Farming with Climate Change in Sight

There's an article out where you can check out how weather in a town nearest to you will change: https://www.vox.com/a/weather-climate-change-us-cities-global-warming It also shows precipitation levels. In my area, precipitation right now peaks in late spring and early fall, and is lowest in the late winter and late summer. It is a normal sight to see brown grass in August in this part of Texas (Edwards Plateau) unless we have a hurricane wander in once in a while. The pattern will change in that the total precipitation during high-rain months will remain the same, but will be lowered dramatically during low-rain months. So, the wet months will probably remain the same, and the dry months will get dryer. In addition, there probably will be more weather extremes, such as prolonged flooding and prolonged drought. Edwards Plateau is very hilly, so flooding isn't much of an issue here as in, say, Houston where water doesn't have anywhere to go. Although the flooding a couple years back washed 100+ houses off their foundations in a neighboring town with a 30 ft flash flood wave. So, unless you live near a creek bed, you're pretty okay, maybe only cutoff from roads and stuff. But we all have wells here, so if you got your own electricity, you'll be okay.

I'm thinking of buying a large piece of land in the future for farming. I'm planning to create something like a combination of a food forest and plots for cultivating monocultures. The area I have my eyes on has a more or less flat region like a valley, and a range of hills that aren't very high, but it's still a way up to build a house there. I mean, it's possible, but expensive. I'd like to have a combination of hugelkultur beds and swales to capture the rain water in the dryer months, but also have a drainage system for when it gets really wet, and make it so valuable soil is not washed off with the flood. Is there something in permaculture that already has some sort of tips and tricks for dealing with weather extremes? When it rains a lot here, in our area there's a lot of rushing water, and it destroys everything in its path: roads, houses, gardens, etc. Can anyone recommend a book or diagrams?

This seems like a topic at that could easily head to the cider press.

Tatiana Trunilina wrote: Edwards Plateau is very hilly, so flooding isn't much of an issue here

We get catastrophic flash floods here on the Edwards Plateau for the very reason that the topography is hilly with canyons which allow the water to reach high velocity.

Pick your location carefully.  We bought a piece of land which we love but which has been an ongoing challenge because of having two seasonal (catastrophically flooding) creeks which meet in the middle of it.  We have lost our driveway three times and the county road twice due to local flooding.  The Guadalupe River, about a half mile away, floods tremendously from heavy rainfall upstream.  So this is a very exciting neighborhood to live in!

https://www.statesman.com/news/20160903/edwards-plateau-harbors-rain-bombs

The area I have my eyes on has a more or less flat region like a valley, and a range of hills that aren't very high, but it's still a way up to build a house there.

Watch out putting your house on a hill, as hills will experience increased fire danger.  Mid-slope is best for house placement - up out of the flooding but not at the top where fires are worst.  Plus there's little soil at the top of hills around here, just rocks.

Best book for rain harvesting:  Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands Volume 2, by Brad Lancaster https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/

Here's a good video about choosing land for permaculture:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYe8ds64Bek

Tyler, that's just part of daily life here. We just keep adding base to the driveway every year or two. Planning to cement it later when we have a chance. I guess we're so used to it now that it doesn't even register on my mind as a "well schnapz look at the road!"

And yeah, rain harvesting is already in the plans, but thanks for the resources!

Tatiana Trunilina wrote:We just keep adding base to the driveway every year or two. Planning to cement it later when we have a chance.

Expensive!  We're trying to repair our creeks to the point where they won't wipe out the roads.

https://permies.com/t/51421/Creek-repair-brush-dams

https://permies.com/t/53556/Creek-repair-rock-dams

Here's a book I'm currently reading that you might find helpful:  https://www.garynabhan.com/news/2013/03/growing-food-in-a-hotter-drier-land/

Only if we're lucky, Dale.

The forestry industry, at least, is taking climate change in to account in some respects. They are sourcing genetics for current plantings from at least two hundred kilometres further south to accomodate for a shift in the climate on that scale.

It just seems like good sense to me, planning for the future, just as your plans would be influenced in a particular way if you were in the path of regular hurricanes.

I like the idea of starting landrace breeds based on productivity on my terms and to my tastes. That way, the genetics of the food you plant is constantly being chosen for having produced seed-bearing fruit of a specific quality, under conditions inherent to the area. So if it's getting drier, your selection of the best specimens for seed will be selecting for the conditions under which they grew.

-CK