As the climate increasingly destabilises, drought conditions in Southern Africa will increase. Valerie Payn, who has written the book An Ecological Gardeners Handbook, offers advice on how we can adapt our gardens and surrounding environment to increased temperatures and lower rainfalls.
Valerie Payn*
When faced with drought farmers and gardener often react by irrigating more, to make up for the low rainfall. This can only be a short term solution. In a prolonged drought, abnormally high water use means water reservoirs soon run dry. A far more sustainable solution is to plan gardens, or farms, for drought resilience – the ability to withstand drought. This is especially important in areas like Southern Africa which frequently suffer drought.
Brittle landscapes
Allan Savory, the renowned Zimbabwean conservationist farmer, talks about brittle landscapes. These are landscapes that do not hold moisture well. Brittle landscapes are particularly susceptible to drought conditions. We can alleviate the worst effects of drought by increasing a landscapes moisture holding capacity to reduce landscape brittleness.
Increasing landscape resilience to drought, whether this is a farm or garden, involves an integrated approach that combines 3 steps.
These are:
Prevent moisture loss
Moisture in a landscape is held in the soil, the plants, the surrounding atmosphere (humidity, rainfall, cloud cover, mist and dew are all forms of atmospheric moisture), and in water reservoirs such as ponds, dams, streams, tanks, underground aquifers etc.
Landscapes loose moisture from evaporation, as well as through transpiration (the loss of moisture from plant leaves and stems). High temperatures, windy conditions, low humidity levels, sparse plant covering, and humus poor soils all increase the rate of moisture evaporation and transpiration from landscapes.
Bare soil heats up and dries out much quicker than covered soil, adding to high temperatures and low humidity.
Plants hold moisture in their leaves, stems and roots. They slowly release this retained moisture as they transpire, increasing humidity levels in the surroundings.
High temperatures and windy conditions increase levels of plant transpiration. Plant cover helps cool the ground, prevents moisture loss from the soil, reduces extreme surface temperatures, humidifies the air and helps break wind force. Sparse plant cover, then, adds to problems of high temperatures, low humidity levels, and problematic, drying wind conditions.
Soil condition also affects landscape moisture levels. Soils with a high humus content, such as humus rich clay and loam soils, or well mulched or composted soils, retain moisture far better than sandy soils that lack humus.
In a typical drought then, it is not only the lack of rainfall that creates problems. Hot, windy, low humidity conditions, soil conditions and reduced plant cover compound the lack of rainfall and add to the aridity. Under these conditions landscapes can quickly become dehydrated, even if irrigation is possible.
*Valerie Payn is the author of the book, An Ecological Gardeners Handbook, which explains how gardeners can use natural processes to create productive, flourishing, healthy garden eco-systems. She also has an Mphil, Degree in Sustainable Development Planning and Management.
Where can I get An Ecological Gardeners Handbook?
Those in the Cape Town surrounds can buy a copy from Kate Davies (kate@safcei.org.za) for R350. For more information where else copies can be obtained, please contact Valerie Payn at vallieb@gmail.com or on 083 441961.
An International eBook edition is also available from http://www.amazon.com/Ecological-Gardeners-Handbook-Eco-System-Sustainably-ebook/dp/B013CCJNSC
SAFCEI (Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute) is a multi-faith organisation committed to supporting faith leaders and their communities in Southern Africa to increase awareness, understanding and action on eco-justice, sustainable living and climate change.
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