Update on the Terra Lingua Project.. We are dry land farming in eastern oregon to reverse desertification (as well as drought) and climate change by making it profitable for farmers to grow with regenerative technics. I might add this will be more profitable short term than growing with soil decimating technics. As Bucky Fuller says “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
We now have run the chisel plow on almost all the 20 acres we will use. We saw a major difference in the soils that were on the south facing slopes and the north facing slopes. The soils on the south slope were dry enough to plow while the north slopes were not. There are many types of soil here including heavy clay, nice loam, soils with many rocks. The main design consideration right now is the direction of the slope. We want to plant out a lot of seeds and let nature decide what likes to grow Fukuoka style, wanting as much input from nature as possible.
There has been annual rye grass on most of the 20 acres for many years, receding itself. hopefully this month we will have the funds to test for organic matter as well as soil biology. for our own purposes this is not necessary, but for demonstration purposes it is. it is not necessary for us because we will just do what the land wants and we know it will be amazingly prolific. gabe brown in his movie said it took him 20 years to get his soil up to speed (and it is still improving). he also says that knowing what he knows now he could do it a lot quicker. he is not adding microbes and we are. we believe we will have great results the first year.
One things in permaculture that i hear a lot is how much time it takes to improve the soil to reach great production. Of course our trees and even our bushes will not produce the first year but many of our herbs and vegetables will. We will also harvest our field crops, especially collards and turnips..
Another myth is that you cannot take a lot of produce off the land and still be regenerative. i think in light of what the microbes can do, it is more accurate to consider the whole earth a closed loop system, but not each individual farm. as elaine ingham says, the microbes can produce a whole earth size mass (read organic matter) in one day,
Growing dry land like this and harnessing the underground fauna, we could even do biofuels regeneratively on wastelands, with the goal being to reverse desertification and climate change as much as to produce biofuels (the problem is the solution). This will be my next project.
As adding microbes is the basis of our quick soil regeneration, it is important to say that we have heard from many "scientists" that we cannot just add microbes. They have to have a lot of organic matter to feed them.. As elaine ingham says the microbes can eat soil. we will give them lots of plants and roots to interact with but meanwhile they can eat soil and grow. There are large amounts of volcanic ash about 3 feet down in our soils and where we are digging ponds we are saving out some of this ash and spreading it around to enhance microbe productivity. As the ash particles are smaller than regular soil particles, this allows the microbes to grow quickly. Other people use finely ground rock dust to enhance the microbial life.
i have been successfully regenerating soil since the 90's, in every kind of soil imaginable including sub soils. I got very inspired in my recent 2 years in india seing how they grow 70% of their crops without irrigation with as little as 15 inches of rain a year, this rain coming in monsoons so most of it in 2 short periods with long dry spells in between.
we will also be using an acre of land which is what we are calling native, a juniper and sage based system and turning into our dry land food forest system.
To the existing rye we are adding laedek alfalfa, peas, oats, chick peas, fava beans, spring lentils, chicory, sanfoin, turnips. collards, and daikon as our field crops which will cover the ground everywhere our herbs, trees and bushes do not.cover the ground. We believe that if we can get 20 crops growing together including 50% legumes we will have a self sustaining system. In India I saw cropping systems had been growing on the same piece of land for hundreds of years with the soil improving every year with only 6 crops. They have perfected this system over time and as I do not know what 6 crops will work, I will just plant 20 of them.
The main cash crops that I see now are blackberries, service berries, gogi berries, autumn olives, tayberries, and black cap raspberries , chestnuts, pecans, filberts elderberries, mulberries, grapes, jujube, beach plums, figs and persimmons, along with a lot of medicinal herbs. we are growing all of these from seeds in our nursery. The previously mentioned plants are all good dry land crops.
From the video from Gabe Brown
who grows on 2000 acres in north Dakota which has 15 inches of rain a year, it also looks like we will be able to grow apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, and walnuts.. Gabe Brown is not growing trees but he did throw a lot of vegetables in with his grasses and legumes and they did well. There is an old orchard about 25 miles from here where a man has collected a lot of fruiting varieties of trees over many years. We will take seeds from those trees and plant them, as they have adapted to this climate.
There is another orchard down the road which has a lot of bells and whistles. These include misting machines that coat the blossoms with water so they do not get injured in the early frosts. We accomplish some of this frost protection by planting on a north slope as well as planting a lot higher than the river bed where they are so they bloom later and do not get frost damaged. Also we want to plant late blooming varieties of everything.
There are three other foci: 1) nitrogen fixing, fast growing trees such as alder and 2) hedge rows every 300 feet and 3) living fence so we can stop using the deer repellants.
Terra lingua farm. We are offering a training program for farmers at this farm.
We are reversing desertification including drought by applying permaculture and natural farming principles to a 20+ acre tract of land. In permaculture one of our goals is that the farmer should make a good living from the project, as good a net as wine growers are getting. We also will increase: 1) carbon holding capacity of the soil, 2) diversification in the farmscape, 3) deep aquifer water as well as shallow water holding in the soil. Also we have seen in India and will duplicate rain increase in the neighborhood of the farm. When one puts a lot of farms together we can increase the rain in the whole area per willi smits in his Indonesia project who grows on 2000 acres in north dakota which has 15 inches of rain a year, it also looks like we will be able to grow apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, and walnuts.. Gabe Brown is not growing trees but he did grow a lot of vegetables in with his grasses and legumes and they did well.
There is an old orchard about 25 miles from here where a man has collected a lot of fruiting varieties of trees over many years. We will take seeds from those trees and plant them, as they have adapted to this climate.
There is another orchard down the road which has a lot of bells and whistles. These include misting machines that coat the blossoms with water so they do not get injured in the early frosts. We accomplish some of this frost protection by planting on a north slope as well as planting a lot higher than the river bed where they are so they bloom later and do not get frost damaged. Also we want to plant late blooming varieties of everything.
There are three other foci: 1) nitrogen fixing, fast growing trees such as alder and 2) hedge rows every 300 feet and 3) living fence so we can stop using the deer repellants.
Terra lingua farm. We are offering a training program for farmers at this farm.
We are reversing desertification including drought by applying permaculture and natural farming principles to a 20+ acre tract of land. In permaculture one of our goals is that the farmer should make a good living from the project, as good a net as wine growers are getting. We also will increase: 1) carbon holding capacity of the soil, 2) diversification in the farmscape, 3) deep aquifer water as well as shallow water holding in the soil. Also we have seen in India and will duplicate rain increase in the neighborhood of the farm. When one puts a lot of farms together we can increase the rain in the whole area per willi smits in his Indonesia project
Also see my blog at handsonpermaculture1.org
if you want to know more please send an email and ask for our proposal which gives our overall agenda.
If you are interested in coming and learning at our farm contact charlotte at
victorygardensforall@gmail.com.
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