Comments on: Greening the Desert II – Final

By: Glo

Glo — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:08:02 +0000

I’ve got 400 acres of farmland in the Chihuahua desert. Permaculture Design plan step one observation starting feb 1, 2012. If I didn’t see this, I never would have thought that it could occur. thank you so much for believing that we can save our world, you taught me the same.

By: Brenda Starr

Brenda Starr — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 20:09:59 +0000

Yikes? A 13hp chipper? How about 13 ten-year-old boys with big sticks? That’s what children do, whack things, and they consume and produce nutrients within the system without fossil fuel. Please, efficiency is how we got where we are, fast is not best and working together in a food system is what Permaculture is all about, ecologically, socially, and culturally. Gack I shudder at the thought of another single purpose gas guzzler. Last I heard gas was a finite resource. Great video and even greater work.

By: Chester

Chester — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 09:06:30 +0000

Good work. I would suggest anyone intersted in this area obtain a copy of the 1929 book by J Russel Smith “Tree Crops”. It contains a mass of information and ideas on erosion/trees/dryland cropping and of course food production.

I think the first chapters are still available for viewing on the net.

By: Geoff Lawton

Geoff Lawton — Sat, 28 May 2011 02:22:16 +0000

Hi Malcolm
try this http://permaculture.org.au/2011/05/04/dispatch-from-the-jordan-valley-permaculture-project-aka-greening-the-desert-the-sequel-april-2011/

and this http://permaculture.org.au/2011/03/30/observations-and-interactions-at-the-jordan-valley-permaculture-project-aka-greening-the-desert-the-sequel/

and this http://permaculture.org.au/2011/02/19/update-on-the-jordan-valley-permaculture-project-aka-greening-the-desert-the-sequel-leave-all-expectations-behind/

By: Malcolm

Malcolm — Thu, 26 May 2011 22:02:48 +0000

Sorry to be negative but where was the enthusiasm by the Jordanians to follow through on this project??
Did I miss something??

By: GG

GG — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 17:46:20 +0000

Moana Lee

Centipedes are a scorpions’ natural predator hence you have both.
Natural scorpion predators include birds, frogs, centipedes, spiders, lizards and snakes.

Your farm may be “short” on shrews, toads, badgers or birds, including chickens. Get some big, fat chickens to eat up on the centipedes after they have taken care of scorpions.

Take care.

By: Moana Lee

Moana Lee — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 03:48:21 +0000

I’m thrilled and excited to see such work going on in the parts of the world that need rebuilding. It gives me hope for sustaining life in the Middle East. So many refugees and so little water. But now there is more hope for the people there to feed themselves, sustain their lives, living a more fulfilling existence and not have to wait for aid. I would like to use some of those techniques in our mismanaged areas that were used for agri-business, monocropping of sugar cane and pineapple. The pineapple left much of the soil depleted of nutrients. It has been greater than 20 yrs since they left so much of the land was left fallow. Agriculture is just now beginning to start up since the soils have “come back”. Too bad this was not around to teach to the farmers 20 yrs ago on Molokai to give them a headstart on reclaiming the pineapple lands. I would love to learn this technique and use it in my mother’s garden on the dry side of the island on Oahu.
Problem with mulching is that it attracts scorpions and centipedes in Hawaii. How do you deal with that? Last time a centipede bit my rabbit and it died. We also have to keep the children away from the garden when we mulch because of the centipedes.

By: Geoff Lawton

Geoff Lawton — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 03:59:04 +0000

Hi Andrew
Geoff Lawton here teaching in Istanbul with Bill Mollison, I am with you all the way with large scale sustainable desert area regeneration with credibility.
We are now working on 700 square kilometers of Saudi Arabian desert landscape http://permaculture.org.au/2010/11/18/permaculture-in-mecca/ in the governance of Mecca near Jeddah. Stay tuned in on RSS as we keep posting on this one. We will be seeding areas during large rain events and using water harvesting infiltration techniques plus FMNR check out http://permaculture.org.au/2008/09/24/the-development-of-farmer-managed-natural-regeneration and check out http://permaculture.org.au/2010/09/21/farmer-managed-natural-regeneration-video/

Please let us know your experience and discoveries on the ground with credible large scale sustainable seeding of desert areas during high rain events.

We would love to show case them on this site to help people achieve good results and improve their lives.

Keep up the good work the deserts of the world need our help.

Geoff

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 08:53:58 +0000

Results seem to be small scale and sustainability lacks credibility. My pet vision is the seeding of areas of desert land during high rainfall events.

By: 33noa333

33noa333 — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 04:14:13 +0000

Make mighty power of nature an ally
TO IMPROVE CLIMATE OF CONTINENT
In the northwestern Australia, we have huge tides,
huge evaporation and huge dry rivers and lakes.
Tides are up to 12m. Evaporation is up to 4m per year and can be increased.
Huge 12m tidal erosion can revive old dry paleo dormant once mighty rivers, creeks and lakes,
desalinate the country and change deserts to rain forests to provide more rain across Australia.
World population is growing rapidly and we need more energy, food, land and water.
see: Mitic CLIMATE ENGINEERING
http://www.climatechange.gov.au/en/submissions/cprs-green-paper/~/media/submissions/greenpaper/0929-mitic.ashx

this will change deserts and whole continent for better climate
environment, provide hydro energy, permanently