Sunken greenhouse wraps home & feeds suburban antifragile co-op

When Richard Weaver inherited 3 acres in the center of a golf-oriented community developed by his father in Bozeman, Montana, he bucked family tradition and tore out the grass to create a self-sufficient urban farm and underground greenhouse home. He turned his father’s RV garage into an off-grid home relying on photovoltaics, rainwater and composting toilet. Attached to the home, he built a half-buried (6-feet-under) greenhouse (walipini) to use the earth’s heat to grow figs and fruits during the long Montana winters. On the land surrounding the home, garden members (open to all) farm using permaculture techniques like planting in guilds- layers of plants that support each other- to cut down on labor requirements. It’s a communal, not community, garden so instead of individual plots, garden members share the work and the crop (making it easy to take vacations or time off).