Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["John D'hondt" <dhondt@eircom.net>]

And at the other side of the pond (Atlantic) our June had 4 times more rain 
than normal with near constant flooding somewhere. And July looks like more 
of the same. No sun today but plenty of mist and rain. What a pity we can't 
divide things more evenly. We have many crops doing badly here as well.
john


these storms also unprecedented

East Coast Storms: Residents Struggling As Power Outages Continue
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/02/east-coast-storms-residen_n_1644414.html


paul tradingpost@lobo.net


*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 7/2/2012 at 10:07 PM Tradingpost wrote:

> I read the whole article, Lynn. Hard to accept all the growing plants &
> trees u showed us are just dead & gone. As a grower myself I can't help
> but take it personally. But the ending part of that piece is what I must
> focus on now.
>
> Building resilience against drought. It goes with a discussion Barb & I
> had on the road to town this AM. Farmers & gardeners have struggled with
> adverse weather & climate forever, but now we have to learn to grow for
> climate change. Plan for weather we didn't plan for. Personally I see
> little hope for corporate field crop industrial agriculture, but small
> local growers for home or market can adopt many innovative strategies &
> workarounds. Not just for drought but storms, record heat, out-of-season
> cold & all the rest. And realize Eliot Coleman's 4-seasons book is just a
> starting point.
>
> It happens we've been doing some season stretching here with much earlier
> carrots, greens & tomatoes, & also using shade, quick succession, & water
> that's keeping many greens good thru this record heat when they've
> disappeared from the markets. I'm finding what works & what doesn't. Our
> French spinach in demand just won't germinate close to 100f. 3 mos ago the
> challenge was just the reverse. But the rule of thumb stays the same. Find
> ways to give food plants the conditions they need & nature does the rest.
> Easier said than done - of course. There just isn't much help out there
> along this line. & row covers are nonsense financially, & impractical when
> growing in tractor rows is inefficient & unsustainable.
>
> paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>
> On 7/2/2012 at 10:58 AM Lynn Montgomery wrote:
>
> > Dear Paul, It rained .03" here yesterday! I left a comment or 2 with this
> > article.
> > Regards, Lynn
> >
> > http://www.alternet.org/story/156100/as_farms_bite_the_dust,_%22megadrought%22_may_be_the_new_normal_in_the_southwest?page=1
> >
> > AlterNet / By Ari LeVaux
> > 11 COMMENTS
> > As Farms Bite the Dust, "Megadrought" May Be the New Normal in the
> > Southwest
> > My current perch in Placitas, New Mexico feels like a front-row seat to
> > the apocalypse.
> > July 1, 2012  |
> >
> >
> > Photo Credit: John Brawley/Creative Commons
> > In a dirt parking lot near Many Farms, Arizona, a Navajo farmer sold me a
> > mutton burrito. He hasn't used his tractor in two years, he told me, and
> > is cooking instead of farming because "there isn't any water." He pointed
> > east at the Chuska mountain range, which straddles the New Mexico border.
> > In a normal year, water coming off the mountains reaches his fields, he
> > said.
> >
> > But this might be the new normal for the American Southwest, writes
> > William deBuys in his new book, A Great Aridness. It was published late
> > last year, months after one of the Southwest's driest summers in recorded
> > history, during which fires of unprecedented size scorched hundreds of
> > thousands of acres of forest. This summer is worse than last; forest fires
> > have already broken last year's records. The rains haven't come, and
> > temperature records are falling like leaves from a dried-up tree. Springs,
> > wells and irrigation ditches are bone dry. Farms are withering. We've all
> > heard the gloomy scenarios of global warming: extreme weather, drought,
> > famine, breakdown of society, destruction of civilization.
> >
> > My current perch in Placitas, New Mexico feels like a front-row seat to
> > the apocalypse.
> >
> > Intuitive as the connection may seem, we don't know if the current drought
> > is a consequence of global warming, deBuys writes. Periodic, decades-long
> > droughts have been relatively common in the last few thousand years,
> > according to analysis of dried lake beds. Most of the area's famously
> > collapsed civilizations--Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, the Galisteo
> > pueblos--are thought to have died out for lack of water in these extended
> > dry periods, which deBuys calls "megadroughts."
> >
> > By contrast, the last century's human population growth in the American
> > Southwest occurred during a relatively wet period in the climactic record.
> > We were due for another megadrought sooner or later, deBuys writes, which
> > could be expected to dramatically alter human settlement patterns in the
> > area. While this current heat may not be caused by global warming, he
> > writes, climate change could nonetheless trigger the next megadrought.
> >
> > In the Sandia Mountains above Placitas, last winter's snowpack was
> > relatively high. But the spring runoff never came, because the snow
> > evaporated straight into the air of the hottest spring on record.
> >
> > Lynn Montgomery has been farming in Placitas for more than 40 years. Like
> > many farmers in northern New Mexico, he irrigates his land with water from
> > an acequia, a type of canal system implemented by Spaniards, who'd adopted
> > the technique from the Moors. This year, for the second year in a row,
> > Montgomery's acequia has run dry. Last year summer rains came in time to
> > save his crops, but this year the rains haven't come. The ditch is dry.
> > His farm is dying.
> >
> > First to go were the young Italian prune trees. His more established pear
> > trees were next. Now, his decades-old grape vines are dropping their fruit
> > and clinging to their lives. The 30-year-old asparagus patch is toast, as
> > are the perennial herbs, garlic and strawberries, along with everything he
> > planted this spring. Even the weeds are dead.
> >
> > The farm was part of a thriving community in the '60s and '70s. Most of
