Permaculture

By Vishu Magee

Alhough today we’ve largely lost the sense of living within an annual cycle of death-and-rebirth, the start of the planting season still brings an irresistible urge to step out the door and get our hands back into the soil again. What better time to channel energy and enthusiasm into a creative relationship to the earth? All the more so because New Mexico is home to the hottest, most cutting-edge approach to land use currently around: permaculture.

Never heard of it? The term means “permanent agriculture” and it is, quite simply, a method of land use that aims to sustain the land rather than deplete it. Originally developed in Australia by Bill Mollison, permaculture has really taken off in recent years here in the U.S.

Most of us are already familiar with practices like xeriscaping (using plants with low water needs) and organic gardening (avoiding chemical fertilizers and pesticides). Permaculture goes many steps further by creating a comprehensive system of land use—and with it, a new holistic outlook. Permaculture is, above all, an ethic: What use are beautiful landscapes or luscious gardens if they fail to nourish the earth or to bring us into a healing and sustainable relationship with the land?
Permaculture’s bottom line is simple: Save topsoil, maximize water use, and create biomass. Its methods appear to be equally straightforward: Mulch with straw and compost, retain every drop of water usefully onsite, and compost as much organic material as possible. But there’s a world of subtlety behind these simple techniques, entailing an acute awareness of the forces of sun, wind, and rain as well as of the natural ecosystems that would (if they could) thrive on your site.

Permaculture invites imagination and playing with the life force. For example, instead of spreading a small ocean of gravel with a few islands of cactus, why not anchor a “xeriscape” around a few shade-producing dryland trees or shrubs that will encourage additional plant growth around them? You can visit a nearby arroyo or canyon to see how families of plants support each other: how Apache plume and false mock orange often grow together, or how Virginia creeper beautifully weaves between them in the Rio Grande gorge. There’s a certain suchness to the way these plants grow between rocks, and a particular range of insects and birds that frequent them.

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Photo by Ted Greer

Spring is the best time to channel energy and enthusiasm inyo a creative relationship with the earth.