Did you know that simply digging a slight ditch can completely change the health of a landscape?
In modern landscaping, any sort of hole or ditch is considered a “dangerous tripping hazard,” “unsightly,” or “a waste of space,” so everything is smoothed out. If you go to most cities and farms, the only non-flat places are designed to carry water away from cities, rather than hold onto it.
This thought process can not only increase overland flooding and wash away topsoil, but it also gives water no place to sit and be absorbed into the soil. Without any water capture gradually trickling into the soil and creating an underground reservoir, the landscape becomes less drought resistant and more susceptible to wildfires.
The permaculture techniques to correct this have many names and methods, including:
- Demi-lunes / Half - moons / Semi-circular bunds
- Eyebrow terraces / banquettes
- Negarim
- Contour bunds
- Micro basins
- Planting pits / Zai pits / Chololo pits
- Swales
They might be different shapes and use slightly different methods, but they all do all work the same on a basic level. The idea is to dig or build a shape that will slowdown and/or catch some of the movement of water. This can make the soil more absorbent (dry and hardened soil does not absorb water as easily) which promotes healthy microbiome of the soil.
Even if the water dries out visibly during the dry season, underground, they could be making a huge difference.
It is not new science, but instead something many cultures around the world have a long history with, but many modern farming practices(mostly to make it farming machine friendly) and development flatten everything out. If people changed this point of view, it could change our landscapes.
In cities, they look like a slight ditch in front of a house, or a creek in a greenspace.
(Image Sources: Image 1 | Image 2)
For other landscapes, it could be just slight indents in un-farmable areas, or ditches dug around farm perimeters.
They do not have to be very deep, and often do not need any fancy equipment to dig(most just take a shovel), but they can do amazing things.
In the process of reversing landscape desertification, it is proving drastically helpful. As the underground water reserves build, so does the vegetation.
(Image Source: Just Dig It. An example of demi-lunes / half-moons)
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Really cool read, I’d never heard of any of this
Thank you for posting this! Found it informative and the pictures were helpful as well.
It’s pretty cool but rainfall patterns are the real problem. If it doesn’t rain, well fuck.
I think that is part of the point. This helps to buffer against poor rainfall as it builds up a resovior under the ground. One of the pictures shows how it grows over 3 years, that means it would also shrink slowly over the years.
This will give plants a chance to survive in times of limited rain.
Now, large-scale total rainfall changes are different as they are longer term trends, but this does help with inconsistency.
Now, large-scale total rainfall changes are different the entire whole point I was making. Sheesh.
Large scale rainfall changes may cause some formerly verdant areas to dry up. They’re not the reason currently degraded land is that way.
And the commenter above you was highlighting that some places we think are “too dry” don’t have to be that way. By shaping the land we can bank water underground and create more resilient gatherings of plants
I’ve been watching DustUps ranch on YouTube. Some guy bought wasteland in Texas and is doing this and other stuff to create a forest.
Definitely not an instructional channel because there is a lot that goes wrong so far but he learns as he goes and seems to have a good plan now.
Lol I like watching it but he does screw up constantly. Which is refreshing cause at least he’s not trying to act like he knows everything.
Agreed. I’m just glad no one is filming me when I’m working on things. It’s not that I can’t figure things out but it takes some trial and error.
I watch the channel with that in mind, he’s me in a sense … Trying to reforest 300 something acres. He seems like a smart guy though and making progress. It’s all cumulative work so it’ll pick up I’m sure after a year of growth.
This pretty cool. I heard about the green wall they are building in Africa along the Sahara Desert and it looks like they use the same method. I had no idea it was being implemented in other places.
