as a thirteen year old in the early 1970's my grandmother gave me a book on the biodynamic method of french-intensive gardening. it was actually a sort of field guide.it definitely got me thinking about everything the gets put into the earth , and how it effects all aspects of our planet.
read many books over the years, and now finally many years later we have begun to create an area that started as steep , hard clay, that formally a small grove of dead an-oak trees. now four years later after cutting a few swales, filling with biomass from our property and then sheet-mulching with lots of organic compost;wnorthern california.currently we have a nice stand of corn, planted in the three sisters guild along with beans and squash, several fruit trees, greens area under shade-cloth,tomatoes , peppers, sweet, and hot;along with several varieties of tomato. all seeds and or starts came from local purveyors that are all non-gmo, heirloom varieties.
I know everyone here knows about these techniques and much more,but of course the point is that we have had very limited rainfall that has been coming in shorter bursts which runs off more quickly.and so of course trilling to store more in the ground where needed. working pretty well/ will expand the garden as the soil improves.I wish more mainstream media attention could be brought to bare on this.