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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] the personal side of climate challenge
  • Date: Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:11:38 -0700


My recent stress on global warming, or climate change, has a personal angle.
A few years back I read that adding decomposed organic matter makes soil more
moisture retentive. Also that so-called biointensive produces more in raised
beds for more efficient use of limited garden space. At the same time old
timers in southwest New Mexico were describing how they used to have deep
snow when they were young. They had cattle and grew pinto beans and other
crops, but their climate got drier and by the 'forties homesteaders were
failing and moving on. Now living farther north, we learned that this valley
used to grow a variety of crops and sheep. A railroad ran through hauling
pinto beans, livestock, and other crops till 1970. The rails are gone now and
only the rail bed can still be seen in spots. Grain elevators sit abandoned.
We get, officially, about 10" precip annually. Some corn and alfalfa survives
with pivot irrigation, but the upfront investment is formidable and way too
much watering is depleting the closed fossil aquifer. And almost nobody
gardens.

What can people do to grow food gardens in this climate - which is supposed
to be a bigger challenge in more regions with global warming? How can we feed
more people with limited land and water? Here's a ready laboratory to try
cutting edge methods other growers have promoted.

For some time we've tried on and off building up alkaline soil, or dirt, with
aged horse manure, alfalfa meal and minerals and used simple drip irrigation
on less than a quarter acre. We've found that's not enough; mulch is needed
to conserve moisture. But in such a climate we don't find grass clippings or
leaves. That means finding spent stable hay or buying at the going price. At
6200 elev. we're still trying to deal with a four-month frost free season
with row covers, with limited success so far. But now in its third year this
small garden with raised beds and two homemade greenhouses supplies two
farmers markets in season.

There's another market garden a few miles up the highway where they use field
equipment to plow and plant, without amendments or mulch. I'm sure it takes a
lot more water, sprays, and weed control. Not to mention equipment and paid
labor. I needed to know if a market garden could be profitable with very low
capital investment and zero paid labor, but with one other limitation: much
smaller space, say less than a quarter acre. That way a lot more people could
grow. And sure enough, raised framed beds (with equidistant planting) means
that more can be produced in less space at lower cost and less labor. You
walk on aisles and don't compact the beds (better for roots), so don't need
to buy a tiller, and water, amendments, and mulch aren't wasted on the aisles
- unlike wasteful tractor rows. It isn't laid out to allow machinery and
doesn't need to be.

There is still a learning curve no matter how you produce food crops. Not all
our challenges are worked out to reduce labor enough. This is one of the
types of growing that needs to be refined for future food security in various
challenging climates.


paul tradingpost@lobo.net
listowner










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