What’s Going on in Your
Permaculture Landscape Design?

observe  go slow  design integrate  harvest iterate  renew

Aerial view of a garden landscape plan featuring designated areas for rainwater collection and various plants. The northeast roof area is 1,313 square feet, with rainwater potential of 817 gallons per inch and 6,543 gallons per year. The northwest roof area is 942 square feet, with rainwater potential of 586 gallons per inch and 4,694 gallons per year. The garden includes a kurapia and clover lawn, a trampoline, a wonderful pomegranate tree, Pakistani mulberry, all-in-one almond, raised gardens, perennial herbs, native pollinator perennials, existing bushes, Green hopseed, Meyer lemon, az sweet orange, and Palo Blanco. There are two rainwater basins: one 1,600 gallons and another 1,000 gallons. The garden is surrounded by 1-inch aged pine mulch.

Passive Rainwater Harvesting

Bringing roof runoff into the landscape through gutters, downspouts, underground conveyance and finally into rocked basins that prevent erosion by slowing water down, then spread it out and sink it deep into the ground for trees & plants to drink from at their own pace. In permaculture we say, “slow it, spread it, sink it.”

Mulching

Covering the bare dirt with a thick layer of wood chips protects the soil microbiome from erosion and breaks down into more humus/soil on the top layer, adding nutrients and biomass. When budget allows, we use 1" aged pine wood chips that smell & look amazing. For lower budgets and larger areas, we use ChipDrops.

Native Planting

Using Sonoran Desert native, pollinator-attracting plants & trees as support species to fix nitrogen in the soil and attract & feed butterflies, hummingbirds, and more while simultaneously deterring pests like mosquitoes. Many of these species also produce edible fruit & bean pods.

Permaculture Lawns

Drought-tolerant, evergreen Kurapia replaces traditional grass with far less water use, interplanted with red clover whose taproots open channels in the soil allowing for deeper water penetration and better lifelong establishment.

Watered with a root-resistant drip irrigation system rather than sprinklers, and a smart irrigation timer, not a single precious drop is wasted.

Active Rainwater Harvesting

Bringing roof runoff into an above-ground rainwater tank for various reasons—replace your irrigation as much as possible, filter for drinking, etc.

These can be a “dry system” (where the rain enters the tank directly from the roof), or a “wet system” (where the water travels through an underground conveyance first.

Growing Food

With raised garden beds, fruit trees, and perennial vines/shrubs you can own your very own micro food-forest in the desert. Specific species are up to you, and we are here to make recommendations for what will do best in our climate. Trellised species reduce heat load & glare from block walls while taking advantage of the vertical growing layer of the food forest. 

Growing Shade

Planting large, fast-growing, desert-adapted or native trees creates a major shade canopy that will drastically cool down summer time temperatures, making your yard livable outdoors year-round, and reducing your energy bills.