Growing Fruit Trees in Drought Areas

Drawing by Kyle Chamberlain

Talus Garlands aka Stone Mulch could be a boon for gardeners in dry areas or a drought situation. I know Texas lost many trees last year, and although the first part (in red) of the information below was taken from a permaculture article (Rethinking Water: A Permaculture Tour of the Inland Northwest), the principles of how it works should apply in many other areas.

“Scabland” is a term used to describe the parts of Washington State which are too rocky to grow wheat on. These scablands are comprised of coulees, cliffs, and mesas, eroded into basalt bedrock. The walls of such formations often have piles of broken rock about their base. Being a berry enthusiast, I noticed that the best place in the steppe to find serviceberries was on the north side of such rock piles. In fact, the north sides of a rock piles are about the only places that stay green in the summer. 

Research revealed that botanists had already named this phenomenon, calling it a “talus garland community”.

Talus garlands can support pome and stone fruits (Amelanchier and Prunus), currants, elderberries, several hawthorns, roses, edible greens like nettle and goldenrod, as well as naturalized species like cherries, plums, apricots, grapes and apples.

It seemed obvious that mimicking a talus garland would be a great way to grow woody plants on dry land. But before trying to build such a mimic, we needed to understand how they work in nature. 

Why are talus garlands so green? There are several theories:

• Shade from the southern sun minimizes evaporation and causes winter snow to melt later in the year
• Drifting snow collects in the loose rock
• Piled stones condense moisture from night air (thanks to the Designers Manual for the hint)
• Stones protect soil moisture from sunlight and arid air
• Stones minimize competition from grasses
• Stones protect plants and debris from fire
• Freshly eroded basalt provides ample mineral nutrients
• Stone provides an ideal growing surface for lichens, which speed the breakdown of rock and fix nitrogen (lichens are the primary nitrogen fixers in some deserts)
• Loose stone provides some protection from browsers, especially during early growth
• Stone piles provide habitat for animal associates, like packrats, cottontail rabbits, marmots, chipmunks, snakes, lizards, ext. Animal associates distribute seeds, provide manure, control pests, etc. (Rabbits and marmots are very tasty themselves)

Research reveals: "the mulching of agricultural fields and gardens with stones, pebbles, cinder and similar lithic (stone) materials is a variant agricultural strategy that has been used to evade drought and increase crop yield for more than a thousand years in the Old and New Worlds. Lithic mulch agriculture (LMA) is uniquely suited to the constraints of dryland environments, yet its use has remained confined." (Source)

Wiki says: A stone mulch can significantly increase crop yields in arid areas. This is most notably the case in the Canary Islands: on the island of Lanzarote there is about 5.5 inches of rain each year, and there are no permanent rivers. Despite this, substantial crops can be grown by using a mulch of volcanic stones, a trick discovered after volcanic eruptions in 1730. Some credit the stone mulch with promoting dew; although the idea has inspired some thinkers, it seems unlikely that the effect is significant. Rather, plants are able to absorb dew directly from their leaves, and the main benefit of a stone mulch is to reduce water loss from the soil and to eliminate competition from weeds.

Here's a paper on Stone mulching by the Hopi in Arizona and New Mexico.

Summer Overheating

With intense hot temperatures covering much of the country and causing deaths from dehydration, it's time for a reminder about homemade electrolytes. I posted this recipe last summer, and now want to post it again as a reminder, and for new readers.

Water is basically a solvent and when you perspire, the sweat droplets carry off the things dissolved in it, like electrolytes. Lose too many electrolytes and the body is in trouble... and drinking just water does not replace the electrolytes you have lost, and actually dilutes those you have left.

Electrolytes are important because they are what your cells (especially nerve, heart, muscle) use to maintain voltages across their cell membranes and to carry electrical impulses (nerve impulses, muscle contractions) across themselves and to other cells.

The major electrolytes in the human body are:

    • sodium (Na+)
    • potassium (K+)
    • chloride (Cl-)
    • calcium (Ca2+)
    • magnesium (Mg2+)
    • bicarbonate (HCO3-)
    • phosphate (PO42-)
    • sulfate (SO42-)

This time of the year finds many of us outside in the heat, sweating and upsetting our electrolyte balance, particularly sodium and potassium. Gatorade and/or Pedialyte are good to have on hand, but a simple solution may be easily and cheaply made at home.

Electrolyte Solution
1 quart water
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tsp. Lite Salt (which is a salt - potassium chloride blend, or use regular salt if that's all you have on hand)
6-10 teaspoons granulated sugar
(For flavor and color you might add half a package of unsweetened Kool-Aid*)

Mix well. Store in refrigerator for up to one week. Freeze some in ice trays or as popsicles to use later.

