On Thursday, Snookie Parrish and Kim Gordon's Garden Class from the Seaside Neighborhood School, visited CFH Design Studio's urban permaculture homestead. Ms. Parrish and Ms. Gordon have been teaching the students about organic gardening and living lighter on the land. The students learn through hands-on experience at the Corner Garden that is located to the East of the Seaside Neighborhood Scool on Quincy Circle. Their garden is an edible garden and most of the garden infrastructure was recycled, re-used, or donated by individuals or local businesses.

Kim wanted to show the kids a real life example of a local family that is actively working to reduce their environmental footprint. So, she arranged a field trip to our home.

When they arrived, I greeted them outside, as it was a beautiful day, just before the Spring Equinox. There were five students and they presented me with a sweet little gift of two organic German Butterball potatoes in a ceramic pot. I have two potato growing bags where they will live for the next few months.

We started by talking about some of the volunteer succulents that have sprouted up around the front porch and two bottle brush ferns that I recently discovered to be as old as myself. We then talked about the house and some of the things that were incorporated into the home to reduce its environmental impact like building to dimensional lumber sizes to reduce waste, large overhangs to protect the structure, using...