Permaculture Farming

Archive for the ‘Permaculture’ Category

Farming with Terraces & Raised Beds-Part 1 of 3-Sepp Holzer-Permaculture

Question: Land in Arizona? Permaculture? Ground water?

I’m looking for land for sale in Arizona and/or a Permaculture community to possibly join. I’m also wondering how to find out about groundwater in Arizona/the best place in AZ to live off well water.

Answer: Arizona is NOT the state to live in, if you want to have a Permaculture Farm or garden. The water is FAR to scarce there.

Arizona has exceded the number of humans that it can sustain with the water it has many, many years ago.

We currently own a Permaculture Farm in the high mountain deserts of Idaho. We are in the very heartland of potato country. Our neighbor (about 1/2 a mile away) had their well go dry last summer. Their well is 150 feet deep. That is a DEEP well. Our is 200 feet deep. We still had water. I know about living in a desert enviroment, AND Permaculture Farming in one.

It doesn’t work well….not in the slightest. You need water that falls from the sky on a consistant basis to be sure of your food supply on your Permaculture Farm/garden.

Read Barbra Kingsolvers book, Animal, Vegtable, Miracle. She moved from AZ, to TN, so she could persue just such a lifestyle.

We are moving our farm (including over 100 head of livestock) nearly 900 miles. We are moving back to the Pacific Northwest. The grass is waste high in the pastures in Washington right now. It’s not much above my ankles here in Idaho, and that’s with irregation.

The garden has produced nothing as of yet this year. My friends in Washington have been harvesting from their gardens for the past 4-6 weeks.

My advice is you SERRIOUSLY concider a milder climate, more favorable to long plant growing seasons, and one where water falls from the sky. Do not depend on well water to water the food you wish to grow. Climates like that are too harsh.

There are nearly 6.5 million people living in Arizona. There are only 1.5 million living in Idaho. The water is at a premium in Idaho. I cannot even immagine what the water problems have the potential to become in Arizona.

You are probably thinking about moving to become more self sustaining, because of the current economic situations, right? Arizona is not the state to be in, if things get worse.

We raise 90% of our own food, including our meat animals. We can even grow/produce our own biofuel. Our pantry has over a years worth of food, most of it put up with my own labor.

Get a pen and paper, and make two a list of the pro’s and con’s of staying in AZ. Put lack of water at the top of the list under con’s. Does anything in the pro side really outweigh “lack of water?”

~Garnet
Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years

Why We Teach Permaculture – 2. Rick and Naomi’s Story

Transition: Interweaving with other groups and on multiple scales