Articles on intercropping, soil, crop rotation and everything you need in the vegetable garden — from real practice, without the marketing fluff.
A handful of tall fruit trees, a species-rich meadow beneath them, animals that clear the windfall — and suddenly a system runs that once fed whole households. How the orchard meadow works as a cycle, why grazing lowers pest pressure, and how clever variety choice gives you your own fruit almost all year round.
→ Read moreBehind the "Create plan" button sit three calculation steps: how much of what, where the water goes, and where exactly everything ends up. Here are all three, explained without the jargon.
→ Read moreWhat grows out there is more than a weed. It is a store, a home remedy, an apothecary. This section gathers the old knowledge of gathering, preserving and healing — step by step, honestly placed, to make yourself.
→ Read moreDandelion capers, spruce-tip syrup, elderflower jelly. What grows out there along forest, meadow and wayside is mostly free — and often tastes better than what you buy. A guide to getting started.
→ Read moreRibwort as the meadow plaster, yarrow as the soldier's herb, ground elder as the gout herb of the monastery gardens. Most of the plants we tear out of the bed stood in the herbal books for centuries. A re-encounter with what grows right outside the door.
→ Read moreThe narrow leaf from the path edge is the classic cough remedy to make yourself — trusted in herbal medicine for centuries. Two ingredients, a little patience, done. Here is the recipe — and the knowledge behind it.
→ Read moreTree resin seals the tree's own wounds. In the folk medicine of the Alpine region it has been used for salves for centuries — pine resin salve is one of the oldest home remedies: three ingredients, a water bath, done. Here is the recipe and the knowledge around it.
→ Read moreA jar, a good oil, a handful of herbs. Out of it comes calendula oil, St. John's wort oil, lavender oil — and the basis for every homemade salve. The infused oil is the simplest and most versatile method in the home apothecary.
→ Read moreWater falls on the roof, is filtered, drunk, reused — and never leaves the plot as wastewater. Electricity from the sun, heat from wood and compost, food from beds inside and out. A vision of the house as a closed loop — and an honest stocktake of what is possible today.
→ Read moreCompost is the engine of every permaculture garden: it turns waste into fertiliser, closes the nutrient cycle and builds living soil. Here is how to set it up right — and why it doesn’t stink.
→ Read moreA raised bed is a standing hügelkultur: layered coarse to fine, it warms up earlier, supplies nutrients for years, and spares your back. Here is how to build and fill it right.
→ Read moreThe herb spiral is the permaculture teaching piece par excellence: a rising dry-stone wall creates four microclimates, from the dry south to the moist water zone — room for almost every kitchen herb. Here is how you build it.
→ Read moreA garden pond is more than ornament: it is a watering hole, a nursery for beneficials and a climate buffer. With graded zones and the right depth it becomes a living, low-maintenance biotope. Here is how you build it.
→ Read moreMost shop-bought insect hotels are pretty dummies. With the right materials it becomes a real nursery for wild bees and beneficial insects — and they eat your aphids for you. What works and what doesn’t.
→ Read moreYou don't have to dig over compacted, depleted soil — you can plant it. Deep rooters break the compaction, legumes fertilise with nitrogen, mulch feeds the soil life. This is how you heal soil with plants instead of with the spade.
→ Read moreDecomposition produces heat — a lot of it. The Jean Pain compost heater captures it with a water hose in the core of a large wood-chip mound and supplies warm water for months. How the principle works and what it can really do.
→ Read moreA composting toilet saves drinking water, needs no connection and closes the nutrient cycle. The secret against odour is simple: separate urine and solids, cover well with bulking material, ventilate properly. Here is how it works.
→ Read morePermaculture is a design system with an order to it. Here is the whole process — phase by phase, step by step, with the principle behind each step and the point where the Garden Planner takes it off your hands.
→ Read moreBefore you spend money on a lab analysis: the classic ribbon test tells you in a minute whether you have sand, loam, clay or humus — and with it, what your garden needs.
→ Read moreThe classic indigenous companion planting of corn–bean–squash is brilliant — but corn does not thrive everywhere in Central Europe. Here is how to adapt the principle to your climate zone.
→ Read moreThe combination is a classic — not out of tradition, but out of biology. What basil does for the tomato, what the tomato gives the basil, and how to plant it right.
→ Read moreWhy classic crop rotation often fails — and how Model B (fixed allocation, rotating position) keeps your soil healthy without bookkeeping.
→ Read moreA hügelkultur bed (Hügelbeet) stores water, warms up earlier and feeds the soil for 3–5 years without re-fertilising. Here is how to build one in a weekend.
→ Read moreWhat does "Zone 7" mean for your gardening year? Which frost dates, which growing season, which varieties — and how the plan adjusts to it.
→ Read moreA 2-euro packet of bacteria can raise bean yields by 30–50 %. How it works, when it pays off and when it doesn't.
→ Read moreWith simple means you can harvest almost year-round in Central Europe. What fleece can do, what the polytunnel can do, what the cold frame can do — and which protection is really worth it when.
→ Read moreBill Mollison invented the zones for self-sufficient homesteads. They pay off in the 200 m² garden too — as a rule of thumb for what goes where and how much care to expect in each place.
→ Read moreWhy affiliate links are not evil, how they work, and when you can trust them. Plus: how we handle them in the Garden Planner.
→ Read moreAs of: May 2026 · Pranarei n.e.V. · Imprint
