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  • From: Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Dieter's email on clay
  • Date: Sat, 21 Mar 2009 02:22:35 -0700 (PDT)


Rain,

> I used to hate the idea of stealing organic matter from some areas to …

This is one of the central ideas in Natural Farming. On very small and
highly fertile fields, which are typical of Japan, it is possible not to use
any organic matter (i.e. fertility) from “outside the field”. In most other
places, with larger farms and less fertile soil, it is only feasible not to
use organic matter from “outside the farm”. For example, when we use manure
in the garden, there is a transfer of fertility from the pasture land to the
garden. This is sustainable as long as we avoid overgrazing. Traditional
farming in most parts of the World has always grown all fertility (all
organic matter) on-site. It is only in the last few decades that
industrial-scale agriculture has began to be completely reliant on off-site
fertility and soil amendments with all its negative consequences. I haven’t
had any external input from “outside the farm” in at least 6 years.

>I am somewhat lucky in that I have a few large oaks around and madrone and
>oak groves

Same here! Most of our 30 acres are covered by cork oaks and madrone. They
are ideal for this climate. They get by without water during a summer and
recover after a fire.

>The next step would be to scythe large areas of grass for mulch, but this
>seems less effective.

Try it anyways! Sometimes the effect is only felt after a year or two.

>Isn't fire a concern at your site?

Half of our property burnt down once in the last 10 years, but a neighbor
burnt down completely twice in the same time. And even when we are not
directly affected, we often have to evacuate when a fire front approaches.
The only safe place in a fire is on a ploughed field. When a fire
approaches, people often load all their belongings onto trailers and drive
them into the middle of a ploughed field. Many farmers plough a strip of
land around the house or around the farm. Still, you won’t find an inch of
bare soil on our property because bare soil is dead soil. The terrible
quality of soil in this region is due to the combined effects of high
temperatures (humus depletes quicker with high temperatures) and the constant
plowing used in dry-land farming. Bare ploughed soil backing in the
scorching sun loses all life and nutrients oxidize in contact with the air.

When we deal with fire risk we need to find the right compromise between the
extremes of removing all combustible materials (i.e. all vegetation), on the
one hand, and leaving tons of the stuff laying around everywhere, on the
other hand. For example, when you cut the grass to less then 6 inches during
the dry season, a fire will just burn through without doing much damage.
Placing a few large flat stones around the trunk of your fruit trees can also
help. Mulching plots of land you want to improve, while leaving only the
stubble in other places also reduces fire risk. If you have too much organic
matter for mulching, use some for heap composting at least during the dry
season because it is easier to keep a compost heap wet. Thin out shrub and
wood land: cut and shred the shrubs in regular intervals, cut the lower
branches of trees. There should be a few meters of free space between the
grass and the lower branches of trees. Around the house and on
access roads, I use gravel and stone mulches, stone walls, stone gardens,
etc. A stone or gravel mulch protects the clay soil just as well as does an
organic mulch. Where I have covered the access roads with gravel, the middle
strip and road sides produce so much grass and weeds that I can mulch part of
our garden with it. There is far less growth in places where I haven’t put
any gravel yet. Lastly, avoid fire accelerating plants (pine trees,
eucalyptus, etc.) and select fire retarding plants (cistus, oaks, etc.).
Unfortunately, most succulents don’t grow on heavy clay.

Dieter Brand
Portugal









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