The PermaDesign Weblog, with Nate Downey and Melissa McDonald!
Running Strong
The Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper recently created this video with me as their narrarator. Enjoy the flow!
05/26/2015 | (0) Comments
Rethinking Stormwater
It’s great to see a different perspective to stormwater management starting to catch on. This valuable resource has historically been seen as a burden to municipalities, but these attitudes are starting to change. The impervious nature of our cityscapes creates runoff, and in turn this often overloads the wastewater treatment facilities causing downstream pollution. The solutions are many, but generally focus on redirecting stormwater to plants and infiltration systems that help recharge the often overstressed groundwater.
05/22/2015 | (0) Comments
Springtime and Necessary Tarp Shenanigans
Santa Fe is almost 700 miles from nearest port, but here in the high desert we batten down our hatches like Gilligan on The Minnow. Every New Mexican gardener with an itch to start early knows what I mean. You check the forecast. You overhear it at the farmers’ market. You see it on Facebook. Maybe you sense a simple tingle in your toes.
Eeeee, you realize, it’s about to get cold!
05/04/2015 | (0) Comments
Tea for Trees
If you are not thinking in terms of planting more plants, and knowing your landscape I don't think you are, I'd rake some compost and Yum-Yum mix into the soil (1" deep), and then I'd be sure that the tree has plenty (3" thick) of mulch . Finally, I'd drench it with compost tea as per the page below... .... Melissa also recommends "Great Garden Formulas" which quotes Bob Pennington.
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/good-compost-tea-recipe-fruit-trees-50478.html
04/29/2015 | (0) Comments
Reading Land in New Mexico
Normally, I don’t hold court at posh resorts featuring bright-green golf courses. Especially on the Saturday night before Earth Day, I’m liable to seethe loudly about pompous fairways, water waste, lawnmower emissions, and toxic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, and rodenticides.
04/10/2015 | (0) Comments
“Mandatory Statewide California Water Reductions”
It's about time! Let's also consider incentives for rainwater harvesting!
http://www.scpr.org/news/2015/04/01/50717/gov-brown-announces-mandatory-statewide-california/
04/04/2015 | (0) Comments
LitQuest 2015!
I'm looking forward to being a LitQuest author again this year. Please support this fundraiser that promotes literacy in NM on Saturday, April 18th! About 30 NM authors will be there, and we've been asked to bring five "must reads" for the silent auction. My package will include ecological oldies like *A Sand County Almanac* and *Silent Spring* and a new kid on the block, *The Resilient Investor* by former New Mexicans, Hal Brill, Michael Kramer, and Christopher Peck.
http://us8.campaign-archive1.com/?u=ec0dd5f130dc7d5d080ae8d40&id=efdf498ebc&e=dcbe6363a8
04/03/2015 | (0) Comments
Hens for Sustainable Living
I ran across this article in Edible Santa Fe I was quoted in that came out about 3 years ago. It reminded me of all that has gone on in the battle to keep hens at our homes, and it seems like people ought to have the right to sustainable food that is really no burden on others.
See page 34-35 http://issuu.com/ediblesantafe/docs/edibesantafe-summer2013
04/02/2015 | (0) Comments
SUNSET MAGAZINE’s Big Idea No. 4 Features Me!
In 1948, Aldo Leopold, who later became recognized as the father of the environmental movement, died of a heart attack while fighting a neighbor's wildfire. His seminal book, A Sand County Almanac, was pothumuously published in 1949. Twenty-five years earlier Sunset Magazine published Leopold's essay, "Pioneers and Gullies" (May, 1924). Sounding like NASA's James Hansen clamoring about climate change, here's Leopold in Sunset, "Soil is the funamantal resource, and its loss the most serious of all losses." Leopold goes on to suggest that a science of erosion control be taught in universities and that land regulation become the norm in order to fend off the blatant destruction that human development always causes. I'm honored to be Sunset's Innovator #4 in a new BIG IDEAS segment that may become an annual event, at least for magazine subscribers or folks who pick up the actual, physical journal somewhere. But, here, for now, please enjoy the bare bones of it--and look for my seminal almanac circa 2040.
03/24/2015 | (2) Comments
Looking Inward
"We can't go anywhere if the Kennedy Space Center goes underwater and we don't know it—and that's understanding our environment," Bolden said, alluding to the risk that climate change poses to the low-elevation state of Florida. "It is absolutely critical that we understand Earth environment because this is the only place that we have to live." I've robustly criticized space exploration in the past but am very happy to see this NASA chief schooling Ted Cruz. I'm also proud to see our priorities shifting toward planet Earth at this critical moment.
03/20/2015 | (0) Comments
