'Millan fears the entire Western Mediterranean Basin is at such a tipping point, on its way to becoming an Almeria style desert, a point from which it is very difficult to return. “Once you hit rock,” he says, “you’re done.” '
Not totally true - if you study Geoff Lawton's 'Greening the Desert' project story, in the Dead Sea region of Jordan (200mm rain per year up to 50C top temperatures in summer), you learn that you can start from bare earth and create a sustainable area within a decade, although of course this does require some human intervention.
The things Lawton focussed on initially were:
1. Creating level swales to harvest/collect what rainwater did come during the rainy season.
2. Planting pioneer trees, skilled at providing shade and surviving even in the most arid of climates.
3. Directing rainfall to sunken hemispheres around those pioneer trees to promote tree survival and growth.
4. Covering the ground with mulch cut from pioneer tree growth.
5. Creating compost using chickens to recycle waste products into fertile soil.
Hi Dr. John! That tomato looks amazing. I often dig up interestingly shaped potatoes, but the tomatoes in my veggie patch are always roughly spherical.
Is this a Texan thing? Or did several tomatoes get fused together due to growing too large?
Hi Dr. John! That tomato looks amazing. I often dig up interestingly shaped potatoes, but the tomatoes in my veggie patch are always roughly spherical.
Is this a Texan thing? Or did several tomatoes get fused together due to growing too large?
'Millan fears the entire Western Mediterranean Basin is at such a tipping point, on its way to becoming an Almeria style desert, a point from which it is very difficult to return. “Once you hit rock,” he says, “you’re done.” '
Not totally true - if you study Geoff Lawton's 'Greening the Desert' project story, in the Dead Sea region of Jordan (200mm rain per year up to 50C top temperatures in summer), you learn that you can start from bare earth and create a sustainable area within a decade, although of course this does require some human intervention.
The things Lawton focussed on initially were:
1. Creating level swales to harvest/collect what rainwater did come during the rainy season.
2. Planting pioneer trees, skilled at providing shade and surviving even in the most arid of climates.
3. Directing rainfall to sunken hemispheres around those pioneer trees to promote tree survival and growth.
4. Covering the ground with mulch cut from pioneer tree growth.
5. Creating compost using chickens to recycle waste products into fertile soil.
https://www.greeningthedesertproject.org/about-us/
Obviously, every area of the world has its own unique climate, its own unique native trees/plants etc and its own unique climate/rainfall patterns.
But the principles are pretty timeless:
1. Harvest water.
2. Create soil.
3. Provide shade.
4. Mulch bare ground.
5. Evolve the system from pioneer species to mature sustainable ecosystem.
Yes, that series of Lawton's on their work in Jordan is very good, an old favorite of mine, but that is not "rock" he's working with there, either.
There is work for "us" to do, but the "us" that decide want easy profits, not to "invest" in a healthy ecosphere.
The little "us" are on our own.
;-(
Hi Dr. John! That tomato looks amazing. I often dig up interestingly shaped potatoes, but the tomatoes in my veggie patch are always roughly spherical.
Is this a Texan thing? Or did several tomatoes get fused together due to growing too large?
Some heirloom tomatoes do this sometimes. The biggest one every year is often irregular this way.
Hi Dr. John! That tomato looks amazing. I often dig up interestingly shaped potatoes, but the tomatoes in my veggie patch are always roughly spherical.
Is this a Texan thing? Or did several tomatoes get fused together due to growing too large?