Organic Landscape Design

In my place most of the people are relatively well off. Most people are not aware of all the forces playing out around and through them. Most people are focused on their part in the set of transactions that create this ecosystem and this economy.

And I suppose that is how it has been since the beginning. We each start out completely dependent and learn what our community learned about how to fit in – what it takes to survive. And then we focus on finding a place for ourselves and our primary concern is maintaining that transaction that allows us to survive – learning what it takes to earn enough money to be able to do what we want to do. For some people that is acquiring things, for some people it is maintaining a life style, for some people it is saving for retirement.

Being aware of the motivation of the people, plants and creatures that create this place, how can we influence their choices toward choosing a system where more value is retained in the system and away from choosing a system where less value is retained in the system? How can we use the existing forces to not only improve the conditions here for ourselves, but also for all the other people, plants and creature that reside here?

In this place I am working on building gardens based on recognizing contributions – where we can learn to honor the gift of the least among us.

This focus on our part in the set of transactions is critical to understanding inertia in the system. Once people find a fit they tend to stay there – because it is what they know – because it is safe – because we do not know the end result if we were to try a different fit.

And this focus on our part in the set of transactions is critical to understanding conflict in the system. Once people find a fit they will do what is necessary to preserve that fit. People will defend the transactions that allow them to survive. And if one consequence of the relevant transactions is damage to another's prospects – then we have conflict.

To maximize our influence in a place – to move the set of transactions focused on a place in the direction of more value retained in the system – means that we will seek out the opportunity to make new connections. I do not think it requires that everyone involved is aware of all the forces playing out around and through us – only that those of us seeking new connections understand the motivations of those with whom we would connect. An Aikido approach to living in place.

Until 2004 I made my living practicing law. I was the owner with various partners over the years so I have a great deal of experience with such things as customer service, motivating employees, systems development, and generally running a business. The ideas about exchanges of value forming the structure of our world derive from that experience.

I sold my interest in the firm in 2004 so I could write about this change in point of view that we are not engaged in a struggle but rather we are engaged in a pattern of flows where we create the pattern as it creates us. Earlier this year I started a new business, Organic Landscape Design, to work at applying this understanding – to influence the way people in my locality react to the ecosystem and economy and to create more places for people, plants and creatures to fit.

The basic idea is about changing our aesthetic for lawns. A lawn is a maintenance expense – particularly here in the arid west. My company offers a design for a no weed, no water, no till, deep mulched, drip irrigated gardening system that maximally employs nature's processes to accomplish the work thereby minimizing the material and labor inputs required. The system takes the maintenance expense and converts it to a continuous source of value.

As this idea catches hold we will hire and educate permaculture maintenance technicians to build and maintain these landscapes. We we will have created new places for people, plants and creatures to fit. The food produced will form the basis for even more transactions – and I will have learned more about successfully living in place.

It is important to me to distribute this idea – living in place – as widely as possible. Each one of us controls only a few transactions so by our selves can have only nominal impact on the ecosystem and economy in a place.

Most people do not know that they create the place where they live. Many people think that someone else is responsible. They think the government or the big corporations or unenlightened are responsible. But the world we experience is made up of all the transactions in which we each engage and your choices have as much impact as anyone else's.

Many think that it takes money to change things and that we must get a vote in congress or a grant of money to make changes. But the world we experience is being changed all the time: to enhance the ecosystem simply stop using poisons, or compost your garbage, or leave a wild edge to your yard. To enhance the economy change what you buy or stop buying things. Your choices create the ecosystem and economy even as you are created by them.

Some people think that the market will solve all our problems – but we create the market through our decisions about what to buy and when – and some choices result in a depletion of resources retained in a place and some choices result in the accumulation of resources retained in a place.

If enough people in a place understand that they create place and begin living in place, we can create the new transactions for more people, plants and creatures to fit into our place. We can enhance the local ecosystem and the local economy in my place and your place and all over the world. And the more that we exercise our power to create place the better we will become at it.

For that purpose I am asking you to share these ideas with all the people that you know who want the world to be better than it is now. If you know of a group that is working on some change, I would be pleased to present these ideas at your next meeting.

Continue with Living in Place - Part 4