“We mustn’t forget the huge advantages we have in the United States,” she says. “We have everything we need—if we can just learn to capture and use all of the resources that are hitting our homesites—the water, the solar energy, the soils.”
Along with permaculture, she says, people need to prepare mentally for the future, by re-localizing where and how they get their energy security and essential goods, and re-skilling (learning how to use their hands again) to be able to grow and preserve food, compost, capture rainfall, and make and repair clothes and household goods. She acknowledges that most people still have a long way to go. But a private homesite is a good place to start.
“Installing a permaculture design typically costs about the same or less than conventional landscaping,” she says. “But once it’s done, the savings in maintenance—not to mention the production of valuable, usable food and herbs quickly begins to pay off . It’s not going to be neat and tidy and manicured like a lawn and a picket fence, but this is about caring for the Earth, at the same time caring for yourself.”
A small yard can still become a bountiful garden, with the help of permaculture planting and water use knowhow.
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03.2011
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