Greening the Desert

We bought a house! (our first house ever!)

And we live in the desert. So this is the backyard, when we moved in.

Now it has 7 struggling saplings that I planted in the first month when we got the house. After a brutal desert summer (one week solid 115's) and some near deaths, all teh little saplings are...still alive....still alive.

Not grown at all, but alive. 

I've discovered Geoff Lawton's "Permaculture: Greening the Desert" videos about Jordan, and after seeing their before and after shots, I have hope. Jordan also gets annual rainfall between 5 and 10 inches, and looks, well, like my backyard.

Permaculture is full of hope. Of man working within the created order to make the earth better.... where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow....

The wilderness and the desert will rejoice,
And the desert will shout for joy and blossom;
Like the crocus

2 It will blossom profusely
And rejoice with joy and jubilation.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
The majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of the Lord,
The majesty of our God.

3 Strengthen the slack hands, and make the tottering knees strong.
4 Say to those with anxious heart,
“Take courage, fear not.
Behold, your God will come with vengeance;
The retribution of God will come,
But He will save you.”

5 Then the eyes of those who are blind will be opened,
And the ears of those who are deaf will be unstopped.
6 Then those who limp will leap like a deer,
And the tongue of those who cannot speak will shout for joy.

For waters will burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert.
7 The scorched land will become a pool

And the thirsty ground springs of water;
In the haunt of jackals, its resting place,
Grass becomes reeds and rushes.

8 A highway will be there, a roadway,
And it will be called the Highway of Holiness.
The unclean will not travel on it,
But it will be for the one who walks that way,
And fools will not wander on it.

9 No lion will be there,
Nor will any vicious animal go up on it;
It will not be found there.

But the redeemed will walk there,
10 And the redeemed of the Lord will return
And come to Zion with joyful shouting,
And everlasting joy will be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy,
And sorrow and sighing will flee away.