After the olive harvest, we pruned all the olive trees and mulched the clippings (for this we use a mulcher, which is a machine that you pass branches through; they come out the other end as mulch). The result was a large pile of mulch. But as of today, we have an even LARGER pile of mulch: the olive press (where people bring their olives to make olive oil) brought us several dump truck loads of olive leaves.

One of several tractor loads of pruned olive branches… to be mulched.

Jackie feeds olive branches into the mulcher.

Here’s why-oh-why mulch is so very important:

After spreading compost, we must cover the garden with mulch; sun-exposed soil dries out and forms a hard skin that prevents oxygen and water from entering the ground, which makes for a miserable environment for soil life and plant life. Covering the ground with dry organic matter (aka mulch) keeps the soil open, protects it from harsh sun, and keeps the ground temperature down. In nature, plants create their own mulch by dropping their leaves, which cover and protect the area around their roots; we’re simply simulating this process.

The two key components of dryland gardening are water management and the building of healthy soil. All life depends on the few centimeters of soil lining the earth’s surface; fertile soil supports plant life, and plant life supports animal life.

Here I explain the critter-filled world of soil:

Soil is the living skin of the earth. Fertile soil is composed of an array of substances: minerals, fungi, gels, billions of bacteria reproducing and consuming each other, as well as oxygen, which creates space and builds soil structure. Without proper structure, soil collapses into dust and all the soil critters lose their home… it’s hard to live in the desert. Drylands have lost their fertility and are on their way to becoming deserts, which means dryland gardeners must reintroduce fertility into the soil.

How do they do this? Through composting.

Compost

In nature, leaf litter, twigs, and dead animals all end up on the topmost surface of the ground. Billions and billions of bacteria – the soil life – decompose organic matter and eat it up into the earth.

Composting creates optimal conditions for bacteria to manufacture soil in mass quantities. Jim has shown me that it’s quite easy to create one’s own “soil factory” using very basic materials: a big heap of dry plant material (carbon), the more finely chopped the better; and either fresh green plant material or animal manure (nitrogen), which acts as an activating material. The mixing of carbon and nitrogen in correct proportions (3:1) kicks off a chain reaction: the compost produces heat, killing off weed seeds (you don’t want weed seeds in your rose beds!) and activating a chain reaction of fungal and bacterial activity that decomposes the compost materials, eventually turning them into humus. The resulting soil is soft, crumbly, and filled with tons of hyperactive bacteria. Once the compost is spread on the garden, the bacteria inoculates the existing ground soil, transforming it into a well-structured, biologically potent growing medium, with great water-holding capacity and full of the good nutrients that plants need.

[a good hot heap makes for lots o' steam]

Once you’ve got fertile soil, it will support abundant plant life. You then need to mulch to maintain healthy soil and protect plant roots; I’ll explain mulching in a future post.

My work on Paros is both practical and conceptual. Alison and I constructed a pond for water storage; I mixed organic matter to create steaming compost heaps; I’ve harvested olives, pruned bushes for mulch, and now Jim and I are constructing a large reedbed system for decontaminating all of the water used in the guest houses. This is the practical side of our work, all of which falls under the heading of dryland management according to principles of permaculture.

Here’s where the conceptual comes in: there’s a reason we’re doing all this. Dryland management is an essential need and an intriguing challenge. I’ll explain…

Drylands are characterized by intense heat, little rainfall, and low soil fertility. To grow gardens in drylands, one must employ strategies that ensure a sustainable water source and fertile soil. Fortunately, scientists and scholars from across the globe put their minds to regenerating drylands. As a result they developed simple, natural, and effective strategies to restore beauty and life to depleted dryland landscapes. These techniques are of benefit to myriad communities, ranging from hobby gardeners in Southern California to drought afflicted West Africans. Equipped with dryland strategies, aid organizations can empower dryland communities to help themselves. This is far more practical than traditional “assistance” involving the sale of chemical fertilizers and hybrid seeds, which simply propogates misuse of land and results in further soil depletion.

 
In coming posts I’ll explain principles and practices of dryland permaculture - such as composting for soil fertility, mulching for root health, capturing and storing rainwater, and decontaminating and recycling household grey- and blackwater – how these practices work, and why they’re effective.