permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

Dieter Brand wrote:

>   Inspired by the works of Masanobu Fukuoka and others,
>   I converted to no-till farming/gardening 3 years ago
>   after 7 years of organic gardening. There are plenty of
>   options for the winter, when we get enough rain, and also
>   for that part of the garden which I can irrigate during the 
>   summer. However, since we don’t get any rain at all 
>   during the summer months there isn’t enough water for 
>   irrigating the fields.

Hello Dieter:

I have a similar problem with dry soil and increasingly more frequest
periods of drought. Adding organic matter to my soil, making tall raised beds
with the rows between filled with compost and mulch will go a long way
toward conserving moisture and making it possible to grow crops.
If you don't want to plow then hand dig your beds. Can you build ponds or 
other water catchments
to contain rainfall during the wet months for use during the summer by 
pumping them out onto the gardens?
Bellota tools in the Basque region in Spain and another, similar (forged hand 
tools) tool company in Portugal
make excellent gardening hand tools, perfect for your gardening tasks.
http://market-farming.com/gardening-hand-tools.faq

Do you like Fado? Maritza, Amalia Rodriguez? Flamenco?

Cheers,

LL


--
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
Venaura Farm
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://market-farming.com/venaurafarm
http://venaurafarm.blogspot.com/
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech