Our Natural Building Blog covers various topics including ways to restore degraded land for growing food and homesteading. The Natural Farmer shares a good story about Peter Ash of Embracing the World who helped restore some highly contaminated land in India. The main story is from 1:57 to 5:41 in case you’re in a hurry.
restoring degraded land
Gardening WITHOUT Fertilizers
“Experts (sic) seem to beLIEve that vegetable crops cannot be grown efficiently without fertilizers. They debate whether composted animal manures are better than chemical-based fertilizers, which is worse for climate change, more ethical, sustainable, or profitable. This is a false debate rooted in antiquated beLIEfs. In this video I show how vegetables can be grown WITHOUT fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides, herbicides, etc.
Ecosystem Restoration Cooperative – Mass Ecosystem Restoration in a Time of Crisis
“This is a short video introducing the Ecosystem Restoration Cooperative and the Ecosystem Restoration Camps. This is a self-organizing, direct action to train and deploy everyone to mitigate and adapt to human induced climate change by restoring ecological function on a planetary scale.”
Greening the US Deserts: 80 Year Old Swales near Tucson, Arizona
Here are two classic videos about the giant permaculture swales in the Sonoran Desert near Tucson, AZ. The swales are now filled with trees and lush grass, and continue to thrive after 80 years with no maintenance. The swales were built in the 1930’s during President Roosevelt’s term to restore the countryside in the Dust Bowl era.
Turn Deserts into Oases with Mycorrhizal Fungi in Under 10 Years
Here’s the article I mentioned yesterday. The article is about mycorrhizal fungi (commonly called myco). It explains how a research center near Delhi, India turned a salty, rocky soil wasteland into an oasis in under 10 years using plants inoculated with myco. Now they are selling vast quantities of mass produced myco around the world. Today it’s easy to find myco products including myco inoculated compost in most garden stores. Myco can turn deserts, abandoned mining sites and other inhospitable areas into oases as explained in the follow article.
Better to Buy Inferior/Degraded Land Rather than Have No Land
Most people who want to build a sustainable homestead look for the perfect piece of land with good soil for their garden. The trouble is, the most productive land is locked up in profitable farms that’s typically not for sale, or if it is for sale it costs a fortune. This blog post explains one way to solve this dilemma.