Permaculture: A different type of garden

Becky Elder runs the back of her hands over a stinging nettle set among flowering perennials.

"It stings. But it's good for arthritis," she says.

She snips leaves from several other weedy-looking plants. Surprisingly, they taste like a boutique lettuce.

Elder is no Euell Gibbons stalking the wild asparagus. This is her Manitou Springs yard, where vegetables, weeds, fruit trees, herbs and insects live side by side in a "permaculture" style called forest gardening.

It's landscaping that saves not only time, money, and water, but the planet, says Elder, a certified permaculture designer and teacher.

"You can spend a lot of money on landscaping, send in a crew to slap down grass, or you can take the permaculture view, based on the ethical care of the earth," she says.

Permaculture relates to not just the garden, but the house, neighborhood and bio-region.

It takes a mindset different from most gardeners'.

In such a garden you don't pull every weed. You don't till the soil. You don't use chemicals. You don't use lots of water. You don't choose beauty over functionality.

"You want bluegrass, move to Kentucky," says Elder, owner of Blue Planet Earthscapes.

Bluegrass is time and resource wasteful in the West. It takes 10,000 gallons of water a year to sustain 1,000 square feet of grass.

Some local homeowners have rid their landscapes of waterguzzling and pocketbook-draining grass in favor of decorative rocks, mulches and xeriscape plants.

But it takes more than throwing down a little bark to create a sustainable, green garden that will save you money and allow you to "spend a lot of time in the hammock, not mowing," Elder says.

A permaculture forest garden copies a natural forest and produces food for all creatures while reducing maintenance and use of water and chemicals.

Elder's garden is lushly tangled and chaotic. It is rich in food, shade, wind barriers, wildlife habitat, water storage. Flowers, vegetables and trees grow together in an integrated and layered ecosystem that begins with "upper story" trees and continues down through understory vegetation, shrubs, perennials that reseed themselves, ground covers and root crops and vines. Plants grow in compatible communities where each species plays a role in building soil, deterring pests, storing nutrients.

In such gardens, "you don't plant something only because it's pretty and you want red flowers," Elder explains. Plants should serve multiple uses. For example, scarlet runner beans provide red flowers and fruit, and attract hummingbirds and bees.

Her monthly watering bill, including taking care of the nursery stock she uses for her business, averages less than $50 a month. She waters about every 10 days by hand and using soaker hoses.

Soil enrichment comes from a compost pile, her rabbits' droppings, and weeds and trimmings left to decompose. Plants that need extra water are placed under the garage eaves, where rain runoff can saturate them.

A northern cherry that died remains in the landscape: "I didn't take it out. No one would in a wild area."

Dead branches also remain - they make perfect bird perches. Under one such limb, a cherry tree is growing because of a seed that sprouted from bird droppings.

She points to a volunteer choke cherry being eaten by aphids. "I let them have it. I try to make everyone happy."

And that doesn't cost a thing.

CREATING A PLOT

Here's a green way to get rid of grass and weeds, and create a garden plot.

• If you want paths, mark them out using wood chips, 3-4 inches deep.
• Instead of rototilling or digging out the lawn, spread layers of newspaper or cardboard over the grass, wet it down, add 2-3 inches of mulch, and keep layering until the material is about 18 inches deep. Leave it through winter. Worms and bugs will do the soil building for you, and it will be ready for planting in spring.
• Ask local nursery workers what will grow best in the permaculture manner.

Try Becky Elder's mix

Here are some plants that have replaced the grass in Becky Elder's garden: mahonia, ephedra, raspberry, nasturtiums, cat mint, eggplant, basil, locus, yarrow, Jerusalem artichoke, edible lambs quarters, broccoli, motherwort, asparagus, fava beans, apricot, wayfaring tree, Nanking cherry, mallow, Malva, lilacs, Fuji apple, elderberry, burdock root, comfrey, privet, prickly lettuce, Siberian pea shrub, sweetleaf (stevia), squash, taro, clary sage, coyote willow, black current, golden rain tree, gooseberry bush, edible kiwi, lilacs, roses, ornamental grasses.

PERMACULTURE RESOURCES

It doesn't take a lot of money or space to create your own permaculture habitat. It does takes planning, thoughtful observations of the site's potential, and some botanical knowledge. Here are some resources to help you get started:

• "Edible Forest Gardens," by Dave Jacke. Vol. 1 is vision and theory, Vol. 2 is design and practice; $75 each; discounts at edibleforestgardens.com
• "Gaia's Garden," by Toby Hemingway.
• "Lasagna Gardening," by Patrica Lanza.
• "Raven in the Garden: A Front Range Gardener's Journal," by Becky Elder (available at Black Cat Books in Manitou Springs)
• Permaculture Activist magazine; permacultureactivist.net
• Colorado State University Cooperative Extension pamphlets; www.ext.colostate.edu.
Classes
• Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute: Basalt; 1-970-927-4158
• Pikes Peak Permaculture: Offers classes and other resources; pikespeakpermaculture.org

TO VIEW

• Live Well Fountain: Part of Live Well Colorado; two community garden projects displaying permaculture techniques such as the "Three Sisters" plots, where beans, corn and squash grow together; First United Methodist Church, 1003 N. Santa Fe Drive, Fountain, and Fountain Fires Station 2, 8201 Fountain Mesa Road, Fountain.