles are not only reminding us how to design lands and communities but also how to react to change and make decisions. We had to postpone our PDC because of COVID-19. However, we will start with a 3-hour permaculture session each afternoon following the topics, knowledge, and structure that would be part of a normal Permaculture Design Course. In addition, we will put our main focus on building abundance/resilience in terms of food production, plant medicine, and social permaculture. We also make it available for everybody in social isolation and start sharing the essence of our daily session with the global community and likeminded friends. Join us on this learning journey starting this Friday, April 3!

Permaculture design: How to support nature in a way to become a thriving ecosystem?

Want to know how to design a garden using the permaculture approach? This article and the video shows how we incorporated a garden and shelter to fulfill our needs in harmony with nature. It gives you an understanding of how we came up with the garden design, featuring the permaculture zoning. It gives you an overview of the different stages we went through to turn a degraded area into a thriving ecosystem full of food for soil and humans.

What topics are covered in a Permaculture Design Course? Content overview of a 17-day PDC

What topics are covered in a Permaculture Design Course and how? A Content overview of a 17-day PDC in Thailand at Gaia Ashram in April 2019. We will answer this question giving an overview about the topics and hand-on practice based on the 2019 PDC organized by flowful at Gaia Ashram in the Northeast of Thailand. You will learn about the different topics but also how they work together to finally create one big picture.

lifestyle, adjust your habitsLars BlumeJanuary 11, 2020Gaia Ashrampermaculture, loving action, nature, gardening, no waste, PDCComment

Why attending a PDC in Thailand? A review of the 17-day Permaculture Design Course at Gaia Ashram

Why attending a Permaculture Design Course in Thailand and how does it chage your way of looking at things?
We will answer these questions giving a review of the 2019 PDC organized by flowful at Gaia Ashram in the Northeast of Thailand. You will learn something about the people who attended, group dynamics, thematic focus and the successes we achieved during the course.

lifestyle, adjust your habitsLars BlumeNovember 29, 2019Gaia Ashrampermaculture, loving action, nature, gardening, no waste, PDCComment

How to build your house with mud? "The roundhouse" a natural building project at Gaia Ashram

Want to know how to build a tiny house made out of mud-bricks or other natural materials. This article and the video shows all the stages we went through to build our first mud brick house, following the tiny house principles. It is a reflection on the process building a tiny house (40sqm plus outdoor kitchen) within 11 months from March 2018 to January 2019.

What is Permaculture? An introduction to holistic system design

What is permaculture and how does it interact with gardening or natural farming and where it is actually coming from? One of the questions that are essential to figuring out if permaculture is the right design methodology for you. This article gives you a first impression about permaculture, the history and also current trends and future development of the movement.

food, lifestyle, reduce your impactLars BlumeApril 14, 2019permaculture, loving action, nature, gardening, no wasteComment

How to nourish your soil using the recycling power of worm composting? 5 steps to set up your worm farm

Worm composting or vermicomposting is a great way to reuse your vegetable scrubs. Worms are eating your kitchen waste and turn it into vermicompost that is rich in nutrients and full of microorganisms. This super compost helps you to create and maintain healthy soil, give nutrients back and support your vegetable production. This article covers the main benefits of worm composting and how to set up a worm farm in an easy way.

How to prepare a garden bed for vegetable growing? 10 steps for healthy soil and a better harvest

Starting the vegetable season with a well-prepared garden bed will support the vegetable growth and reduce your maintenance effort. This article showcases how to prepare a garden bed in 10 steps; no matter if you are a gardener or a small-scale farmer.

food, permacultureLars BlumeNovember 19, 2018Gaia Ashrampermaculture, country life, loving action, nature, gardening, vegetables, gardenstories3, gardenstoriesComment

What is the optimal garden bed to grow vegetables? These 6 beds follow the natural farming & permaculture principles.

The optimal garden bed for your specific framework conditions will help you to increase your vegetable harvest, enrich soil fertility and reduce the amount of maintenance over the years. This article guides you through 5 different ways of creating a garden bed for vegetable growth.

food, permacultureLars BlumeOctober 26, 2018Gaia Ashrampermaculture, country life, loving action, nature, gardening, vegetables, gardenstories1, gardenstory2Comment

How to create an ideal site for growing vegetables?

A well-designed and managed vegetable garden can produce a lot of food, even on a small plot of land. This article explores the 7 key success factors for growing vegetables for temperate and tropical climate and gives recommendations how to manage each factor.

food, permacultureLars BlumeOctober 18, 2018Gaia Ashrampermaculture, country life, loving action, nature, gardening, vegetables, gardenstory1Comment

Joining an existing intentional community Gaia Ashram in Isan, Thailand

You think about moving to an existing intentional community? You are wondering about the challenges, hardships and opportunities of living in a community? You wanna know how easy (or how hard) it is to move from a single, couple or even small family life into an existing intentional community or ecovillage? Well, that’s what we did and that’s why we wanna share our reflection and first lessons learned with you.

The magic of Deep Ecology

Our beautiful friend Maria Bliklen, Deep Ecology and Ecovillage Design Education facilitator, talks about the concept of deep ecology, the values behind it and why she has this passion for it. If you wanna widen your circles of identification away from our individual ego to the social and ecological self and find your personal well-being reflected in the well-being of any tree, any river or bird or eco-system, this blog post is for you.

1,000sqm Permaculture Design example in temperate climate

Permaculture in Hannover, Germany. Permaculture design example of a 1,000 sqm land in a temperate climate. The results include design, sector analysis, zoning, analysing & connecting components and the first steps of implementation.

Intentional community life at Gaia Ashram in Thailand

We are sharing our experiences after three month living in community. Gaia Ashram อาศรม ธรรมชาติ is a community for all living beings in northeastern Thailand. We tell you 8 things you might wanna know! flowful tells stories and shows images of a conscious and sustainable lifestyle in harmony with nature.

Permaculture design in northern Germany

Permaculture in Hannover, Germany. Design practice of a 1,000 sqm small-scale land in a temperate climate. Learn about the challenges of slopes and narrow properties and see if a tropical Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) valid in a temperate climate.

It’s going up! Building mud bricks walls

Building the walls of our roundhouse.

WEARING GOOD BOOTS: building a foundation

On our way to build a natural house we've learned to value the foundation.

The new playing field of self-reliance

Why we moved from the urban, densely populated area of Hanoi to Ban That, a small village in rural Isan in northeastern Thailand.