WWOOF blog

Dryland Veggie Gardening

How do you grow veggies in Drylands?  Drylands are areas where the evaporation rate is higher than the rainfall rate.  As well as having a dryland climate, Geraldton has soils of white aluminium sand.

In the early days a lot of effort went into building up the soil.  The area which is now the veggie/seed garden was covered in a layer of straw, chicken manure and loam, to about 1 or 2 feet deep I believe.  They also planted a windbreak of tagasaste trees, which have been replaced in succession by acacias.  As well as this, a shadecloth fence was built around the garden.

They grow annual veggies in Winter.  At the end of the season the chickens are allowed in to clear up the remains of the crop, and the area is then left over Summer.  They don’t grow a cover crop as the rodents would eat it apparently, as there is nothing green around at all.  In Winter they cover their corn seedlings with wire cages from craypots to protect them from being eaten by rats, until the seedlings grow large enough.

When I was there the plants were growing at a massive rate, there was rain and the temperatures were in the high teens to low twenties.  As soon as the warm weather arrived the plants doubled in size in the space of about a week and a half.  The plants take every opportunity with the water and warmth.

The veggie gardens are very compact, the paths are small and the veggies are grown close together, it’s a tricky garden to work in, you need to be light on your feet and have a good sense of balance.  It also means it’s more efficient to irrigate the veggies as there is less area to water, and also less chance of evaporation.

The perennial gardens are irrigated in Summer.  Perennial veggies suited to the climate are grown here, such as seven year beans, perpetual spinach and warragul greens.

While I was there we replaced the old shadecloth fence with a new one.  This involved dismantling much of the fence, except for the poles.  We then strung up medium tensile wire, and used a tool called a jambro to staple the chicken wire to the fencing wire.  We then threaded wire through shadecloth, and stapled that up as well.  Finally we wired bamboo batons to the fence to take the tension in the wind.

A lot of work has been done to build up the soil.  Each year compost was made and added to the garden beds.  Recently they have eased off on the compost, as the nitrogen levels were sufficient, it is now lack of some trace elements that needs to be addressed.  Foliar sprays such as seasol are applied to the leaves of the plants, as an immediate remedy, until the soil can be improved.

They are starting to experiment with compost teas, using the methods taught by Elaine Ingham.  This adds beneficial microorganisms to the soil, which unlock the elements needed by plants.