permaculture

["Antonio Scotti" <antonio.scotti@tiscali.es>]

Hi all,
I am facing the question of how to improve the access road status
to an orchard/veggie garden using a low energy/money approach if it
exists, and suggesting other methods if the low energy ones cannot be considered
efficient in the long run.

 

Basically it is a downslope road, (we are in a mediterranean climate),
whose material is basically coarse sand, meaning that during heavy rainfall events
(and less so during normal precipitations) part of the road soil drifts
downhill, opening long erosion scars.
For the people owning the road it means rearranging the roads conditions
some 3/4 times a year, by carrying sand loads on site and reshaping it with a buldozer
or such machine.

 

What low energy techniques are there to improve this road's conditions?
What other techniques other than the one I outlined above there exist?

 

Would it be possible to grow some "very short" ground level, herbaceous plants whose roots
hold the soil in place? Does it make sense?

 

It could also be interesting capturing the run-off water (without the silt) at the lowest point somehow.

 

Cheers

Antonio