Stella's frangipani (a departed friend, whose cutting we cherish)
Hello new year! 2020. I didn't mean to be away this long, but life kind of happened. Like recovering from Christmas, then a stomach bug which took me and our youngest out, for a bit. In early January I pulled my trapezius muscle, from my neck all the way down to my shoulder blade. Typing was not an option. I'm much better now though, and both kids are at school for another year. So like our pink frangipani, life is just blooming along.
Since all the natural watering holes, in the landscape have dried up, our bird-baths have been working overtime. They're filled twice a day now, to accommodate the visitors. Which is about 18 litres of water, per day. We have the larger bath, for mostly birds and adult kangaroos to drink from. The small one is for Joeys, who have vacated mum's pouch. But not quite large enough, to reach the tall one yet. We've had different configurations over the years.
We finally got some of that rain, predicted for our area. And as always, only received the outer edges of the rain system. It was still welcomed though, and both our tanks, are roughly 85% full now. So we definitely got something out of the exchange.
I also learned something new...
House in background
The new pond we dug over winter, holds water. There was sufficient clay in the soil, to hold it for 3 days. Although it did diminish quicker, than the pond above the house. Still, it was wonderful to know, we're able to capture water in the landscape, and store it for longer than before.
This was a naturally occurring gully, cut into a slope, after many years of erosion. We simply dammed it up, by putting soil at the bottom of two hills. The small dam wall, between them, is now a walkway for people and kangaroos.
Eventually, I'll dedicate a post to how that pond, came into being. As for now, it's still under construction. We're presently building, a long swale, to take any overflow from the pond, away safely. But I digress...
22 corn seedlings, went into the ground, today
What I actually wanted to make this post about, was working with climatic conditions in our area. More specifically, in relation to food production. I was inspired by the "Greening the Desert" project, compliments of Geoff Lawton. He basically grew food in the desert.
Surely, his permaculture design strategies, could work here too?
Well, sort of...yes, and no. In theory (well, Geoff has proven it) they work. But here's what the Greening the Desert project had, that we didn't. Earth moving equipment, access to large amounts of resources on a "continual" basis, fencing all around their sites.
I've built swales, but the rain never fills them for long. I bought another tank to water the edibles, but a protracted dry spell, saw us conserving water for house use, only. I chose drought tolerant plants, but without water, I couldn't establish them. Or to put it another way, get their roots deeper, into the ground. Overexposure to sunlight, was another problem...it killed non-established plants, in an hour of intense sun. The continual access to water, is what keeps plants alive. Something we just didn't have.
New leafs emerge, on stripped pigeon pea trees
Any plants we did get into the ground, to grow canopy protection, quickly became new food for the local kangaroo population. So they were stripped of their leaves, when nothing else was growing. Rewind. Back to overexposure, again
I'm happy to share with the local wildlife, but when you grow food in a desert, expect the hoards of wildlife to clean you out. They're desperate too. I still appreciate the permaculture principles, and still use them, but reality is different when applied in the desert.
I noted in the various Greening the Desert, projects (there's now Greening the Desert II) all sites were fenced in. I thought, maybe to stop people trespassing? Now I can appreciate, how it's needed to prevent the hoards of animals from devouring all that hard work.
Immediate relief
We've now erected a shade sail, to create man made shade. It will help deal with overexposure, more permanently. We're building some growing areas, around it, to have vegetables. All this to say, as climate changes, how we grow food becomes more important.
I've noticed, the drier it gets in our area, the more man-made interventions we require, to get a return. Those interventions, come with a price tag too. I'd love to just stick seeds in the ground and watch them grow, but we're dealing with a region that sees periods of dry, hot conditions. It's lovely when the rains arrive, but you can lose plants when they don't. Even, supposedly, drought tolerant ones.
Old-man saltbush, sacrificed limbs to survive the drought
After growing in these conditions, for nigh on a decade now, I've come to some conclusions, for food production success, in dry, hot conditions.
