Logo primary
Logo secondary
Greening the Desert Project
Greening the Desert Project
Details
Commenced:
01/02/2008
Submitted:
27/03/2013
Last updated:
23/02/2018
Location:
Al Jawfa, South Shuna, JO
Phone:
+962 795344376
Website:
http://www.permaculturearabia.org/
Climate zone:
Arid





My Projects

(projects i'm involved in)


Followers
Ahmad Al Shoura Ahmed Alqahtani Ahmed Buasallay Alex Clifton Alexander Axelsson Ali Amirkhani Alice Gray Alper Can Kılıç Alysa Gallant Amanda Macon Ana Rita Simões Andrew Carter Arman Milanian Ceren Özcan Tatar Charl Crous Charlotte Freund Chiel van der Voort Christine Bauer Crystal Rickerd Danes Dana Crawford Daniel Varadi Del Benson Dustin wallerwork@gmail.com Duygu Baslican Elena Garnier Emily Stokes eric seider Fabian  Torres Gail Calloway Gayle Ashburn George Bronos Grant Van der Merwe HADI NASSAR Holly Frantz Ian Trew Iraz Candas Jackie Lehn James Reid Jana  Hammonds-Jennings Janice Little Jason Vlasak Jen Shrock Jennie Vick Jennifer Wadsworth Joana Karla da Rosa João Gonçalves Jordan Pendley jose monguilner Jovana Djuric Justin Bramhall katarina kostic Katherine Rogers Kathryn Weber Khadija Kandil Liam Dolan Line Marie Elkjær Johansen Lisa Holland Lori Morris Lorraine Ciarallo Maksud Rakhmatullaev Mark Brown Maryam Zaky Maurício Möller deOliveira Miguel Carrera Mustafa Fatih Bakir N. Nihan Parlak Natalia Frazier aguilar Nick Sikorski Oksana Ginzburg Paul Ciaramitaro Paula Miller Rachel Long Richard J. Brissette Rosie Harding roy ramey Şafak NART Samy Ghannouchi Silvia Floresta Sofie Bach Hansen Soterios Hatzikirou Souheil Guermani Starr Brainard Timothy McKenzie Tristan Davis Troy Groves Vasco Neves Vasiliy Kiryanov Verity Bachmann Véronique Pellé Wael Mroue

Back to Greening the Desert Project

My Visit to the Greening the Desert Sequel Site, November 2013

Project: Greening the Desert Project

Posted by Nadia Lawton about 10 years ago

Posted November 30, 2013 by Miles Durand & filed under Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Plant Systems, Soil Rehabilitation, Trees, Urban Projects.

I experienced a very diverse range of activities during my two weeks in Jordan, teaching a tree care course and helping in the farm activities, at the PRI Jordan Valley Permaculture Project (aka ‘Greening the Desert – the Sequel’ site) at 400 metres below sea level in the Dead Sea Valley. I also took side trips to a wadi on the edge of the Dead Sea, and an organic farm at Wadi Rum, in the far south of Jordan. It was an emotional high to be back in Jordan with Geoff and Nadia’s family. My first visit to the farm was in 2011 as part of my participation in the 2011 International Permaculture Conference (IPC). (Browse IPC presentations here.)

The building programme continues with the construction of a new kitchen and a chicken run compost system under the Prosopis spp. overstory. The support trees and overstory plants, including Casuarina spp.Albizia spp. and Leucaena spp. have grown considerably since my previous visit. The olive trees and date palms are doing very well. The South African pigface (Carpobrotus spp.), a succulent with an edible fruit, was planted as a ground cover, and in the future the Australian pigface will be planted.

Future additions for support and food trees could include Pines spp. for their edible seed, mushrooms and their associated fungus spp. to break down the pine needles and increase soil organic matter content, and Casuarina equestifolia, which tolerates harsh coastal conditions including high calcium content.

The fly population in the Dead Sea valley is huge and can be a health risk. The design and construction of a fly room could turn this fly challenge into a resource — fly larvae maggots would become chicken and fish food. 15kg of fly larvae and maggots from food waste equates to 50 kilograms of fish and chicken feed. The high temperatures in the Dead Sea valley make it ideal for fish under cover — i.e. greenhouse tilapia farming. The South African Dicla Eco Tilapia system, producing 4 tons every three weeks from a 50m polytunnel house could be ideal for this location. Better still an aquaponic system producing both fish and vegetables. The production of algae for different uses is another possible product for the Dead Sea valley.

The 3-day theory and practical tree care course was well attended by the students. And the value level of trees to a permanent agricultural system was raised. Some of the fruit trees are showing the effects of nutrient deficiencies caused by the high pH levels in the soil. This is despite the inclusion of large quantities of organic matter into the farm. This to be expected as desert soils can have very high calcium levels. Trace elements, humic acid and sulphur were added to the compost. The compost was then spread around the drip line of the fruit trees. We expect to see a significant improvement in tree health within three to six months. The garden tools part of the course left the tools clean, sharp and coated in rust preventative oil.

