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Inspiring Successful Earth-saving Projects
We can help the planet re-vegetate and reverse climate change. Here are three large projects that have had success and one which is still in the making because it is so vast. Watch these and be inspired, be hopeful, and plant native trees where you live:
Africa’s Great Green Wall:
earthrise – The Great Green Wall
Subscribe to our channel http://bit.ly/AJSubscribeThe Sahara is creeping into the verdant southern Africa. To counter desertification, the Community of Sahel…
China’s Loess Plateau:
Agroecology in China: 300% Increase on 8.6 Million Acres – Loess Plateau
Go to https://FoodAbundance.com to join the Food Abundance movement.Excerpts from Hope in a Changing Climate (http://www.open.edu/openlearn/whats-on/ou-on-th…
Jordan’s Greening the Desert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sohI6vnWZmk
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9 Comments
Diane
Jane, how nice of you. Yes, we’re in Southern California, and the huge fires right now are closer to San Francisco, which is just above central California. There have been small fires here but have been quickly extinguished. We are still having Santa Anas, which are dry, hot winds from the desert, and our temperature will spike again into the 100’s F this weekend. We’re all on fire alert, and I have my animal cages ready. We had terrible fires here in 2007, which came to 1/4 mile of our house. Here’s hoping that you stay safe as well in your hot, fire-prone area! Thanks for your good wishes! Diane
Jane
Hi Diane,
I do hope you and Finch Frolic Garden and you family are safe from the terrible fires.
Regards Jane.
Diane
Thank you, Jane!
Jane
Yes Diane, I had seen that video on the Sonoran desert, also one with Bill Mollison in the same place. I was just totally amazed at how it looks and how much hard work had been done all those years ago. What a precious gift those workers then have given us today. I am not truly in a desert, this area is classified semi arid so after all this information gathering over the past year of huge, large and small projects, I can’t wait to see my own oasis appear it seems to me the problem here is the heat in summer and lack of good shade to prevent evaporation. Everyone burns or mows the ground bare trying to avoid fire. Even the forests round here get some intervention.
I hope you have a safe fire season, and a safe and Happy Birthday. Thank you for your encouragement. Jane.
Diane
This is interesting as well: https://permaculturenews.org/2017/10/02/free-fertilizer-saving-rural-farmers/ .
Diane
Jane, there is a lot of permaculture happening in our desert areas, too. Here is another great video that you may have already seen from your own Geoff Lawton, about huge swales in the Sonoran desert: https://permaculturenews.org/2014/10/11/discovering-oasis-american-desert/ . There are a lot of videos from people growing food forests in Arizona and other desert areas that you might enjoy. Some are all about the food and not about the method, though. Anything that you can cover the ground with will help, even biodegradable fabric. Old cotton sheets, t-shirts, bedding… it won’t look good, but it will help for a season and can either be topped by mulch when you get it, or covered with manure or just dirt, or left alone. I look forward to hearing from you about how this season goes! Diane
Jane
Hi Dianne, your weather seems as impossible as ours. We have a really early start to our fire season this year. My problem is getting enough mulch. I thought my prayers had been answered when I found a web site advertising free wood chips Australia wide, so I registered, but so far no luck. l think I am too rural here most people deal with their own trees themselves. I also worry about the fire risk with mulch around as there is no doubt it will be dry on the surface during the summer, even if wet underneath. However local councils and some farmers burn off during the winter and early spring to reduce the fuel levels in summer, but we still seem to have the fires anyway, some are started deliberately and some by lightning strikes. I also want to keep the grass green for as long as possible so the kangaroos will leave my fruit and vegetables alone. This summer will be an interesting one for me, even though I still have not enough trees and shrubs growing yet, I do feel I’m on the right track. I love reading your blog, so much information that seem relevant to my situation, previously I seemed to be finding information for tropical or colder climates and everyone seemed to have more rain than me, except of course the videos in this post. Jane.
Diane
Hi Jane, yes I look at these seemingly impossible tasks that have had success for inspiration, too. We’ve had a strange year, with a lot of rain last winter – last time that much happened was in the 70’s. That after years of drought. Then a hot summer with spikes up to 118F here, which is a record for our property. Despite it all the garden came through pretty well. Some things scorched, but it could have been a lot worse with both heat and flooding, and I think that the mulch is what saved us. For a demonstration at a booth this last weekend I prepared two nursery flats a couple of weeks ago. I lined them with old plastic bags, filled them with an inch and a half of regular potting soil mixed with dirt, watered them with the same amount of water. On one I put a layer of newspaper and topped it with about an inch of dry leaves. I left them both in the sun and didn’t do anything else to them. (I made two sets because my daughter and I had booths at two different events). Before the event I had a look. The uncovered one was dry as a bone. The ones with one layer of newspaper and some leaves on top was not only really moist on the inside in the middle, but there was some fungal hyphae beginning and some bugs. I was amazed at how well it worked. The edges were dry. I couldn’t believe that the layers kept it that moist for that long, and then I realized that the leaves themselves were helping catch any ambient moisture in the air overnight, collecting it and funneling it through. We haven’t had foggy weather at all, but there have been some mornings with moist air (we’re having our usual dry, hot winds from the desert called Santa Anas right now. Scary fire season weather). So this experiment not only worked to impress the people who went past our booths, but it served to really impress me about just how good the system works and how vital it is to cover the earth with as much protective covering as possible. Several inches of leaves, or sheet mulch instead. Best of luck with your garden, and thanks so much for reading and commenting! Diane
Jane
Yes, theses videos plus one called falling in love with swales were what made me think about changing my failed veg/fruit garden. I thought if theses people could improved their landscapes on such a large scale then surely I could change my dusty plot. Your video of rain in the food forest on a day when it was not actually raining really got me moving. I wanted that. I’m pleased with my progress so far but there is still along way to go, and we’ve had a really dry winter, and so far no rain this spring. However at least I’ve got things started and when it does rain eventually things can only get better. Thank you again for your video, that was the trigger I needed to really get going, and what I keep going back to when I get a bit disheartened with our weather.