This may be the best forest garden in Phoenix. It’s an amazing accomplishment for a desert environment. Jake uses wood chips and leaves that are delivered free instead of going to the landfill.
greening the desert
Greening the US Deserts: 80 Year Old Swales near Tucson, Arizona
Here are two classic videos about the giant permaculture swales in the Sonoran Desert near Tucson, AZ. The swales are now filled with trees and lush grass, and continue to thrive after 80 years with no maintenance. The swales were built in the 1930’s during President Roosevelt’s term to restore the countryside in the Dust Bowl era.
Turn Deserts into Oases with Mycorrhizal Fungi in Under 10 Years
Here’s the article I mentioned yesterday. The article is about mycorrhizal fungi (commonly called myco). It explains how a research center near Delhi, India turned a salty, rocky soil wasteland into an oasis in under 10 years using plants inoculated with myco. Now they are selling vast quantities of mass produced myco around the world. Today it’s easy to find myco products including myco inoculated compost in most garden stores. Myco can turn deserts, abandoned mining sites and other inhospitable areas into oases as explained in the follow article.
Eden Foundation
Eden’s philosophy: There are 250,000 known plant species in the world, but only 20 of them provide 90% of our food. We believe that the key to prosperity for the poor lie in underexploited, edible trees and bushes – the lost treasures of Eden. Our mission is to find those treasures and bring them to people who really need them.
Using Nature’s Genius in Architecture
Michael Pawlyn: “You could look at nature as being like a catalog of products, and all of those have benefited from a 3.8-billion-year research and development period. And given that level of investment, it makes sense to use it. So I’m going to talk about some projects that have explored these ideas.
Greening the Desert
Greening the Desert II: Greening the Middle East from Permaculture Research Institute on Vimeo. “When there’s no soil, no water, no shade, and where the sun beats down on you to the tune of over 50°C (122°F), the word ‘poverty’ begins to take on a whole new meaning. It is distinct and surreal. It’s a … Read more