Nate Downey

Biography

For more than a decade, Nate Downey has written a popular monthly column called "Permaculture in Practice" for The Santa Fe New Mexican's award-winning 'Real Estate Guide.' A frequent guest on public radio, a perennial presenter at green events, and the author of two books on water and sustainability, Nate is a seasoned teacher, speaker, writer, and businessman. Soon after he started Santa Fe Permaculture in 1992, Nate's wife, Melissa McDonald, joined his forward-thinking landscape-design firm. Since then, their beautiful, functional, and ecological projects have popped up regularly in prominent publications from Su Casa to Sunset. With their boys, Liam and Keenan, Nate and Melissa share a backyard brimming with bees, bunnies, chickens, all sorts of edible plants, lots of harvested rain, and a nice little patio for building community.