Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Conserving water in ponds

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Conserving water in ponds
  • Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:27:17 -0700 (PDT)

I live in the South of Portugal.
Rainfall May through September:  0 inches.
This is not a drought it is the regular dry season.
A drought is when the winter rains also fail, which happens on everage twice
every 14 years.
 
Most people around here have artificial lakes.  A bulldozer will close a
small valley with a dam and then compact the soil.  In some places the soil
holds the water well, in other places the lake bottom leaks so much that it
runs dry before the summer is over even without using any water for
irrigation.  It's a bit of gamble.  To have any effect it needs to be at
least a quarter acre in size.  There is no way to prevent evaporation.  The
deeper the lake the better your chances of having water all through the
summer. The depth should not be less then 20 or 30 feet.
 
I don't have a lake.  I try to increase SOM (soil organic matter) so as to
improve the water retention properties of the soil. A clay soil with high
organic content has good soil structure and many pores that can multiply the
amount of water held by the soil without being water logged. In the garden, I
have been able to reduce irrigation by about 80% in the last 6 years.  Weeds
and grass are cut at the onset of the dry season so as to reduce
transpiration.  The topsoil and mulch prevent evaporation through capillary
action.  There isn't much one can do about deep percolation though.  Other
strategies include, growing as much as possible during the wet season, and
learning which crop will survive with little or not water, for examples:
beans, tomatoes, squash, etc.
 
Dieter Brand, Portugal

 

--- On Wed, 8/27/08, Robert Waldrop <bwaldrop@cox.net> wrote:

From: Robert Waldrop <bwaldrop@cox.net>
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Conserving water in ponds
To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Wednesday, August 27, 2008, 3:08 PM

Other ideas about mitigation strategies would be
helpful too. RMW

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Waldrop" <bwaldrop@cox.net>
To: "permaculture"
<permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 9:07 AM
Subject: [permaculture] Conserving water in ponds


>A report has recently been released by the
> Oklahoma Climatological Survey predicting that
> as
> a result of climate change, droughts in Oklahoma
> will increase in frequency and severity. As a
> result, there is a discussion going on among the
> producers-members of the Oklahoma Food Coop over
> mitigation strategies. One issue that has come
> up
> is "conserving water in ponds", presumably by
> reducing evaporation.
>
> Any thoughts about that? Would aquatic plants
> that cover the surface of the water help?
>
> Bob Waldrop, OKC
>
> _______________________________________________
> permaculture mailing list
> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subscribe or unsubscribe here:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
> Google command to search archives:
> site:https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/permaculture
> searchstring
>
>
>

_______________________________________________
permaculture mailing list
permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Subscribe or unsubscribe here:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
Google command to search archives:
site:https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/permaculture searchstring






>From permaculture.biz@gmail.com Wed Aug 27 16:55:51 2008
Return-Path: <permaculture.biz@gmail.com>
X-Original-To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Delivered-To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Received: by lists.ibiblio.org (Postfix, from userid 3002)
id 840F44C065; Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:55:45 -0400 (EDT)
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.3 (2007-08-08) on malecky
X-Spam-Level:
X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.0 required=5.0 tests=HTML_MESSAGE
autolearn=disabled version=3.2.3
Received: from wx-out-0506.google.com (wx-out-0506.google.com [66.249.82.235])
by lists.ibiblio.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 82FEE4C03C
for <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>;
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:55:36 -0400 (EDT)
Received: by wx-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id i26so36233wxd.30
for <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>;
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:55:36 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.142.139.14 with SMTP id m14mr146678wfd.291.1219870535580;
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:55:35 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.142.155.8 with HTTP; Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:55:35 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <cef38c330808271355h27cb73cct9d858319b84d21c0@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 06:55:35 +1000
From: "Darren Doherty" <darren@permaculture.biz>
Sender: permaculture.biz@gmail.com
To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
In-Reply-To: <793485.62507.qm@web63403.mail.re1.yahoo.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
References: <009301c9084e$6da1c780$6501a8c0@bobcomputer>
<793485.62507.qm@web63403.mail.re1.yahoo.com>
X-Google-Sender-Auth: 5cc14063eba9a281
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline
X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.9
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Conserving water in ponds
X-BeenThere: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9
Precedence: list
Reply-To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Id: permaculture <permaculture.lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture>,
<mailto:permaculture-request@lists.ibiblio.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/permaculture>
List-Post: <mailto:permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Help: <mailto:sympa@lists.ibiblio.org?subject=HELP>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture>,
<mailto:permaculture-request@lists.ibiblio.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:55:51 -0000

G'day,

Rowan Reid (University of Melbourne, Forestry) recently suggested that every
farm should have 22.4% (from memory) of each farm in some kind of tree
cover...having travelled through Oklahoma last year I could see that much of
this state, like much of the rest of the great agricultural regions that we
travelled or worked in (US, brittle Europe, Argentina and Australia for that
matter) have done their level best to remove anything even looking like a
tree...so much so that any perennials don't even get a look in. A bare earth
policy prevails and so from that the dehumification cycle starts. So there
is much to be done at that level and it means using Holistic ManagementTM,
Keyline Design, Carbon Farming & Integrated Farm Forestry (especially Alley
or Avenue Farming) to start the rehumidification process.

As for the potential for dam failure due to leakage...a good idea is to
actually do some test holes with a backhoe or excavator and test the
substrate from which you are going to build the storage. I have the unedited
copy of the 2000 Permaculture Activist article on all of this at:
http://docs.google.com/View?docidÜt6rvhv_17gn3b6sfh . Doing some testing
is a good and I believe necessary part of the process of risk management,
especially these days when diesel is sooo expensive...even though these
structures and other well considered 'terraforming earthworks' are
appropriate for the objective of rehumidifying human landscapes.

The 'Great Agricultural Retrofit' as I call it starts however with the soil
and its coverage and management and there are no shortage of methods proven
to build soil on any scale...as Allan Savory puts it: "...Its all up to
human decision making..."

All the best,

Darren Doherty



--
Hooroo,
Darren J. Doherty

Australia Felix Permaculture
Broadacre Permaculture Design & Development
International Certified Permaculture Education

Web: http://www.permaculture.biz
PhotoLog: http://picasaweb.google.com/permaculture.biz
Blog: http://www.australiafelixpermaculture.blogspot.com/

+61 (3) 9010 6220
skype: permaculture.biz

News!

Free Range Permaculture Workshops November 2008, Cairns, Queensland, AU
Keyline Design(R) Course
Permaculture Design Certificate Course (BOOKED OUT!)
(with Geoff Lawton)

International Remote Broadacre Permaculture Design
Cost-effective GIS/CAD-based Land Development Plans & Design Treatments just
about anywhere....




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page