Terra Nova Ecological Landscaping blog

An exciting new workshop series in collaboration with Jon Young Designing a regenerative culture depends on a harmonious relationship between nature and people, in which observation and thoughtful interaction provide the knowledge and inspiration necessary to being a resilient community. In this program we take the time to listen to the birds, follow the stories [...]

Terra Nova owner Ken Foster serves on the steering committee of Transition Santa Cruz. Using guidelines outlined in The Transition Handbook, we are reinventing Santa Cruz as a city in transition from oil dependency to local resiliency. You can learn more about this international movement at the Transition Culture website. Graham Strouts of Zone5.org offers the [...]

We are very proud of our Santa Cruz Permaculture Design Course graduates. Here is a collage of pictures from the final design project presentations. Our fearless leader Larry Santoyo with his wife Katherine Santoyo.

As part of our 2008 Permaculture Design Course, David I. Theodoropoulos taught a class based on his book: Invasion Biology: Critique of A Pseudoscience, and in doing so, made a very convincing case why he classifies invasion biology as a pseudoscience. Invasion biology is the attempt to address—through science—the ecology, influence, and impact of introduced [...]

We have been fascinated with green roofs since we first learned about them the mid 1990s. Terra Nova received Sunset Magazine’s WESTERN LIVING AWARD for a garden with a green roof we presented at the 2004 San Francisco Flower and Garden Show. Here we are building that green roof using succulents and native grasses Below [...]

Our Permaculture design groups working/playing in the sand with their projects. Tom Broz of Live Earth Farm giving a talk about his farm’s solar panels. Brian Barth giving a talk at the Mataganza Garden Sanctuary. Heather Flores author of Food Not Lawns teaching a class on seed saving. Read the Book ! Food Not Lawns

This is a photo of the first weekend of the Santa Cruz Permaculture Design Course with Larry Santoyo holding court. Testing soil in the soil class. Larry Santoyo will be joining local Santa Cruz Permaculture teachers including Ken Foster, Lydia Neilsen, Bruce Beernink and Brian Barth and Heather Flores for a Permaculture Design Course begining [...]

Act One: First, with cunning and determination, go get some cardboard Act Two: Do some weeding; then grant the weeds as feed to your chickens  (they love oxalis!) Act Three: Lay cardboard over bare soil with drip irrigation over the cardboard; then lay down fine mulch  Act Four: Create a truth window so you—and everyone [...]

Lydia Neilsen and Lochlan Cuthbertson of Dirt Dragon Designs held a grey water class and the Terra Nova crew pitches in to help install a grey water reed bed and pond. What is Grey Water? Learn more at the Oasis website. Here’s Lydia Neilsen teaching a very inspiring and informational grey water class. Wood chip [...]