The walk up a wadi that empties into the Dead Sea was journey through time. The rock formations of the wadi walls and floor, created by a combination of wind, sand and water are truly an amazing eye-catching delight. This most extraordinary wadi has a permanent stream of running water containing a high nutriment flow. A forest in waiting of tamarisk was growing alongside the stream. The grazing of livestock has kept the tamarisk at below sheep level. The removal of grazing animals could, in a very short time, enable a tamarisk forest to spring forth, and the creation of terraces filled with soil planted for food production is another obvious step.

Date palms, it has been said, need to have their roots in the water and their heads in the fire. The organic farm at Wadi Rum is located across from the convergence site of the 2011 IPC. This very diverse and productive organic farm was designed by Geoff Lawton. One of Geoff’s students is the farm’s current manager and he is very pleased with his first organic bananas. A feature of the organic farm is the inclusion of nitrogen fixing plants, a snap and drop for the grape vines. The sight of a farm worker snapping and dropping on to the vines tells a story of healthy soil, plants and people. What a contrast to the nearby farm using soil-, plant- and people-destroying expensive and dangerous agricultural chemicals.

On the edge of the fields we found a number of wild food plants, including black night shade, Amaranths and Milk thistle. The farm workers were impressed with our wild food plant discoveries and will include these wild food plants in their daily food consumption.

I have a deep respect and great admiration for the people of the Dead Sea valley. The Dead Sea valley is a very harsh place to live, yet it produces remarkable people of great resilience and strength of character. I will return to Jordan see another chapter in this most remarkable story.

Greening the desert — is it possible? Are trees green?

P.S. Why not take the English-Arabic Bilingual PDC at the Greening the Desert Sequel Site, Jordan, with Alex McCausland and Salah Hammad – Begins April 19, 2014.

 

Img 3302 Img 3457 Gtdii 2013 img 1157

Comments (0)

You must be logged in to comment.

Courses Taught Here!
Project Badges
Urban Demonstration Educational Master plan
Administrators
Nadia  Lawton - Admin Salah Hammad - Admin Yaman Amr - admin
Team Members

Report Greening the Desert Project

Reason:

or cancel

Hide Greening the Desert Project

Reason:

or cancel

Hide My Visit to the Greening the Desert Sequel Site, November 2013

Reason:

or cancel

Legend of Badges

Note: The various badges displayed in people profiles are largely honesty-based self-proclamations by the individuals themselves. There are reporting functions users can use if they know of blatant misrepresentation (for both people and projects). Legitimacy, competency and reputation for all people and projects can be evidenced and/or developed through their providing regular updates on permaculture work they’re involved in, before/after photographs, etc. A spirit of objective nurturing of both people and projects through knowledge/encouragement/inspiration/resource sharing is the aim of the Worldwide Permaculture Network.

Member

Member

A member is a permaculturist who has never taken a PDC course. These cannot become PDC teachers. Members may be novice or highly experienced permaculturists or anywhere in between. Watch their updates for evaluation.

Male memberFemale member

Permaculture Matchmaker

One of these badges will show if you select your gender and the "I'm single, looking for a permaculture partner" option in your profile.

unverified

PDC

People who claim to have taken a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course somewhere in the world.

verified

PDC Verified

People who have entered an email address for the teacher of their PDC course, and have had their PDC status verified by that teacher. Watch their updates for evaluation.

pri_verified

PRI PDC

People who’ve taken a Permaculture Research Institute PDC somewhere in the world.

pdc_teacher

PDC Teacher

People who claim to teach some version of PDC somewhere in the world.

pri_teacher

PRI Teacher

With the exception of the ‘Member’ who has never taken a PDC, all of the above can apply to become a PRI PDC Teacher. PRI PDC Teachers are those who the PRI recognise, through a vetting board, as determined and competent to teach the full 72-hour course as developed by Permaculture founder Bill Mollison – covering all the topics of The Designers’ Manual as well as possible (i.e. not cherry picking only aspects the teacher feels most interested or competent in). Such teachers also commit to focussing on the design science, and not including subjective spiritual/metaphysical elements. The reason these items are not included in the PDC curriculum is because they are “belief” based. Permaculture Design education concerns itself with teaching good design based on strategies and techniques which are scientifically provable.

PRI PDC Teachers may be given teaching and/or consultancy offerings as they become available as the network grows.

pri_teacher

Aid Worker

The individual with this badge is indicating they are, have, or would like to be involved in permaculture aid work. As such, the individual may or may not have permaculture aid worker experience. Watch their updates for evaluation.

pri_teacher

Consultant

The individual with this badge is indicating they are, have, or would like to do paid permaculture design consultancy work. As such, the individual may or may not have permaculture consultancy experience. Watch their updates for evaluation.

community

Community Project

Community projects are projects that help develop sustainable community interaction and increase localised resiliency.

Report My Visit to the Greening the Desert Sequel Site, November 2013

Reason:

or cancel