Tropical Permaculture Journal: Growing Food & Living Sustainably
Field-tested guidance on designing food systems and living sustainably in the tropics, based on 15+ years at Finca Tierra in Costa Rica.
How Much Time Does a Tropical Food System Take to Maintain?
This article explores how much time it takes to maintain a tropical food system, and why thoughtful design matters more than long-term labor.
How Much Does It Cost to Build a Self-Sufficient Homestead in the Tropics?
This article explains the real costs of building a self-sufficient tropical food system, and why design choices matter more than spending more money.
Inside SEED Ecovillage: A Working Model of Tropical Self-Sufficiency
SEED Ecovillage is not a concept or a future vision. It is a working tropical community where families live year-round, produce food, manage land, and operate shared systems under real rainforest conditions. This article documents how the system works.
Protein in the Tropics: Sustainable Ways to Produce Daily Protein
Protein doesn’t have to be difficult in the humid tropics. This article explains how we produce reliable daily protein using plants, grains, fish, and low-input systems adapted to tropical conditions.
How to Design a Self-Sufficient Tropical Permaculture Homestead
A tropical homestead is not a collection of techniques, but a living system. This guide explains how to design a self-sufficient tropical permaculture homestead by integrating food production, protein, fertility, and human movement into a resilient whole.
Tropical Food Forest Design: A Complete Guide for the Tropics
In the humid tropics, everything grows fast, including weeds. A good tropical food forest isn’t a jungle; it’s a balanced system of trees, spacing, and soil life. Here’s how we design and maintain our food forest at Finca Tierra for year-round abundance.
Tropical Vegetable Garden: How to Grow Abundantly in the Tropics
Growing a productive vegetable garden in the tropics is absolutely possible: you just need to garden with the climate.
After 15+ years of experimenting at Finca Tierra on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast, we’ve learned which vegetables actually thrive in humid and dry tropical zones, how to transform clay into rich soil, and how to harvest daily from a compact space.
This guide distills the methods we use at our education center so you can grow abundantly at home in any tropical region.
How Much Land to Feed a Family: We Grow a Complete Diet on ½ Acre (2,000 m²) in the Tropics
A simple ½-acre tropical garden and food forest that produces calories, protein, fats, and fruit year-round, no fertilizers, no external inputs.
Have a question about the course?
Reach us at fincatierra@gmail.com — we’re happy to help.
Want to dive deeper?
• Explore the Tropical Permaculture Online Course
• Join us in Costa Rica for the On-Site Permaculture Design Course