I’m standing in front of my biggest success at Dustups, but it’s also my biggest failure.
While the young trees I’ve planted are surviving, they are far from the dense, vibrant "wall of plants" I see at Lightning Ridge in Australia...my gold standard for what’s possible in a desert environment.
The hard truth is that native tree seeds are too picky and way too expensive (sometimes $300 a pound!) to just throw in the ground and hope for the best. If I want to scale this project, I have to stop fighting the land and start partnering with "scaffolding" species.
I’m launching a new strategy: using cheap beans and cereal rye to grow my own biological shade and mulch. By trading water for biomass now, I’m creating a protected micro-environment so that when the summer heat hits, the expensive trees finally have the "nursery" conditions they need to thrive.
Inside this update we'll go through: - why I'm obsessing over Thiago Barbosa's work in Australia: https://www.syntropicsolutions.com/ - using boiling water and Johnson-Su compost to wake up "stubborn" desert seeds - how fava beans and cereal rye create a self-reinforcing system of moisture and shade. - and you'll see footage of the January 4th planting showing what’s already germinating in the winter sun.
