As cliche as this sounds, "Spring has sprung" and we're finally seeing more green sprouting up and saying goodbye to the chilly weather. Spring also means more people will be getting outside to exercise their green thumbs. Whether you're a gardening enthusiast or a novice wanting to get your hands dirty, why not look into the practice permaculture gardening?

Permaculture is something we've been hearing more and more about lately in our Green Community. In case you're not familiar with the term, permaculture is finding the right way to work with the local environment to create sustainable living by creating sustainable biosystems that provide for their own needs and recycle their own waste. This means planting species that are native to an area because they will work with the surrounding ecosystem to produce high yields and help neighboring plants thrive – all without the use of chemical fertilizers since the soil will nourish itself.

Basically, permaculture just makes sense. "Gardening has a reputation of hard work for little return," said Robert Segundo, local Certified Permaculture Designer with Fire of Hope, LLC. "By planting mindfully and working with natural environments you can decrease the amount of work inputs while increasing what your garden can produce."

This article appears in Mar 24-30, 2010.