> > the inhabitants drifted away, or ran away, or got dragged away by the
> > police. Montgomery was the last man standing. He sold the farm to the
> > local Pueblo Indian tribe, on the condition that they assume ownership
> > after his death, and spent the proceeds paying lawyers to enforce water
> > law around Placitas. He managed to stop several developments that would
> > have illegally taxed the fragile aquifer.
> >
> > Despite his successes, which included a victory at the New Mexico Supreme
> > Court, many wells were drilled, especially in the 1980s and 1990s,
> > dropping the water table to the point at which many springs in Placitas
> > began running dry, along with the acequias they feed. Montgomery's
> > neighbors, with the turn of a tap, can water their grass and wash their
> > cars thanks to the wells that killed the spring that feeds his acequia.
> > But it's only a matter of time, he told me, until they feel his pain.
> >
> >
> > "At that point all the bedroom community types will realize that the real
> > estate people have bamboozled them, and most of us too," he said,
> > referring to the Placitas real estate boom of the late 20th century.
> > Harold Trujillo is member of an acequia near Mora, New Mexico. All the
> > acequias in his Sangre de Cristo mountain valley, near the headwaters of
> > the Pecos River, are dry, he told me by phone. Before this year, the worst
> > he remembered was 2002, which, according to the Colorado state engineer's
> > office was the region's driest year in the last 300.
> >
> > "In 2002 there were natural ponds that never dried up. Cows could drink
> > out of them. Now those ponds are dry. People have been digging them deeper
> > with backhoes to get them to fill with water," Trujillo said.
> >
> > Tempers are getting short. Trujillo said he was verbally threatened last
> > weekend at Morphy Lake, the reservoir his acequia association helped
> > build.
> >
> > "We were opening Morphy Lake to get water in the river. These people
> > wanted us to open it more, so more water would flow into the river. But we
> > can't. We need to save some water for July and August, because we don't
> > know if it's going to rain or not."
> >
> > Even if the next megadrought has already begun, deBuys says, we wouldn't
> > know it yet. "The character of a drought becomes clear only
> > retrospectively." Either way, he suggests, our decisions for the future
> > should be the same.
> >
> > "Building resilience against drought into the region's water systems and
> > cultural practices would be a wise course, irrespective of the cause or
> > timing of the next emergency," he writes.
> >
> > To that end, Lynn Montgomery is scraping together the resources to re-tool
> > his farm to be more efficient with water. He's installed a holding tank,
> > in which he'll be able to store precious acequia flow in future years,
> > before it goes dry again. And he's switching from traditional flood
> > irrigation, the way it's always been done in Placitas, to more efficient
> > drip tape. It remains to be seen whether his adaptations, and his
> > resilience, will be enough to help him face the new normal.
> >
> > And here is what some of us are doing about it. I am a supervisor on our
> > local soil and water conservation district and this is my project.
> > http://sandovalsignpost.com/html/eco-beat.html
> > Free water available through New Water Projects Initiative
> > -Tony Hull
> >
> > If you've ever considered installing rainwater catchment systems and
> > making water-wise improvements to your property, you need to know about
> > our grant program and come to Placitas Water Day. We invite all residents
> > of Eastern Sandoval County to attend Placitas Water Day at the Placitas
> > Community Library (453 Hwy 165) on Saturday, July 21, at 2:00 p.m.
> >
> > Even in a dry summer, thousands of "free" and otherwise unavailable
> > gallons a year of water are available to a household. Harvested soft
> > rainwater is taken to catchments for use. Conservation may include
> > replacement of toilets and showerheads and washing machines with lower
> > consumption versions. Even grey water may be diverted from the washing
> > machine to trees and garden. There are many things we can do to make best
> > use of the water available to us as good citizens of the high desert. And
> > we are fortunate to have considerable local expertise both from residents
> > who are proficient in water harvesting, and from New Mexico Water
> > Collaborative (NMWC).
> >
> > While the first meeting is in Placitas, the intent of the Program is for
> > all of Eastern Sandoval County, and it applies equally to homes, schools,
> > businesses and government buildings. In collaboration with several people
> > in Placitas, NMWC-a nonprofit corporation-and our local Coronado Soil and
> > Water Conservation District will be seeking a grant in October for a
> > "Pilot Program" initially to help fund approximately ten households set-up
> > to harvest and conserve water.  We believe this is the best way to
> > demonstrate the effectiveness of these measures. Up to 99 percent of the
> > costs of setting up water catchment systems and home efficiency
> > improvements may come from this grant.
> >
> > Evaluating the effectiveness of the program is an essential step toward
> > future initiatives, so those who participate will be requested to provide
> > data and other support to NMWC and prospective harvesters and conservers.
> > There will be various criteria for selecting the Pilot
> > Households/Businesses etc., including diversity of construction methods
> > (everything from old adobe to most recent), location, and especially
> > motivation and willingness to help future stages of this project.
> >
> > The current and projected domestic water situation will be discussed.
> > Community input is encouraged. Hear the early vision of the Pilot Program,
> > the timeline for proposing this Pilot Program. For those who would like to
> > participate in the Pilot Program, we will also have application forms and
> > describe how they will be used.
> >
> > Remember, "El agua es la vida-water is life!"
> >
> >
> > "Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you."
> >     Wendell Berry
> >
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