William Bronson

For relief during the summer , how about awnings?
They are adjustable and removable and not hard to diy.

Over heating during the winter seems like an amazing resource.
What kind of HVAC system does the house have?
Does the house have a basement or crawl space?
Venting the sun space into the return air of a forced air furnace or into space under the the house could defer heating costs.
Pulling cooling air from the space under the house might be detrimental or it might be fine.

A heat pump water heater could cool the space.
Plumbing it to another water heater  and a hydronic heating system in the living space would allow you to transport that heat to where it's needed.

You make excellent points!
I have a cadre of little visitors who are already educated and enthusiastic about raspberries and cherry tomatoes.
Keeping to berries that advertise the their ripeness makes a lot of sense .
The cherry tomatoes are mostly the volunteers, but considering the amount amount of soil disturbance that has occurred, they might not come back in force.

While I'm not a big fan of the taste of  ground cherries, it's their failure to produce for me that makes me sceptical of planting them for the kids.
Maybe I'll transplant some black berries.
My wife misses ours, which were moved to another lot to make room for annuals.

Maybe I'll just plant just more raspberries,new varieties, but still familiar.

My mother has hostas she will give me,so like most of my gardening, availability will shape my choices more than anything.

One row of plants back from the street I want to plant child friendly berries.
I already have raspberries within reach of the street, Id like to add something else.
I have a josta berry plant in my "nursery ".
It's setting fruit for the first time this year,and they are apparently easy to propagate?
I was considering Aronia, but there are mixed reviews about eating them fresh.

I had to look into the herbs, I had assumed they we wouldn't be cold hearty.
Quite wrong I see.
I look forward to these herbs running rampant in my gardens along side the mint and purple dead nettle!

Thanks for sharing this!
I'm looking to add a linden to my land, and hoping to cook with the leaves.

Ok, it seems  hostas are quite well thought of!
Slow growing isn't my usual jam, but I love giving plants a home.
Even if it is just a nursery spot where I cultivate plants to give away, they will be welcome.

The herb garden is at the top of our little hillside.
The soil is probably a little too rich if anything.
The house is to the south, so it blocks the winter sun.
In the mornings, a large evergreen on the east side shades most of the front yard.
The whole front yard gets sun from noon till dusk in the summer time.

Great suggestions!
I'm torn about the strawberries, none that I've plant have thrived, but it's perfect for the local kids.
5' is far from dwarf, but they are easy to prune(we have a bunny, sunchoke greens are highly valued).

I tore out my front garden to make way for a new waterline from the city waterworks.
Turned out I didn't really need to , they drilled horizontally under everything , directly into my basement.
Ah well

I'm rebuilding, and planning on low growing perennials right up front, between the berry bushes and the sidewalk.
So far I want rhubarb, horseradish, potatoes onions, dwarf sunchokes, mint root, day lilies, and gobo.
Low growing, self sustaining food plants

Do y'all have any suggestions?

My son frequently expresses a desire to leave civilization and live simply.
I don't see that happening, but I want him to be happy, so I'm interested in what you come up with.

No Internet or phones.
What about paying taxes?
The only  places where one can live without anyone messing with you tend to be wastelands.
Occupying land requires negotiating with other people who might lay claim to it.
Paying taxes is one way to do that.
Violence is the other.
Maybe it will be a non-issue.

What's the plan to acquire food, clothing, tools and shelter?
Hunting, foraging , subsistence farming?
The tools are usually the sticking point for most people who are trying to escape modernity.
Ammo runs out, blades break, pots need mending.
Even a blacksmith starts with steel, and making steel is a large undertaking.
Any ongoing trade with the outside will be hard to do without phones, but doable.
If we only plan for the community to last one generation, a one time purchase could cover all needs.

That brings up aging and sickness.
The society I live in is very bad at taking care of the elder and infirm, and that is with vast amounts of wealth in play.
To a certain extent, clean living and hard work will help your community members stay healthy.
At a certain point, if we live long enough,disability for us all.
Depending on how much modern medicine is in use, there may be many more people dying suddenly or at least quickly.
There will probably be a need to agree as a community how resources with be used on people close to death.
Alcohol is one basic painkillers that is off the table, but nature provides many others.

I currently use raised beds and plant comfrey around the base to capture escaping nutrients.
I have alfalfa sprinkled here and there, it comes back on its own.
That is usually fed to the bunny before it becomes

A bed full of Jerusalem artichokes would create good green manure.

I'm investigating hardy sugar cane as a mulch plant.
It looks just like a decorative grass and is apparently used as such.

A barrel of duckweed or azolle at the end of each bed would produce lots of mulch and never spread.