Permaculture / Food Forest in Colorado 80919?

I have been trying to get things to grow here but I must be doing something wrong. I live in 80919, it is pretty dry. We have been in a drought for about 2 years now, but we are still allowed to use drip irrigation and hose irrigation if we stand there and watch it so as not to waste our water, a precious and expensive resource. So can anyone make some suggestions on how to get some permaculture / food forest agriculture started here? Oh, and I could use a copy of that book! Sidney Patin Colorado Springs, CO

i have not found any food forests that are open to the public (demo sites), but i have emailed Becky @ pikes peak permaculture ( http://www.pikespeakpermaculture.org/ ) about sites in the local area.
i was looking for something on a larger scale (huge farm design) and she didnt have anything to suggest to me, but she might be able to help you out as she did have some smaller gardens around that she recommended i check out.

http://www.pikespeakpermaculture.org/ and http://www.blueplanetearthscapes.com/ are the only permaculture places i know of in the springs.

Becky is also giving a "intro to permaculture" on feb 13th. if you are interested let me know i can get you more info.


there are a few other places in CO that do permaculture stuff:
http://www.crmpi.org/CRMPI/Home.html - Basalt area
http://hialtpc.org/ - Ward area (just north of boulder)
http://www.wellspringpermaculture.com/ north fork valley area.
there is also someone in Salida too.

good luck

Thanks Kelly. I know Becky. She has been out to my place before.
I would like to find a permaculture / food forest in this local area so I can see how it's done, but haven't found anything yet.
Sidney

I'm not very familiar with Colorado; are these folks anywhere near you? http://www.crmpi.org/CRMPI/Home.html

If not, if you're drier, you might need to look to drier areas in other western states for examples: http://www.sonoranpermaculture.org/

I looked up the one in Basalt, CO. That looks like it is exactly what I wanted! Thanks so much for the link! It is a bit of a drive, but not that far by Colorado standards. And they are at 7200 MSL. We are at 6500 MSL so not too much difference. Thanks for the link!

Sidney

quote=Tyler Ludens]I'm not very familiar with Colorado; are these folks anywhere near you? http://www.crmpi.org/CRMPI/Home.html

If not, if you're drier, you might need to look to drier areas in other western states for examples: http://www.sonoranpermaculture.org/

Sidney Patin wrote:
I looked up the one in Basalt, CO. That looks like it is exactly what I wanted! Thanks so much for the link! It is a bit of a drive, but not that far by Colorado standards. And they are at 7200 MSL. We are at 6500 MSL so not too much difference. Thanks for the link!

Sidney

quote=Tyler Ludens]I'm not very familiar with Colorado; are these folks anywhere near you? http://www.crmpi.org/CRMPI/Home.html

If not, if you're drier, you might need to look to drier areas in other western states for examples: http://www.sonoranpermaculture.org/

CRMPI represents a rather unique situation.

CRMPI is nestled in a bowl in the mountains, with a huge mountain rock face to his north absorbing heat. So, it's on a slope, gets lots of runoff passing through it, has a heat island effect, and is remarkably unaffected by wind.
At least on the visit I took.

That said, I'm sure you will learn a great deal from it regardless of how similar it is to your situation.

Sidney Patin wrote:
I looked up the one in Basalt, CO. That looks like it is exactly what I wanted! Thanks so much for the link! It is a bit of a drive, but not that far by Colorado standards. And they are at 7200 MSL. We are at 6500 MSL so not too much difference. Thanks for the link!

Sidney

there is a huge difference in climates between our town and Basalt. I live in 80918 and Im expecting another brutally dry summer here again. Hopefully there wont be any garden crushing hail storms in June this year. Basalt has the river right there, is in a valley so isnt exposed to our 18 hours of sunlight in the summer and gets damn cool at night even in the summer. We live in goddamn desert!

Expect water restrictions this year starting in April. Not really a big deal if you are deep root watering once a week.

got any slope? do you get any rain at all? what about swales or keylining?
have you watched the geoff lawton videos on desert permaculture ("greening the desert")?

this bill mollison episode on drylands is pretty good as well:

Sidney, there is another permaculture project I stumbled across in my internet rambles that is near Sedalia, up Jarre Canyon. I can't remember what it was called, or how to get back to it, but I was very impressed with the pictures and videos and plant lists etc they had. I think I just did a google search on permaculture in colorado to find it. When I looked at it, I started wishing I could manage the travel to visit that site.

I have visited CRMPI too, and was favorably impressed--but their higher elevation with south facing, rock-edged beds is a lot different from my flat, barren piece of high desert.

This other spot may be higher as well, but not really sure. They were building swales and hugelbeds to slow runoff and create favorable microclimates. If you get to visit, I would love to hear a report on it. I really appreciate hearing and seeing reports on other pc projects.

I just looked at that Sonoran site. Unfortunately, though we also have a desert or semi-arid climate, our winters would kill most of the things that grow down there. For example, when we lived north of Silver City, NM, at 6000 ft, I was able to harvest prickly pear fruit off large leaved prickly pears. We have prickly pears here, but the pads are only a couple inches across, and the plants are less than a foot high. I have never seen any of them set fruit. I don't know if it is too cold, or the growing season is too short, or the pollinators they need are just not here.
djn