http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/2008/08/23/farming-in-the-city-with-runoff-from-a-street/ Sat, 20 Mar 2010 21:59:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/2008/08/23/farming-in-the-city-with-runoff-from-a-street/comment-page-1/#comment-57 mindtangle » Blog Archive » Harvesting Rainwater Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:28:43 +0000 http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/?p=342#comment-57 [...] a great piece about a guy who was able to produce a bumper crop on a vacant lot in Tuscon, Arizona by harvesting [...] [...] a great piece about a guy who was able to produce a bumper crop on a vacant lot in Tuscon, Arizona by harvesting [...]

]]> http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/2008/08/23/farming-in-the-city-with-runoff-from-a-street/comment-page-1/#comment-44 The Long Water Emergency? « The Tin Foil Hat Society Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:12:21 +0000 http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/?p=342#comment-44 [...] The first, sunken beds, is a fascinating idea. The use of berms and earthworks to channel water into the beds is such a simple yet brilliant idea I really don’t know why the pioneers to this area didn’t look at it more closely — other than the fact that they were convinced that the natives were ’savages’ who had to be civilized and saved, or exterminated in competition with the land. On the Tohono O’odham reservation south of Tucson there are many such farm beds nestled between hills that form small valleys within the larger ones. They are mostly fallow now, and many of the natives that still farm at all have taken to using Western methods using large petrochemical fertilizer inputs and heavy machinery, but the yields honestly aren’t any better than what their forefathers/mothers got using ancient technology. I can see a potential for going back to the old ways as food gets scarce and fuel gets expensive. Brad Lancaster, author and permaculture designer has a wonderful story including pictures of successful use of this very technology on his website Farming in the City with Runoff from a Street [...] [...] The first, sunken beds, is a fascinating idea. The use of berms and earthworks to channel water into the beds is such a simple yet brilliant idea I really don’t know why the pioneers to this area didn’t look at it more closely — other than the fact that they were convinced that the natives were ’savages’ who had to be civilized and saved, or exterminated in competition with the land. On the Tohono O’odham reservation south of Tucson there are many such farm beds nestled between hills that form small valleys within the larger ones. They are mostly fallow now, and many of the natives that still farm at all have taken to using Western methods using large petrochemical fertilizer inputs and heavy machinery, but the yields honestly aren’t any better than what their forefathers/mothers got using ancient technology. I can see a potential for going back to the old ways as food gets scarce and fuel gets expensive. Brad Lancaster, author and permaculture designer has a wonderful story including pictures of successful use of this very technology on his website Farming in the City with Runoff from a Street [...]

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