Growing Food in Southwest Mountains High-Altitude Permaculture PDF eBook

Growing Food in the Southwest Mountains: A guide to high-altitude, semi-arid home permaculture gardens

By Lisa Rayner / Lisa Rayner Books

Fifth edition © 1996, 2023
300 pages, 8 1/2 x 11 inches, PDF eBook

Print and Kindle versions available on Amazon.

Whether you are a weekend gardener who has never heard of permaculture or an avid gardener already familiar with the permaculture approach, this book will help you grow food under the most challenging of circumstances. Growing Food in the Southwest Mountains will teach you how to deal with dry weather, high winds, intense sunlight and shade, seasonal and day/night temperature fluctuations, poor soil, insect pests, weeds and other challenges of gardening in the high-elevation Southwest.

* Gardening information applicable to the highlands of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and parts of California and Nevada, from the Rocky Mountains and southwestern Sky Islands to the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
* A comprehensive list of domesticated and wild fruit, herbs, vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds with detailed planting information on water, sun, soil, USDA zones, pollination requirements and more.
* A thorough look at how climate change is altering gardening at high elevations in the Southwest.
* Why we need to recreate local food systems in an era of climate change and resource depletion.
* Permaculture garden design for our bioregion including a chapter on creating plant guild ecosystems in harmony with local wild ecosystems and wildlife. Learn how to attract native pollinators and other beneficial insects and birds to your garden while keeping out garden pests.
* Chapters on improving local soils, rainwater harvesting, greywater reuse, xeriscaping ™ and other efficient garden watering methods, cold climate gardening in the semi-arid Southwest, gardening in sunny, shady and windy conditions, planting windbreaks, protecting plants from hail, fireproofing your yard and gardens, dealing with garden pests and diseases in an ecological manner, choosing seeds and seedlings, detailed seedling-raising information, seed saving and more.
* A brief history of Southwestern gathering, horticultural, agricultural and food traditions of Native Americans and European-American settlers and creating a new bioregional cuisine from these traditions and traditions from similar ecosystems around the world.
* Appendices include glossaries of food plants and ingredient substitutions using foods that can be grown locally, and a large resource section.
* A comprehensive index.

Lisa Rayn Huntington is a disabled, actually autistic, multiply neurodivergent activist with interests in climate change, the limits to growth, sustainable economics, (eco)ableism, neurodivergence, and lgbtqia+ equity. They are also a longtime weaver with an Etsy shop that sells weaving patterns. Lisa lives with their wife and cats in Santa Fe, New Mexico at 7,000 feet near the Sangre de Cristos mountains, the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains. Lisa previously lived in Flagstaff, Arizona, also 7,000 feet elevation, from 1987‒2016.

Lisa has a 1991 Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resource Interpretation from Northern Arizona University. They are a graduate of the 1993 Black Mesa Permaculture Project’s Design Certification Course and 1994 Coconino County (Arizona) Master Gardener Program. In 2008, Lisa won the Martin-Springer Institute Moral Courage Award and the Friends of Flagstaff’s Future Livable Community Award. In 2009, Lisa was a Gardens for Humanity Visionary Awardee.

"Lisa Rayner’s book removes much of the mystery and guesswork involved in the endeavor of growing food in these harsh and, at times, unforgiving climates. Lisa draws from her extensive background in ecology and permaculture to create a holistic approach to gardening. The book contains critical information on microclimates and soils and on selecting appropriate species and varieties that are adapted to high elevations and short growing seasons. She also incorporates helpful information on the history of growing food in the Southwest, describes guilds of species that create thriving forest gardens, and recommends appropriate times to plant your seeds and starts. The appendices, which include a list of food substitutes, a glossary of food crops, and several pages of additional resources are well worth the price of the book. I highly recommend this book for anyone in the Southwest Mountains who is serious about growing their own food."

— Judith D. Springer
Co-editor of Field Guide to Forest & Mountain Plants of Northern Arizona