Humans generate enormous amounts of nutrient-rich excretions every day. In nature, such excretions are cycled back into ecosystems, ensuring the continuation of life. If we're going to live sustainably on planet Earth, we've got to do the same. Fortunately, it's rather easy to safely collect and return these valuable wastes into gardens, orchards, and berry patches. This video shows you how.

Dan Chiras is director of The Evergreen Institute in east-central Missouri, where he teaches workshops on self-sufficiency and sustainability topics. He's also the author of 32 books and several hundred articles on a wide range of subjects, including residential energy efficiency and renewable energy, sustainable communities, green building, and natural building.

Your garden is the ultimate health spa. It has been scientifically proven that people who go outdoors regularly and work with plants are happier, healthier, and less stressed. Herbs and flowers are key ingredients in many body care products. Learn DIY beauty basics, including how to make a mint hair rinse, calendula-infused body oil, and rose water. Janice Cox, author of Natural Beauty from the Garden, shares recipes and ideas from her bestselling book and popular MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIR workshop.

Janice Cox is an author and leading DIY natural beauty and skin-care expert. She's also a freelance magazine writer and beauty editor for Herb Quarterly Magazine. She also writes the “Natural Beauty at Home” column for Mother Earth Living magazine. Cox is a member of the United States Lavender Growers Association, and the Herb Society of America.

Learn how to use common cultivated and wild backyard herbs (featured in her book <em>Grow Your Own Herbal Remedies</em>) to build your own herbal first-aid kit, focusing on herbs you can use topically for a range of uses, including aches and pains, sprains, bumps, bruises, bug bites, bee stings, wounds, rashes, burns, herpes, cuts, repelling ticks and biting insects, and more. Herbalist Maria Noël Groves takes you out into the field to show you how to make a spit poultice with yarrow leaves, and how to make herb-infused oils and other topical remedies.

Maria Noël Groves runs Wintergreen Botanicals, an herbal clinic and education center in Allenstown, New Hampshire. She is certified by Michael Moore’s Southwest School of Botanical Medicine, a registered professional herbalist with the American Herbalists Guild, and has also completed Rosemary Gladstar’s advanced training program and Lichenwood Herbals’ flower essence practitioner training.

Hear John Moody discuss solarization, proper design, mulching, and tools and tips to create weed-resistant annual and perennial growing spaces.

John Moody currently serves as a founder and director of Steader (an online learning platform for homesteaders and farmers), and also speaks at many local, regional, and national events on food, farming, and nutrition.

The cost of tools and infrastructure to start a market garden or homestead can be quite expensive and prohibitive to new farmers. With a little DIY ingenuity and knowledge of what's needed and what can be budgeted down the road, you can start your enterprise for less than a quarter of the cost.

A small-scale market gardener from Tecumseh, Kansas, Keith Arkenberg has a background in construction and science. He has built a farm from the ground up, combining his own innovations with that of others to produce an operation that runs efficiently and on a budget.

Learn what you need to do to power your home with solar energy, including the types of systems, components of systems, and mounting options that make the most sense for your home or farm. Plus, learn about return on investment and lifetime energy costs.

Dan Chiras is director of The Evergreen Institute in east-central Missouri, where he teaches workshops on self-sufficiency and sustainability topics. He's also the author of 32 books and several hundred articles on a wide range of subjects, including residential energy efficiency and renewable energy, sustainable communities, green building, and natural building.

Learn how to safely and effectively clean your entire home using all-natural, healthy, and environmentally friendly ingredients.

Kimberlee Bastien and her family recently bought their first homestead in New Brunswick, Canada, and learned 52 homesteading skills in one year. She writes about her experience at www.TheOldWalshFarm.com and for MOTHER EARTH NEWS.