Dryland Permaculture Design

At Semilla Besada one of our most useful design tools is Permaculture.   However, it is vital to understand

Grazing animals as part of a natural system

 the principles behind many of the widely accepted and applied practices.   The reason is that every environment will respond differently.   For example, mulching in a northern temperate or tropical environment is likely to break down in a season providing fertility and structure to the soil:  in a dryland environment mulching will oxidise on the soil surface and may even create a fire risk.   One of the principles that underpins Permaculture design is natural patterns.   We are encouraged to look at how our local environment evolved:  to discover the complex relationships that existed between the plants, insects, animals, birds, soil microbiology and so on.   When we discover the dynamics in any original natural system, we can learn to integrate our needs without unbalancing that system.

In dryland environments, more accurately described as brittle landscapes, grazing animals evolved harmoniously with all the other elements of that natural system.   In fact, they were a key-player in keeping the landscape healthy and fertile.   In brittle landscapes there is not the consistent year-round moisture to break down dead plants, so grazing animals cycle this material through their digestive systems and obligingly it on the soil surface.   This is then taken into the ground by such creatures as dung beetles, enriching the soil and providing fertility for next season’s growth.

It is insights such as these that are pivotal to Dryland Permaculture Design, and they form part of both the skill-building workshop and week-long residential seminar held at Semilla Besada.

Aspen looking forward to the next skill-building workshop entitled Introduction to Dryland Permaculture.

Dryland Permaculture

Semilla Besada is the first location in Europe that is developing Dryland Permaculture designs that are

Sheep turning grass into fertility

appropriate to brittle landscapes.   As Permaculture enters the mainstream thinking it is becoming increasingly important that aspiring designers understand the implications of brittleness on their designs.   Unfortunately, no Permaculture Design training includes this important environmental insight or understanding of the Savory Brittleness Scale.  

So, why is it so important?   Setting land aside or leaving things to nature or completely resting land in a non-brittle environment is likely to lead to the development of a forest.   In a brittle landscape, it is likely to lead to the generation of a desert!   This is because there is not the consistent year-round moisture in brittle landscapes to break down dead vegetation and make it available for soil dwellers to take it below the surface to nurture plant life and support soil microbiology.   In the natural systems of old, grazing animals would eat dead vegetation and the microbiology of their digestion would deposit fertility on the soil surface, to be taken underground by creatures such as dung beetles.

If grazing animals are not allowed to play their part in a brittle landscape, then dead vegetation builds up,

Spread of shrubs and bare soil

 suffocating new growth in perennial grasses, allowing perennial shrubs to spread.   As their are no browsing animals to prune the shrubs and keep them in good health, they do not live for long.   Unfortunately, due to the lack of consistent year-round moisture there is no decaying dead vegetation on the soil surface to nurture plants above and microbes below, there is simply oxidising material, which is blow away by the wind or burnt by fire, leaving bare soil in their wake.   Bare soil is dead soil, and ultimately with erosion by sun, wind and rain, becomes a desert.

At Semilla Besada though, we have been using grazing animals in a holistically planned way, as part of our Dryland Permaculture design, and the difference between the land we manage and that we do not is striking.   The comparative locations are in the same area, with the same soil, same climate and even the same season, but the difference is startling, as witnessed by the photo below.

Foreground Semilla Besada, background neighbouring land

This photo was taken in May, and as the summer set in, the perennial grasses in between the grape vines went dormant (biscuit coloured) but the vines continued to thrive and bring life to the soil.   The landscape beyond, however, became more and more bare, with not even dead plant litter on the soil surface to mitigate the affect of the sun.   All simply because grazing animals were not being managed holistically, resulting in overall degradation of the landscape.

Aspen  heaving a sigh of relief at the arrival of the first rains last night.