Vegetable production from the month of 12-7 Eggplant 72.435.kg Tomato 39/225KG Parsley 6,690 bunch Mint 12,735 bunch Green Onion 18.225 kg Hot Pepper 39.345kg Sweet Pepper 36,035 kg Thyme 3.080 bunch Sage 4,680 bunch Cauliflower 35.355kg Cabbage 20,140 kg Fennel 10.290 kg Potato 10 kg ( first Trail ) Spinach 12,980 bunch Okra 6,820 Malukhia 14,530 Pawpaw 150 fruits Egges 2010 egg … [Read more...]
Abla’s Garden
Meet Abla, the former school teacher who bought a small piece of property in the desert. After nine months on the property, she met her neighbours Geoff and Nadia, and she took our permaculture design certificate course here at the Greening the Desert project. She then began to transition her own property, which had been mostly rocks and barren soil, into a green desert site as well. Having left the city unhealthy, she has felt renewed with a permaculture lifestyle, caring for plants and … [Read more...]
Jordanians on the frontline of climate change, turn to permaculture
Olive, lemon and palm trees provide shade over the small garden where Abu ElHajj recently started growing carrots, tomatoes, beans and herbs.Surrounded by arid cliffs and a harsh desert landscape, it seems an unlikely place to start cultivating food. 'Geoff taught us how to work with nature, not against it'- Abu ElHajj Facing drought and rising temperatures, Jordan is on the frontline of climate change. Overgrazing and inappropriate cultivation practices have contributed to increasing … [Read more...]
Celebrating 10-Years at the Greening the Desert Project, Jordan.
The Greening the Desert Project started with the purchase of land about ten years ago, and it expanded slowly until that mounted into exponential growth. Things started at the top, literally, with a large water tank that feeds a shower/toilet block just downhill. The toilets are dry composting, supplying fertilizer for plants on site, and the greywater from the showers and sinks goes to a nearby reed bed. The reed bed, still high in the landscape, is then able to send gravity-fed irrigation to … [Read more...]
Food Forest Fertility
It’s the last day and people are still working on irrigation and chop-and-drop. Neem is being harvested for mulch and natural pesticide. Chop-and-drop is around everything. It’s about strategic timing, opening the canopy when evaporation over rainfall flops into rainfall over evaporation. Mulch increases every year, and groundcovers are establishing more and more. The system is designed to time the way the forest falls to feed the soil at the optimal moment. Compost is covered by green mulch, … [Read more...]
Desert Food Forest Chop-and-Drop
The final chop-and-drop bonanza gets underway, cutting the remaining leucaena down to high pollards and using the rich green material as mulch around the bottoms of trees. A couple hundred kilos of material is produced by these trees annually, with trees growing some four meters in just twelve months. The idea is to prune the them to grow through just a few upward shoots, trimming the side shoots as they develop. This will produce high shade and allow room for the fruit trees to grow underneath … [Read more...]
Humans Have the Potential to Turn Deserts into a Green Oasis
In the wicking beds, eggplants are still producing, having survived right through summer. Two perennial spinaches, Ceylon and Brazil, are thriving. These gardens are proving themselves as the most efficient watering system. Wicking beds are inexpensive to produce. The process starts with a used bulk liquid container, which is cut in half, frame and all, with an angle grinder. This provides two wicking beds at the perfect size, as well as a support frame. A piece of plumbing pipe is either … [Read more...]
Touring a Local Permaculture Site in the Desert
Hayal is another local permaculturist who has a fantastic home garden stuffed with examples of permaculture techniques suitable for the region. There’s a chicken tractor and even some milking sheep in the mix. Bee hives have been put in for pollination and honey-production. Wicking beds are producing well, and many rows of vegetables are growing beneath a shade house. system is young, only three months, but there is already production. Some fruit trees, like date palms, have been growing onsite … [Read more...]
A Garden is an Education
Jawaseri is the closest school to the Greening the Desert site, and it has one of the four school gardens the project sponsors. A shade house shelters a full garden, and there are wicking beds, as well as a young food forest. The gardens in the shade house are sunken beds with raised foot paths to maximize the water absorption into the plots. The soil has been dressed, loosening up with stones removed, and compost has been added. Hay mulch is used to maximize water-efficiency. The project is … [Read more...]
Where There Was No Food, Food Now Grows!
This is the 'domino effect' of the Greening the Desert project in Jordan, a healthy, affordable, and easily understood permaculture design that can be replicated, anywhere. … [Read more...]
The First Rainfall of the Season
The first rainfall of the season comes in grandiose fashion. Just after a dust storm blows past, a thunderstorm erupts across the desert. This is how it usually happens (dust storm then rain), and this signals the official start of the cooler season. At the Greening the Desert site, the event feels increasingly serious. Tents are collapsed, others blown over. Trees in the food forest go down, a tank blows off the rooftop, and a shade house topples. Everything is very wet, with water pouring into … [Read more...]
We’re Mulching Pits, Propagating, Planting, and Making Compost
Our Permaculture in Action course is meant to offer a more hands-on (versus theoretical) learning environment to permaculture students, and by late October, teams are spread out through the Greening the Desert site. Students from all over the world are busy with projects on the farm. A team of ladies is working on the top terrace, creating a mulch pit with the last of the spiky nitrogen-fixing trees (prosopis regrowth and Jerusalem thorn). The site is now fertile enough to switch to a … [Read more...]