You have to prepare for every eventuality if you run a sustainable homestead. It’s easy to rest on your laurels when the weather cooperates. What do you do when it doesn’t?
Climate change means many regions face droughts severe enough to cause widespread displacement and disruption of livelihoods. What can you do when the rains don’t fall? Here are 10 ways to care for soil through a drought.
1. Make Your Compost Super
Composting adds nutrients to the soil the natural way. You might not need much more than garden scraps in a typical year. However, drought requires extra effort to revitalize the substrate your crops use to grow.
Try adding the following materials to your compost bin to enrich your soil’s nutrient content:
- Worm castings
- Bone meal and fish bone meal
- High-phosphorus bat guano
- Blood meal
- Oyster shells
- Kelp meal
- Alfalfa meal
Compost requires time to cook. You’ll need at least 45 to 90 days for the resulting mix to reach a moist, even consistency.
2. Mulch
Mulching helps maintain soil moisture, keeping it from evaporating before your plants can lap it up to slake their thirst. Remember to do so next year if you didn’t mulch your land over the fall and winter. This season is often when the rain hits the hardest, encouraging erosion, especially to the top layer of hard-packed, clay-like soils.
Fortunately, adding mulch any time of year helps stop water loss. What should you use? It depends on your objective, but seek brands free of artificial dyes and chemicals.
3. Invest in Earthworms
Earthworms are gardeners’ best friends because their burrows encourage irrigation and soil aeration without the need to till. Tilling can loosen too much soil, leading to erosion.
You can purchase earthworms at many garden supply stores. Suffice it to say that you should leave any you find while digging in the dirt to go about their business.
4. Add Organic Matter
Ultimately, all soil nutrients come from organic matter breakdown. You can preserve small patches of soil during a drought by adding such substances, even if you don’t have a compost bin.
For example, it takes relatively little to grind up your eggshells and add them to your soil. It moderates acidity while providing the necessary calcium.
5. Pause Tilling
Tilling is backbreaking. Fortunately, there’s a silver lining in every missing rain cloud: You should press pause on this behavior during a drought.
Tilling loosens the soil, making it easier for plants to take root. However, it can also lead to water loss and erosion as the dry earth blows away — so much dust in the wind. During drought years, opt for crops that don’t require much aeration.
6. Create Wind Breaks
Water isn’t the only natural force that can whisk away your soil. The wind likewise poses a threat.
How can you stop it from eroding your soil during a drought? Use windbreaks. You can create an artificial structure, such as a retaining wall. Do you want a greener idea? Plant a natural windbreak of cedar or arborvitae for privacy and soil maintenance.
7. Use Terraces
Terraces help you make the most of the soil you have. They also prevent erosion as higher tiers block lower ones from blowing rain and wind.
Hillsides create natural places for terraces. You might be able to construct simple models out of scrap lumber, saving you considerable cash during skyrocketing inflation.
8. Adopt Permaculture Principles
Surviving a drought means making use of every available drop. Adopt permaculture principles, such as planting your most water-intensive crops at the bottom of a hill, allowing gravity to direct the water where it’s most needed.
You can also plant low-light plants beneath towering, leafy ones. They provide adequate shade from the sun.
9. Rotate Your Crops
Crop rotation involves planting different crops in various seasons to replenish soil nutrients. One of the most classic examples is sowing grains after beans to allow the soil’s nitrogen content to readjust.
Experiment and research to find out which crops to plant before and after one another. You’ll preserve precious nutrients, minimizing your need for fertilizer or compost.
10. Strip Farm
Strip farming is similar in principle to crop rotation. Instead of separate growing seasons, you plant crops next to each other in alternating rows to preserve various soil nutrients. This method works best in regions with shorter growing seasons that don’t allow multiple harvests.
Caring for Soil Through a Drought
Climate change makes maintaining your sustainable homestead more complicated. However, a little savvy can see you through the dry years.
Follow the above tips to care for your soil through a drought. You might have to tighten your belt a little, but you and your homestead will survive to see another growing season.
Bio: Jane is an agriculture and environmental journalist and the founder and editor-in-chief of Environment.co, where she covers sustainability and eco-friendly living.
