Week 6: Understand universal needs more deeply

Understand what plants need, and give them that. Learning about water, weather, and what plants need teaches us what sustains all of us.

When we started out, I planted trees thinking that permaculture taught you to plant stuff and then let nature do the rest- bam, instant forest. This doesn't work. At least not in our hot, dry, summers or our beach sandy soil.

“Working with nature” can be a very confusing and misunderstood approach, because most of us have not spent much time observing natural cycles.

Most fruit trees require significant water and grow slowly, or not at all, when stressed. Annual vegetable crops have substantial water requirements. In fact, meeting your plants' water needs is essential for nutrient uptake. Some nutrients may be in the soil but unavailable to plants because of low moisture. You can create a system with low input needs- less water, less compost, less labour/attention- but this system will also have low yields.

So balancing your available inputs with your desired yields is key to having a feeling of progress and growth.

Our goal is always to provide sufficient water, but through creative methods rather than keeping our borehole running constantly. We improved soil water retention by shading the soil (through dense planting and mulch), creating windbreaks (both trees and shade cloth barriers), and improving the soil's water-holding capacity by adding organic matter to the surface.

In a low-rainfall area with extremely sandy soil, we quickly learned the best way to reduce plant stress was improving the soil's water-holding capacity. When it rains, organic matter retains many orders of magnitude more water than we can supply through drip irrigation.

Reducing wind stress also reduces water stress, because wind stress is often just water stress in disguise. Shading soil with mulch reduces evaporation rates.

The deeper lesson plants' water needs taught me: biological needs are real and non-negotiable. And, attending to big needs (water) often means other needs (nutrients) are covered naturally. While some plants are naturally more resilient than others, acknowledging and responding to the needs of ecological systems around us was central to improving our growing.

Their needs mirrored our own and taught me to soften to my own needs and my family's needs. What are our big needs? Time? What are needs that are naturally covered when we give the correct amount of time and attention to things?

Soil deserves a week of it’s own, so next week I’ll be talking about building the soil as the foundation of all growth.

I’d love to hear from you about your experience of big and small needs in your experience! I love receiving your emails and reflections.

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