regenerating desert areas using swales and mulch

[Boilerplater]

Yeah, that is pretty cool that they can get such thriving plants with directed rainfall. In my experience working in the desert of Las Vegas, we often replace the soils entirely because the native soils are so poor and bereft of organic matter. And then irrigation tends to cause salts to come up in the soil, a problem also common to some soils of California’s Central Valley. People need to start looking at permaculture principles for more designed landscapes to be able to eat more locally. Here, everything is trucked in.

[Roland Beinert]

I found it interesting in the first video that he said the fungi in the mulch were putting off a waxy substance that was locking up the salt and making it insoluable. I wonder if soil scientists are actually studying that possibility. I imagine rainwater will always be much more free of salts, which makes you wonder why the idea of swales is sometimes dismissed in dry areas. I think this project had some sort of drip irrigation in addition to the rainwater, though. At least in the beginning.

[Author]

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