Phoenix couple create sustainable home with 39 fruit trees in the front, more in the back

And teaching others to feed themselves is essentially his calling in life, from a sustainability perspective.

By Lisa Van Loo
Arizona Republic
Oct. 10, 2019

Excerpt:

Peterson’s home is also his office. He runs the Urban Farm, and has for years, educating city dwellers on the sustainable possibilities that are available to everyone if they’re inspired enough to look into it.

“I like to call it an environmental showcase home,” he said. That it is.

The 2,000 square-foot ranch, with three bedrooms and 1½ baths, offers everything he and his wife need. It was built in 1948, and sometimes it needs updates. When it does, they do everything they can to make sure those upgrades are energy efficient.

Solar panels are propped on the roof, an evaporative cooler keeps electricity use down most of the year, and his commitment to water harvesting keeps him reliant on what falls from the sky rather than what comes out of a hose.

Even in the desert, it’s hard to compute the volume of water that is delivered by the sky and can be reused in the yard. Peterson estimates that for one inch of rainwater over 1,000 square feet can yield 600 gallons of water.

Read the complete article here.