Around when I was born my father started an orchard on our land in backcountry San Diego County. Our Mediterranean climate is perfect for growing all kinds of amazing plants. However, our hard, compacted, clay soil filled with round rocks, makes for some challenging growing conditions.

He planted mostly stone fruit and citrus and, like most people, decided synthetic fertilizers would be the way to keep the plants happy and producing fruit. What he probably didn't know was that over time, synthetic fertilizers build up the amount of salts in the soil, one of plants worst enemies.

When salt dissolves in water, the ions separate and plants absorb the chloride ions. This makes it difficult for plats to uptake water creating drought-like conditions, even when ample water is present. Excessive sodium in the soil also obstructs the availability of important nutrients and kills beneficial soil microorganisms.

The downsides of synthetic fertilizers don't stop there. They can leach into streams, rivers, lakes and other bodies of water disrupt aquatic ecosystems and increase the nitrate levels of soil. Plants produced from such soil, upon consumption, convert to toxic nitrites in the intestines.

The list goes on, but lets try to focus on something a little more positive.

Over my years of studying permaculture I began to experiment with my dad's orchard, I wanted to see if ecological design could really beat the conventional agriculture methods of our modern society. First, I made sure no more synthetic fertilizers were applied. Then, I started adding compost and mulch, at least a few inches thick. I sprayed compost teas and beneficial fungal spores.

Next, I started to plant a lot more trees and really try to think about what cultivars would do best in this location. I had been observing the spot for years, now was the time to put that knowledge to use. I started to plant nitrogen fixing trees, why buy nitrogen when plants make it for free??? Palo verde, tipuana tipu, ice cream bean and guaje were some of my first perennial choices. I also wanted to get a lot more diversity in fruit and food without having to use much water in our dryland ecosystem. To reach that goal I planted loquats, pineapple guavas, kei apples, jujubes, grapes, moringas, pomegranates and more.

In the first year after ceasing to apply synthetic fertilizers fruit production declined and I thought this would be the case. Fruit production had already been declining, I could see trees were not happy and I had a good hunch it was due to salt build up. It was going to take at least a year to flush those salts out of the soil. To aide in this process, I applied gypsum to loosen the soil structure and allow water and nutrients to better move though the ground.

In the second year I started to see some exciting results. Tress were looking healthier, they were growing more, their leaves looked greener, more blossoms came out, and, there was more fruit! In fact, we had an old stone fruit tree, we didn't even remember what it was because it had been so long since it has produced fruit or even blossomed. This time, in the second year, it began to blossom, I was so excited. It was also not a colder-than-normal year so I was quite sure it was not just blooming because it was getting more chill hours. Finally, fruit begin to grow, it was a nectarine! Not very good tasting but a nectarine it was!

By the third year this tree had even more blossoms and more fruit, it was starting to taste good. Other trees followed suit. Our old tangerine tree had looked like it was dying, branches where turning brown and fruit production plummeted. This was a tree I was especially fond of as I remember stuffing myself of it's delicious fruit at a young age. In the the second and third years it started to produce more and more fruit. This year, the fourth, it's loaded! Branches have stopped dying and although it still looks like a very old tree, it seems happy again.

In time I will plant more and more trees in the orchard. My goal is to move it to be a regenerative system, a system that takes care of itself. I will have to continue to occasionally add compost to replenish some of the nutrients but for the most part I will not have to do much. I will slowly plant ground covers and smaller sized plants to maximize vertical space, like a food forest. Our previous blog explains food forests. 

The one thing my dad never did was spray chemicals, no herbicides, pesticides or fungicides. We never had serious problems with pests or diseases that we know of. I am happy to carry on that tradition and I know that moving this orchard towards a regenerative system will improve the health and resilience of plants there while in turn providing us with a greater and healthier bounty of food.

How much does it rain where you live? Do you know? Does it matter?

It is easy to guess how much it rains, maybe you look at a bucket or puddle but to really know you must use some kind of proper gauge, like the one above.

It is important to measure rainfall to calculate your supply when trying grow plants, manage stormwater or prepare for years of flood or drought. After all, if you don't know how much you're getting, how can you prepare for the future?

The easiest way is to buy a gauge. The AcuRite 00850A2 5-Inch Capacity Easy-Read Magnifying Rain Gauge is less than $4 on Amazon (click item for link). Then, take the gauge and place it (often mounted to a wooden post) at a level that is easy to read. Be sure the gauge is not near any buildings or trees because wind can push the rain to fall at an angle and be blocked by an object which might give you a bad reading on your new gauge. I like to put out two gauges in different places and compare them - but I realize that is pretty nerdy!

Once you get some rain and check the gauge it is best to write it down so you don't forget! Then, you can use the data to figure out your annual rainfall. Just add up all the numbers. But wait - what month do you start and end with to find out how much you got for the year???

Professionals that measure rainfall sometimes argue about this. Two years ago, after using the so-called rain year - July to June - for more than 130 years to measure precipitation totals, National Weather Service stations in Southern California started using the "hydrological year" - October to September. Why does it matter?

In order calculate an accurate and comparable average, the beginning and end of the "year" that is used should be outside of the rainy season or after a normal break in a rain season. For example, the calendar year begins and ends right in winter, when a lot of places get a significant portion of their precipitation - this makes it often a bad time to start record keeping.

It can be tough because different places in the country have breaks in the rain at different times so it's hard to have just one type of "rain" year to easily be comparable. Luckily this problem is pretty easy to fix - every weather service station nationwide produces two rainfall totals: one based on the calendar year and a second based on local preferences. The big question is when should your local area make it's rain "year"?

Looking at the above graph in Ramona, CA (eastern San Diego County) where we have our permaculture education and demonstration site, you can see the rainy season comes to an end in June. That means either the rain year - July to June or the "hydrological" year - September to October - would be appropriate to use, the former being the most accurate.

So far, this "year" in Ramona we have received higher than average rainfall, like much of California has. A nice change from some recent lower than average years. As we go from extreme years of drought to extreme years in flooding, knowing how much rain we get allows us to properly prepare our rainwater harvesting systems, whether they be active or passive systems, for the future. This reduces the chance of problems or system failures allowing maintenance to be minimal and us to sit back and relax whether the weather is bone dry or soaking wet. Remember to design with the future in mind!

Resources:
U.S. Climate Data - http://www.usclimatedata.com/ - rainfall totals and graphs by city.

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We are very excited to announce construction started on our new Permasystems shop located in Ramona, CA (San Diego County). This is where we do everything, hand-make our water tanks and other products, build molds, design, create and make beautiful art! Our old shop was pretty small, quite leaky and exposed to the elements. The new space will be huge, allowing us to streamline much of our process to create even better quality and consistency in our products.

Although we are big advocates for natural buildings, such as cob, we decided to use conventional wood framing to build the roof structure because of the shop's massive size. Then, instead of building conventional walls out of wood we will build living walls out of vines, thus saving money, allowing for air flow and being beautiful.

We finally begun mixing cob and building walls. We also added a storage tent which we bought for $10, earthworks, the beginning of a hugel bed (more on hugel beds in a future post), stem walls (see previous post to learn more), trees, and tall vertical posts to string wire between for plants to grow above the house.

We are really hoping to get the roof on before the rainy season hits. That way, with a roof on, we would still be able to work on building cob walls without the rain hitting them directly which is bad. And hopefully there would be time in between storms for the cob to dry out.