This solution helps replace lost electrolytes due to dehydration (diarrhea, vomiting, excessive sweating). Do not give to small children, instead seek medical advice.

This is not intended as medical advice for anyone!

*The "unsweetened" form of Kool Aid contains fruit flavoring, citric acid, calcium phosphate, salt and Vitamin C. The "sugar sweetened" mix adds sugar, sodium citrate, and the preservative BHA. The "sugar free" mixes add aspartame (Nutrasweet) and acesulfame potassium.

Banning Bottled Water?

This post below is copied in its entirety from another blog. I have mixed feelings about the matter. On one hand, I understand the enormous amount of recycling efforts needed, the expense of bottled water usually made from cheap tap water anyway, and the dangers of chemicals from the bottles leaching into the water. On the other hand, for years I traveled and often would make a pit stop and get something to drink. In those days, only soft drinks were available and usually made with HFCS. Blech. Note: This legislation was passed over a year ago and implementation is still in process.

"Banning Bottled Water?

They say the road to hell is paved by good intentions.

The Toronto Star recently noted the political battlelines drawn around the debate to ban bottled water in Toronto, “Environmentalists claim bottled water commercializes a public resource, undermines faith in Canadian water systems, and sends plastic bottles to the landfills. The bottled water industry counters that environmental groups rig recycling rate numbers and vilify a product that helps combat obesity.”

Last week the vote was cast and the Toronto city council voted to immediately ban the sale and/or distribution of bottled water in City Hall and the city’s civic centres where contracts permit, and ban the sale and/or distribution of bottled water in other city-owned facilities such as arenas and theatres by the end of 2011.

While it’s now illegal to not only sell bottled water, but also illegal to distribute bottled water in city-owned facilities in Toronto, it’s still perfectly legal and acceptable to sell and distribute sweetened waters (translation – soda and fruit drinks).

Afterall, isn’t that really what soda and fruit drinks are – simply sweetened water?

Let me see if I understand this.

Bottled water = bad-illegal

Bottled soda & fruit drinks = good-legal

This vote after Statistics Canada released data that found Canadians consumed more than 95 litres of soft drinks in 2007!

How much more soda and fruit drinks do you think folks will drink now that bottled water is banned?"

Sources: http://weightoftheevidence.wordpress.com/
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/551909
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/600727
http://www.thestar.com/article/280812

Bluing

Blue used in Paintings

For some unknown reason, I awakened the other morning with the image of my grandmother using bluing on the whites in her laundry. Not personally remembering anything else about the bluing used in my childhood, I decided to do some research.

Bluing is made from a synthetic dye called Prussian Blue which is made from ferric hexacyanoferrate; it's basically a blue iron powder suspended in water, with an added pH balancer. It is used because white fabrics eventually turn a dingy color as the fabric never really gets thoroughly clean. A touch of blue dye gives the fabric the slightest blue tint, making it appear white to our eyes. Some laundry detergents today contain fluorescing agents for the same purpose.

So why should I be interested in bluing? Well, for starters, chlorine bleach is toxic. Bleach is particularly bad for my septic tank because it kills the bacteria that make the tank digest properly. Besides, I happen to be one of the people with skin allergic to those fluorescing agents added to detergents.

Reading more, I found that bluing has been used by farmers for over a hundred years in stock watering tanks to keep the algae down. Even in a concentrated form, bluing is non-toxic, and farmers over the years have claimed it reduces distemper and other diseases. (The farmers say that flies carrying those diseases won't lay eggs on blue water.)

While the best known US manufacturer of bluing (Mrs. Stewart's Bluing) makes no such claims, they also say that since 1883 when their business began, they have never received a single report of an animal becoming sick or dying from such practices.

In fact, according to the Atomic Energy Agency, an adult male could eat at least 10 grams of Prussian blue per day without any serious harm. I don't plan to eat any, but it's good to know it wouldn't hurt any fish if I ever build a fishpond!

Before the discovery/invention of synthetic Prussian Blue, people often added lumps of indigo mixed with starch to their rinse water. I also found it has been used in pottery glazing to identify which parts have been glazed prior to firing since any glazing doesn't show up on wet clay. In the firing process, the blue is burned away, leaving the glaze just where the potter wanted.

We all have seen little old ladies with Blue Hair... so don't over-do it!!

Are YOU Drinking Dirty Water?

A New York Times analysis of federal data for the last 5 years on drinking water reveals that the water provided to more than 49 million Americans violates key provisions of the Safe Water Drinking Act.

That law requires communities to deliver safe tap water to local residents. But since 2004, the water provided to more than 49 million people has contained illegal concentrations of chemicals like arsenic or radioactive substances like uranium, as well as dangerous bacteria often found in sewage.

