Permaculture: Another Way to Garden

A description of a permaculture garden and its uses.

Waterwise Garden Care
Item # 99690 		Waterwise Garden Care: Your Practical Guide

Each $14.95
Grow Native
Item # 99625 		Grow Native: Landscaping with Native and Apt Plants of the Rocky Mountains

each $16.95
  • Topic: Low Maintenance Gardens
  • Author: Cindy Bellinger
  • Keywords: permaculture, water catchment, Annuals, gardens
  • Date: July 2003

© All articles are copyrighted by High Country Gardens. Republication is prohibited without Permission.

‘Tis the season of garden tours. Last week I was fortunate to take yet another private tour. This time it was in Los Alamos. Ever since I’d heard about Mary Zemach’s garden, I’d wanted to see it. And I left totally inspired.

The focus of her garden is permaculture. In simple terms Mary says, “A garden of this type should survive the absence of the gardener. I can leave my garden alone for weeks at a time, even in the heat of summer.”

So far this year she’s only watered three times. When she hired Ben Haggard of Santa Fe Permaculture to design her garden in 1994, the main thrust of the project was to create ways to catch and use water as much as possible. And today she says the cheapest way to store water is in the soil.

One of the more visible aspects of her garden is the lack of visible soil. It’s all planted. And the plants are so happy they are profuse. Greenery is everywhere. But there is a practical reason for this, too. “You lose water if the soil is bare,” she says.

Mary and her husband bought a house on a third of an acre in 1976. A long time organic gardener, she began rethinking things after taking a class in permaculture. “Then I got an inheritance from my father and decided to spend it all on a new garden,” she says.

The first plan was to take out the front lawn, which was all Kentucky Blue Grass, and remove the concrete driveway. Chunks of the driveway were used to begin terracing the backyard. Then the entire landscape was re-sculpted into mounds and swales (shallow depressions). It was all deliberate to hold water.

The soil preparation required digging in 7 cubic yards of compost and 18 bales of peat moss into the top one foot of the soil. “We did it by hand because a rototiller will not go that deep. The soil now holds an immense amount of water in the plants’ root zone,” Mary says.

She also keeps a very thick mulch—of old plants, weeds, newspaper and cardboard—all around the garden.

From the beginning, besides wanting a more sustainable garden, Mary had another goal in mind.

“I wanted to make this into a demo garden. I wanted to show people what can be done,” she says. To date she has shown her garden to 1200 people. She waits until enough people have expressed an interest then sets a date. Her number is 662-4295.

A predominate element of permaculture is the use of microclimates—different areas of intense heat, patches of low heat, spots of light, moist areas and those areas sheltered or not from the wind. In Mary’s garden asparagus and other greens grow in cool, moist areas under trees. Currants and strawberries want full sun so are planted in open areas drenched with long exposure to sunshine.

Today, Mary’s property has 30 fruit and nut trees and enough plants to provide salad pickings for eight months out of the year. Some of the ingredients include: sorrel, burnet, dandelion, fennel, lovage, onions and pansies.

The garden is in zone five, and this means freezing weather, snows, winds. But don’t tell the plants that. “From late February to October something is always blooming,” she says. Since a rosemary bush is planted on the south side of the house, that herb is available all year around.

The word “permaculture” was coined in 1972 by Bill Mollison, a visionary living in Australia. Wanting to create sustainable environments for plants, animals, buildings and infrastructures, he set about designing a working theory. The word combines “permanent agriculture” and the goal is to create systems that are ecologically sound as well as economically viable.

And the whole idea behind this kind of garden is there should be little left to do except enjoy and eat it. Which is exactly what Zemach has discovered. Then again, one look at her garden and you know she spends all her time in it. She cares for the plants and the plants eagerly respond.

Her garden tours are free. But beware. The price could be a whole way of gardening. And really, that’s not so bad.