I'd like to see a conversation here on the record drought in the US this year (or other places). How is it effecting you? What have you done right permaculturally that has HELPED to mitigate the drought?
Have you areas that are doing better than other areas and why? Are you irrigating to try to save areas that are really suffering, or not? Have you actually LOST completely any of your crops to the drought itself, even full grown older
trees from the stress ? Is it just the drought in your area or do you also have record heat this year? etc.
Here at our homestead we have both record drought and record heat and it has gone on for an extended length of time with smaller less serious droughts off and on for the last several years to extreme drought and extreme heat this year. We have had 90's and 100's now for most of the last 2 months with very very little rain.
I have begun to plan for drought over the past few years since it has become a more and more significant problem year by year cumulating with the worst we have ever seen this year...but I wasn't prepared well
enough.
We have a very high
water table area (historically) so we have some areas that the trees and plants are still able to reach deep enough to get the groundwater that is still there, unlike some places where even the ground water is drying up. We are blessed in that way ..so far.
We are using very very limited amounts of irrigation (i have a drip system in the
greenhouse and one in a small garden area in the rear where I turn on the drip hose a couple times a week, but try not to use too much water in that way )...need to get a rain barrel set up. I also have a
pond that collects water to keep it from leaving our property, but do not have a system to pump water from it to irrigate at this time. The water level on the
pond is maintained by rain, snow a little spring seep and groundwater but has no flowing water to it at this time, that is a hope for the future.
The higher areas of our property are barely 4 to 5' higher than the lower areas ..and we lost several large trees from our property (and their shade) due to emerald
ash borers, and we are having 90's and 100's as highs most days this year, so the loss of shade, rain and the extreme heat is burning up the plants in the higher areas of the property, esp on the south sides of the buildings. Our
lawn is mown meadow rather than lawn grasses so to speak, and even the weediest plants are dying in the hottest dryest areas.
The weed growth has been somewhat stunted which eliminates a lot of the mulch plants that we would normally have..but I have been attempting to provide shade as much as I can around the property, and where there is shade, the growth is much more healthy. The areas where I have been able to mainitain a mulch also are much more healthy, where the mulch has been used up or disappeared, things are burning up.
Also we have done some minor
hugel beds (dug out the soil, buried some
wood mostly aspen and ash, or bark, and then added the soil back to the top) and where these beds are there is much more green and less drought die back. This has convinced me of more and more need for burying wood in my beds. I haven't had the strength to build large hugel beds, but I'm sure they would work even better.
I also have used a limited amount of stone on the property in the beds, and where there is the stone it does seem to be helping a lot..but as our property has very little indiginous stone, we have to haul it in which is impossible right now with our truck not working.
Also looking at the type of plants that have done well. First of all this year we had frosts and freezes right up until June 13 (our last frost this year) so we lost all the blossoms on our fruit and nut trees and shrubs, so basically no fruit other than a few berries. The bears,
deer and other animals cannot get any food from fruit in the wild because of the weather, so we are allowing them to glean a lot of the food from our gardens this year, it is pretty dry and seedy anyway although we have gone out and picked the nicer of the berries before the bear could get to the ones we left. Usually they clean up our fruit falls anyway, but we are being a bit more generous to them this year so they don't starve. I also dug up and replanted about 2 dozen wheelborrow loads of jerusalem artichokes out into the woods and fields for the wildlife, to help sustain them, as we had them to spare after giving many away to friends and neighbors.
The roses did really well for a while, but now they are even succumbing to the heat. The grapes seemed to do well for quite a while too, but are having some difficulty now. The berries in the shade are doing much much better than those out in the full sun (note to self, plant berries in shade). The tomato and pepper plants are having a
hay day !! The lettuce bolted early as did most of the other greens.
The wild lambsquarters are growing really well (note to self, lambsquarter seed must be saved for next year). Also the jerusalem artichokes are a bit smaller than normal ..and the deer are pruning them..but they are growing well, they like this weather as do the other members of the sunflower family. Daylillies are doing wonderful and iris were quite nice this spring, so those plants with
roots that hold moisture seem to enjoy the heat and drought.
The type of plants that generally grow in meadows and along side the roadways are doing excellently this year (chicory, knapweed, black eyed susan, daisy, mallow, etc.) but the generally cultivated foods are suffering some. I seem to be noticing that the squash plants are doing well (other than the squash bugs)..and in the wetter areas the field corn is growing well, but up on the hills it is dying. We have several trees that are drooping and dropping leaves or turning fall color early already. Beans are doing very little and peas were not good, will put in a fall crop if we get rain.
Speaking of fall crop, we are hoping for a long drawl out fall this year, so if that is the case we might be able to replant our gardens and get some crops yet this fall, that is the plan here, might even have to order more OP seed (didn't even get enough for saving seed of most plants)..oats and barley were really crappy. Potatoes seem to be doing ok and the beets that made it are doing well...so
root crops seem to enjoy the weather, but carrots, salsify and parsnips didn't grow though...or turnips.
ok...tell me how you are faring.