Water is CRITICAL, there needs to be a continuous supply
Maximise water efficiency, by limiting the growing area
Shade it permanently
Only grow drought tolerant plants
Fence it off
Further to the above, only grow what you'll eat the MOST. If you're going to mollycoddle, make sure the crop will be used on a regular basis. Long storage crops too, like sweet potatoes, pumpkins and chokos, don't have to be eaten immediately. So you can spread it out, instead of having to eat, as soon as it's harvested.
I'm trying some new varieties of vegetables too, reputed to do well in hot climates. I'll let you know how that goes. I didn't write any of this, to diminish the insights and attributes permaculture design has. But there are some misconceptions, as to what it can achieve. It CAN green the desert, but only with a lot of interventions, a lot of resources and a lot of barriers to admittance.
This is just the reality, of growing food, in the desert (or desert-like) conditions. This is what we have to deal with, so these are the realities I share. I expect drier conditions will be revisiting us, more often than not. So we still have to plan to eat.
They're predicting 40-80mm of rain for us today, but I think we'll be lucky to see 40mm here. Not to worry however, as our various earthworks projects, around the place (mostly dug by hand) are busy capturing as much as possible.
Pond
The pond, connected to our upper swale is full, and could get even fuller. Which means it will lap up to the lemon grass, without falling over the edge. I'm glad I did all that work around the pond recently. Both our pear trees, sit either side of the pond and this rain event, should hopefully see them through until spring. Especially since they've been recently mulched.
Driveway
The driveway, that would formerly run water, straight down to the house and erode, has now been dealt with by our new concrete pavers. They collect water in the cells and there's very little movement, even if the cells fill and spill over. I'm hoping the grass can eventually populate the whole driveway. That would make it absolutely rock solid and very difficult to erode.
Wet
Down in our lower gully, the dragon is awakening. David snapped this picture, just as the water was starting to tickle down the footpath. Perhaps you remember this footpath, from my recent posts about Natural fertility and Natural resilience? This is what it looks like in the dry...
Dry
The water moves slowly, and when the rain stops, it will sit here until the ground drinks it in. Which will cause the plants we recently cut back, to re-shoot again. Then we will cut them back to mulch, continuing the cycle for the next rain event. If this was all sand, like it was formerly, we'd have serious erosion problems. So would our downstream neighbours.
Water moves
This view shows the same footpath flowing with water (top) with the middle section of water, virtually still. The water runs on the higher ground (read Peter Andrews, Back from the Brink, and Beyond the Brink) because it has been blocked by us, higher up stream, causing the water to split. It runs on the higher ground, and barely dawdles on the lower.
This is how we are attempting to manage water flows in the lower gully, to prevent soil erosion, and maximise water retention.
Dragon detour
This is where all the action is happening. To the far left of the image, the water is entering our property. It hits the barriers we placed across the gully, using vegetation. This causes the water to back up, and split into different paths where it can get away.
Splitting the water, effectively means you're splitting the velocity it flows at. In this way, our dragon takes many detours to the higher ground, to the middle ground and down to the lower ground.
Overflowing
Of course, the land is happy to receive all this rain, but what it also means to us, is a full rainwater tank. Until rainwater becomes your only water supply, you'll never truly appreciate a full rainwater tank. This means we can shower, wash our clothes, cook and clean again. Its such a thrill to see it overflowing.
I write posts about rain events, as a record for when the rain is falling, how much and what its doing in the landscape. Back in May, this kind of rain was filling up my new swales, I'd dug, to capture run-off from our driveway.
May 2015
I was worried when we got to June this year, and hadn't had any serious rainfall. Without it, moisture doesn't get captured in the ground, for the dry weather before spring. So I am happy to see our swales filling, as they ought to be.
We're about one month later, than last year, so I wonder what next year will bring? As an extra note, its good to have as much mulch down as possible, before it arrives.
With our new pond project, we thought we may need help with sealing, because this particular area is known for its sandy-loam soils. Our pond is right on the edge of a (formerly) active gully, so it has collected quite a bit of silt over the years.