In some instances, drinking water violations were one-time events, and probably posed little risk. But for hundreds of other systems, illegal contamination persisted for years, records show.

The majority of drinking water violations since 2004 have occurred at water systems serving fewer than 20,000 residents, where resources and managerial expertise are often in short supply.

An analysis of E.P.A. data shows that Safe Drinking Water Act violations have occurred in parts of every state in the country. Studies indicate that drinking water contaminants are linked to millions of instances of illness within the United States each year.

In the prosperous town of Ramsey, N.J., for instance, drinking water tests since 2004 have detected illegal concentrations of arsenic, a carcinogen, and the dry cleaning solvent tetrachloroethylene, which has also been linked to cancer.

Today (Tuesday, 9 Dec 2009), the Senate Environment and Public Works committee will question E.P.A. officials about the agency’s enforcement of drinking-water safety laws. The E.P.A. is expected to announce a new policy for how it polices the nation’s 54,700 water systems.

Salmon Win!

Photo: Creative Commons license by david.nikonvscanon

"End to the Klamath War"

After a long and bitter battle, 4 dams on the Klamath River will be removed by the utility company PacificCorp who owns them, although the 2 in California and Oregon will not come down for another 10 years.

The winners are the salmon, the farmers who will get more water downstream, Native American tribes, and the controversial Endangered Species Act.

Actually there are no losers. PacificCorp said it will cost around $200 million to take down the dams, but that's about what it would cost them to build fish passages around the dams to increase the chances of survival for the salmon. Salmon die after they spawn, but if enough don't get the chance to spawn, there are fewer salmon every year.

Salmon is one of my absolute favorite foods, although I don't eat much of it anymore. I cannot afford the wild salmon, now running over $16 per pound if you can get it at all. Too bad, because wild salmon is not only delicious, but high in protein, vitamin D, and Omega-3 fatty acids.

The more affordable salmon in the grocery stores is all farm-raised. They are fed a fish chow, which is rather like the grain-based cat chow or dog chow, and contains all sorts of questionable ingredients. Farmed salmon often contains high levels of dioxins, and up to 8X the PCB's of wild salmon. The farm-raised salmon also develop much lower amounts of Omega-3, and in a form more difficult for the human system to utilize.

In addition, farm raised salmon is dyed the orange-red color we associate with salmon. Wild salmon get that natural coloration from their diet which contains krill (a tiny shrimp-like zooplankton) and other tiny shellfish.

99% of the Atlantic salmon world-wide is farmed-raised; they out-number wild Atlantic salmon 85 to 1. More of the Pacific salmon is wild-caught, and most canned salmon is Pacific salmon. Trout are in the same family, and the statistics are very similar for wild vs farmed.

Solar Water Pumping

If you have read much of my blog, you know I have finally been able to pump water from my spring to water my garden. However, the submersible pump still needs electricity to operate.

I found this video on YouTube, and it looks like an interesting possibility. Most solar installations require a storage unit (battery) for the excess electricity produced so that there is electricity available on demand for cloudy or rainy days. My garden won't need any water at those times, so that's one thing to eliminate in the expense column. (I don't use the spring for potable water so I don't need it to be able to pump 24/7.)

Solar panels produce DC (direct current) electricity, and the majority of homes and appliances for them, including water pumps, require AC (alternating current). To go from DC to AC requires the additional expense of an inverter, or optionally, the expense of a DC pump, which must be what they use in this video. As electric rates continue to increase, this process is at least worth investigation.

Solar Water Pumping System Installation in a water well:

Is your bottled water safe?

Do you know if your bottled water is safe? Neither does the Food and Drug Administration.

The Wall Street Journal reports on Congressional hearings that are going on about bottled water right now, and apparently the FDA (which oversees the $11.2 billion industry) is pretty forthcoming in its non-tracking of the water.

Currently, the FDA does not monitor bottlers. FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner Joshua M. Sharfstein testified that the agency regulates bottled water as a food, and doesn’t know which companies among registered food firms make bottled water.

Recently (July 8, 2009) consumer advocates testified before the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Panel; they say bottlers should be required to disclose more information to consumers. According to the Wall Street Journal, Rep. Bart Stupak, chairman of the oversight panel, said in the past several years, bottlers have recalled water contaminated with arsenic, cleaning compounds and bacteria.

The good news is that the FDA is tightening some rules. (The industry, which includes PepsiCo Inc.’s Aquafina and Coca-Cola Co.’s Dasani, currently isn’t required to report tests that turned up contamination.)

Bottlers have until December 2009 to eliminate E. coli from bottled water products, and as early as September they have to report tests that show a “serious health threat” (whatever that means). By contrast, municipal water authorities must report dangerous contaminants within 24 hours.