by Adrian Patch
Like many smallholders, I had been
waiting for the seemingly non-stop chain of winter storms to end, and
have welcomed the last couple of warm and rainless weeks that have
allowed the land to finally dry out and become workable. This last
fortnight has been a time to play catch-up with tasks such as
vegetable bed preparation and planting of trees and soft-fruit. The
wettest winter since records began, though, is just one of several
periods of extreme weather that we have suffered over recent years;
the big-freeze and snow, drought, rain, last spring's long spell of
cold easterly winds, more rain, storms, more rain – all have
had a significant impact for those working on the land.
The last couple of years have seen me
increasingly thinking about how I can prepare my smallholding to
better ride out and recover from these events (and other challenges)
– in short, how I could make my smallholding more resilient?
Resilience, the ability to recover and bounce-back following trauma
and adverse events, is a term used in a range of areas: describing
resilient people, resilient economies, etc. – 'resilience' is fast
threatening to replace 'sustainable' as the Zeitgeist buzz-word. Some
notable US publications have recently introduced resilient approaches
to farming and gardening. Applied to smallholding, a resilience-based
approach can lead to changes in terms of the livestock kept and how
they are managed, the crops grown and how they are grown, as well as
a whole range of other aspects of how the land and business are
managed. Farmers and smallholders have traditionally been an
adaptable lot, but much useful knowledge has slipped from memory and
practice in recent generations. Many 'old ways' are currently being
revived, methods from other cultures adapted, and new approaches
developed, particularly by those within permaculture
circles.
Much of my 'resilience-thinking' at the
moment, perhaps unsurprisingly, concerns water and its management. As
well as having constructed mini-swales to capture rain and aid the establishment of tree and soft-fruit
plantings, I am planning larger scale water and earth works. I am aware that I need to plan for drought as well as excess
rain. In this regard, I shall be building on one particular success
of my approach to date. One of my first projects was putting in a
couple of long windbreaks of Italian alder, and I used willow as a
nursery crop (protecting the young alder on its exposed site). Like
the alder, I chose willow for many reasons and have made multiple
uses of it, using mixed pollarding and coppicing. Last summer, during
the pleasant hot/dry spell the willow was invaluable in feeding my
sheep and cattle – supplementing the pasture which had slowed right
down in the near-drought conditions. The use of tree-fodder is an
example of an old farming practice that is enjoying a renaissance,
with scientific research highlighting which trees produce the most
nutritious fodder for livestock. This week I have been putting in
more willow to provide shelter and boost the fodder/drought-insurance
for the ruminants.
A permaculture approach to land
management makes a wide range of principles, tools and design options
available – because of this, it can sometimes be difficult to see
the wood for the trees when tackling a large/long-term project. It
can be challenging to think simultaneously about the big issues of
design and the micromanagement options – as well as deciding where
to begin. Looking at crop selection, a resilience-approach has
encouraged me to think not only about crops' tastiness and nutrition,
but also about their multi-functionality (for human and
livestock food, as well as other uses), adaptability
to a changing climate, store-ability, suitability for
seed-saving/ease of propagation and likelihood of success
in poor/short seasons; it has also driven my thinking on issues such
as water- and earth-works, livestock selection and management, and
business strategy/planning, including how produce is marketed. A
resilience-based approach (along with an adapted version of Yeomans'
Keyline Scale of Permanence) has proven especially valuable in terms
of prioritising action. In sum, thinking about resilience has
enabled me to draw tools from the permaculture toolbox in a focused
and strategic way, addressing the issue: 'how do I build a resilient
smallholding?'
Adrian Patch is running a series of
courses in 2014, focusing on resilient smallholding and permaculture,
including Permaculture with Livestock – for Permies. For
details see his website: www.moorwholesome.co.uk
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