Project to date - logs roughly mark pond
We aren't fans of pond liners though, not least because of the toxicity in manufacture and price, but also because we know nature has been sealing ponds very adequately, for a very long time. We just had to learn the process of how to do it. So began my research for knowledge.
First, this link has a thorough discussion on the topic of "gley" or "glei" if you're speaking Russian. Which is just the layering of biodegradable material over the surface of the pond. It creates anaerobic conditions which mats together, or seals the pond. I've seen this done naturally in our middle swale, thanks to the pigeon peas I planted above them.
Natural swale seal
They dropped their leaves and when they broke down over several seasons, eventually made a black-green slime. I had no idea at the time, this was nature sealing our swale. Yet its very distinctive, where the organic matter fell, the swale holds water. Where it doesn't, the water sinks through.
But I really like Sepp Holzer's approach to pond lining - just add pigs! The way pigs agitate the water with their hooves, they compact the soil particles regardless if the soil has clay or not. Sepp imitates this process, with the use of a excavator bucket on machinery. We won't go that route ourselves, but if you want to learn more about Sepp's techniques, visit this link.
For pretty pictures of ponds, using Sepp's techniques, see this link. You may find more information by clicking on the images.
We will probably start by adding lots of organic matter to the surface of the pond, once its dug and plan to have some deciduous trees nearby to continue the process.
So what can you do when there's not much money, but land is at your disposal? Well, you can make dirt, or you can just as easily, move it. I can't think of anything more enjoyable. And that's exactly what David embarked on doing today, with his trusty hand tools, a bit of sweat and even the shirt from his back!
We like to keep our work simple.
The beginning
We're renovating a patch of land, which we originally dumped tree trunks on and attempted to grow some volunteer plants from our compost. It made some lovely soil, grew some grass and even sheltered insects from the sunlight, but nothing which originally sprung from the compost, actually lived very long.
The plan
That experiment was a dud, but we realised the area would make a great pond - something we could direct water from the main gully to. But first we had to pull up those decaying logs. By we, I mean, David.
Termite candy
I was able to steal a few moments from Peter napping inside, to take some pictures of David's handiwork. There were logs in various stages of decay, as well as plenty of broken down sticks. There were even some amazing fungi growing on some of the logs. So many things happening in this area we disturbed just a few years ago.
Natural bling!
As David moved the logs out of the way, there was some fairly good topsoil to put aside for later.
I like how we mostly use hand tools in our land work though. It takes a lot of time, versus the mechanical methods available, but its cheap and if you look after your tools, they never break down.
A great way to spend the day
The other benefit of using hand tools, is that it helps keep your own organic matter, maintained. We once used hand tools because we didn't have the money for mechanical ones, but now its something we're happy to adopt - not as an inferior substitute, but as a means to connect with the soil, and our own bodies.
In turning the soil, we turn our muscles and both are the better for it. I get my workout, when I dig the swales.
Before
So this is what the area looked like, once the pile of logs was removed. David got busy with the shovel and carted that topsoil away. Then it started to look a lot more civilized.
After
Because we're digging this area down, to make a pond, these small trees will have to go. In fact, quite a few trees, outside this picture has to go. But its all for the purpose of making something better. We'll plant more trees of course, and building a place to hold water, will increase the network of living organisms.
The tree leaning in the foreground, was the first one to meet David's mattock.
It was the second tree, I have since been informed, was responsible for breaking the mattock! Its not called Australian hardwood, for nothing. What was I saying about hand tools never breaking down?
That mattock has seen some mileage though. We bought it, when our first mattock split its wooden handle. After we got it repaired, we had two invaluable devices for moving dirt with. They helped build the many retaining walls around the property. It's done some serious dirty work!
But now it seems we're back down to one. I know any mattock we buy to replace it though, will be money well spent! David's back out there with some shovels an axe, and determination to take out one more tree, before the day's through.
As an interesting side-note, when I looked for labels to put on this post, I found Health, Land and Water management. Seeing those three things together, I realised, that's what its all about - our health and that of the land and water. We come outside, nearly every day, for those very things.
