10 Questions with Permaculture Club President Avery Hardy
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(Kelly Nakashima / Photo)
By Kelly Nakashima | Staff Writer | February 9, 2012

Junior Avery Hardy is co-founder of the Dos Pueblos Permaculture Project, a club hosted by Mr. Gleason on Mondays at lunch in A-3.

The Charger Account sat down with Avery to discuss her plans for the school garden, a holistic approach for sustainable living, and the small changes that make a big difference.

Q: What is the definition of ‘permaculture’?

Permaculture is a collection of principles and practices that allow us to live in tune with nature instead of fighting against it. It helps guide us in building places for humans, plants, and animals alike to grow and flourish. While permaculture–a portmanteau of “permanent,” “culture,” and “agriculture”–is most frequently applied in the area of sustainable agriculture, it actually bridges across all areas of life.

Q: What is the difference between permaculture and sustainable living?

Living sustainably means simply not engaging in certain behaviors [i.e. avoiding petroleum by driving an electric car] but permaculture takes this idea to a new level by actually providing new, innovative ideas for how to craft a better lifestyle–not just a less harmful one.


(Kelly Nakashima / Photo)
Q: What is the goal of the Dos Pueblos Permaculture Project?

My vision for the project is to have it become a local leader on-par with [Santa Barbara City College's] Student Sustainability Coalition in helping to grow awareness of alternative, earth-conscious living. I want the garden to be a recognizable feature of our school and I’d love to see people connecting Dos Pueblos with sustainability and permaculture. DP has sort of been lagging behind the other schools [in the Santa Barbara area] in becoming more sustainable, so it’s definitely time for us to step it up.

Q: What are some activities that members can participate in?

Our meetings are Mondays in Mr. Gleason’s art room (A-3); during that time, we’re usually discussing our plans for the garden. Every six weeks or so we have a workday to maintain the older garden and grow the new one. We also share and attend a variety of different events, lectures, and festivals relating to the sustainability scene in town, too, and take trips to go check out things like Coal Oil Point Reserve’s native plants and goats.

Q: What is your favorite plant in DP’s garden and what do you hope to add to it?

I totally love sage. We have a couple of different native sages growing in the permaculture garden, but my favorite is Salvia apiana–white sage. It makes delicious, slightly minty tea, and the dried bundles smell amazingly good when burned as incense.

I would like to continue to add more food-providing plants to the permaculture garden before I graduate. The first permaculture garden at school, which was built in 2009, had only a couple of food-bearing trees (like a plum and a strawberry guava), and none of them did very well. With the new garden we’ve built outside Mr. Bower’s room this year, we decided to plant almost exclusively food-bearing plants and trees because we thought it would be awesome to have fresh food from the garden throughout the year.

Q: Why should DP students become involved in the Permaculture Project?

High-powered, ambitious high school students have a knack for “big things” when it comes to community service. It’s great if you want to go build a well for a village in Africa, but I think one can enact even more powerful change by committing one’s time and resources to the home front. Yes, [Santa Barbara] is pretty liberal, but we still have a long way to go. We lag behind many other cities in passing an initiative to “ban the bag” [prohibit single-use plastic bags in stores], and many of the public schools in town still use horrendous pesticides on the foliage and lawns we sit on and walk across every day. Becoming a part of the Permaculture Project is a way students can enact positive change with real, visible results in the community. It’s a manageable commitment, and one in which we’re all still learning a lot as we go. Students who come to our meetings on Mondays or our workdays in the garden get community service and the satisfaction of learning about some awesome ideas on how to protect the planet.

Q: Why do you think sustainable living has become more popular in the past several years?

Obviously, people are frustrated with slow progress towards ending environmental degradation. But we seem to be reaching a tipping point of sorts where sustainable living is actually becoming [a trend]. We still have a long way to go, though, because we now know it isn’t enough to just stop doing the bad things–we have to actually come up with new ways to heal the planet, to make it better and cleaner. Permaculture is one way of doing this, since it utilizes every single resource in the most efficient way.

Q: What are the benefits of living sustainably?

The benefits are endless! Every time I go out in my garden–even if it’s only for fifteen minutes between study sessions–I learn something about my soil, the climate, the way the plants grow. Through permaculture, I’ve learned to embrace local culture and I try really hard to support Santa Barbara’s farmers, artists, musicians, and crafters before I support the big-box chains on State Street. In exchange, I’ve gained a huge amount of personal inspiration and creativity and have made amazing friendships with inspiring people.

Q: How can DP students incorporate the principles of permaculture and sustainability into their lifestyles?

We’re all pretty motivated at DP, and I think sometimes we do ourselves a disservice by setting the bar too high. You don’t have to sell your car and bike to school to have a big impact on the local environment. In fact, it’s probably the smaller gestures that have the greater impact. We have amazing farmers’ markets in town (there’s one every day of the week!), and buying organic food there or at the Isla Vista Food Co-Op are great ways to ease off the “grid” and support sustainable agriculture. Supporting local businesses is one of the foundations of permaculture, and making an active commitment to do so is also a solid step toward a more sustainable lifestyle. There are classes that you can take to get your permaculture certification as well.

Q: What kinds of people are you hoping to attract to the Permaculture Project?

You don’t have to self-identify with sustainability to come to participate in the Permaculture Project. The great thing about permaculture is that it connects all the different areas of life under a single set of guiding principles. There really is something for everyone…if you’re curious, you should stop by to learn a little more or check out our Facebook group ‘Dos Pueblos Permaculture’ for updates. http://www.facebook.com/groups/281929508491739/