Terra Nova Ecological Landscaping blog

Ken gives an introduction to Permaculture Design at the Food Bin Garden.
Good turn out, well done, Ken!

The first post on this blog was about my ride to the Ecological Farming Conference three years ago. This year, January 20 – 23, 2010 was my tenth year riding by bicycle from Santa Cruz to the Asilomar conference grounds in Pacific Grove. Before the Ecological Farming Conference this year we put on a pre-conference [...]

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Recently there has been a large movement towards installing synthetic turf. This new generation of Astro Turf often called ‘eco turf’’, is being touted as the newest in green landscaping. To be sure, there is an impressive list of ecological concerns that this turf addresses including the elimination of the need to mow, water, install [...]

I found a web site whose aim is the complete elimination of leaf blowers from California, and Nation-wide if possible.
We at Terra Nova support a leaf blower ban. Below we have reproduced some of the “high-lights“ of a ninety-two-page manifesto found on the cleanair.trilithon website. You can go here to download this manifesto. The following is from [...]

Terra Nova owner Ken Foster and sustainable landscape guru Owen Dell meet up to read the poetry of Kenneth Patchen on KUSP Public Radio. Beyond the common passion for sustainable landscaping Foster and Dell discover a common interest in Kenneth Patchen’s poetry.

You’ll find the Kenneth Patchen show at the KUSP radio website on the May [...]

Ken Foster, the owner of Terra Nova drops some names.

Here I am with permaculture  teacher and author Toby Hemenway and Larry Santoyo of EarthFlow Design Works. The second edition of Toby’s book, Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture has just been published. It is well worth reading.
Just out! The revised, expanded, all-color Second Edition!
Gaia’s Garden: [...]

Because we care about water quality in our community Terra Nova owner Ken Foster volunteered with the
SNAPSHOT DAY EVENT on Saturday, May 2, 2009.
We know that landscaping can adversely affect water quality.
At Terra Nova we employ Best Management Practices that eliminates run-off of both storm water and
irrigation. The Snap Shot Day described below is a great annual [...]

Best Landscaper
Terra Nova Owned and run by the astonishingly lanky, energetic Ken Foster, Terra Nova brings the world’s newest–and oldest–techniques to making home landscapes sustainable, economical and easy to maintain, with an emphasis on low power and water use and preserving the planet for future dwellers of our fragile common world.  815 Almar Ave., [...]