After a couple of bitterly cold weeks, we had glorious sun at the weekend, so it was great to get out in the garden to do some tidying and prepare a bed ready to plant some potatoes.
All thoughts of spring and rejuvenation were somewhat soured, however by the sound of herbicide sprayers in the neighbourhood. It seems that a bit of sunshine and the slightest hint of anything green is enough to persuade most contadini to get the toxic chemicals out and the sprayers in.
On Saturday morning Jeremy had a chat with a contadino in a bar, who was bemoaning the fact that his land is too wet to walk on and that more of his soil had washed away in recent rains. After explaining that this was because there was no vegetation to help hold the soil in place: coverage, which, incidentally protects the ground from getting wet and muddy, the contadino’s response was ‘but how do you collect your olives without using weed killer?’
Compare our green non-muddy land to next door’s quagmire
Keeping the ground clear under olive trees and eliminating a fire hazard during summer are the two top reasons given by contadini for continual herbicide abuse. See the greening of the grove to understand why contadini prefer bare soil under olive trees. I really think the big agrichemical companies did quite a number in Italy as these arguments are pervasive.
Land is tilled constantly and herbicide is used to prevent grass from taking hold, because the contadini firmly believe that this aerates the roots and encourages permeation of rainfall.
What it actually does is lead to soil erosion and desertification. Erosion reduces the soil’s productive capacity causing lower productivity, which in turn leads to greater use of fertilisers. While erosion is the result of a combination of many factors, such as: soil type, slope, rainfall patterns and inappropriate farming practices; the use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers causes impoverishment of soil, while over tilling compacts the soil, exposing it to the erosive effects of rainfall and reduces the soil’s organic content.
I mentioned in A windy start to the year that the worst damage to olive trees was on land with no grass growing owing to excessive herbicide use. I don’t think it’s coincidence that everyone I know who gardens organically suffered no damage in the recent storms.
The following two pictures were taken on a piece of land, which recently lost huge olive branches off six ancient olive trees. Not only was there damage to the trees, but you can see the damage done to the dry stone walls as water has gushed over them.
Water eroding soil
Taking the wall with it
Damage to the walls caused by soil erosion every time it rains leads to yet more reduction in the diversity and quantity of flora and fauna.
Walls help increase biodiversity
It’s not rocket science to realise that soil erosion can be limited by maintaining grass cover during key times of the year. I’ve mentioned before that we followed local wisdom for fear of starting wild fires and duly rotavated our land to ensure there was no kindling left during the harsh summer months.
Nowadays we just strim the grass before it becomes a fire hazard and despite the protestations of our neighbouring contadini, life is gradually returning to our land. The grass cuttings get absorbed by the soil, so that when the September rains come and the soil is bare, the mud isn’t as sticky as the dead clay that is the result of weed-killer use.
Even more encouraging is the fact that when it rains we no longer lose any soil. The water, which trickles down our driveway, is clear in colour and it’s not a torrent, unlike our neighbours who all see to have brown rivers rushing away. When we’ve saved up enough money, we intend to put a new underground water tank at the bottom of our driveway, so having clearer water is going to make the job of filtering that water much easier.
Maintaining the stonewalls and terraces will also help any landslips and eventually, when the mammoth task is completed, enable us to graze sheep under the trees, which offers the best of all worlds: No need to buy and apply toxic chemicals, the sheep disperse ‘fertiliser’ as they wander around, and the fire hazard is eliminated.
5 comments
Maggie Wallace says:
Feb 19, 2012
Your ideas sound wonderful, but it does sound as if you have an uphill struggle on your hands to persuade your neighbours. Wishing you good luck with that – we need all the growing area we can get on this planet, plus we don’t need to pollute the seas any more if at all possible! Best wishes from chilly Liverpool (am suffering today as put on my best shoes to celebrate Sunday and have freezing feet!
)
contadina says:
Feb 20, 2012
The only good thing is that there are increasing numbers of younger families moving to the countryside who favour a more organic lifestyle. Many of these families are putting up no insecticide signs, so I really hope the children of the older contadini take note when they take over management of their parent’s land. It’s a big ask as most of them work, so get in farm laborers who take the quicker, more poisonous route.
Now take off those sensible sunday shoes and put your wooly slippers back on
Mike says:
Feb 21, 2012
Sounds like you have and excellent system in place, hopefully as time goes on your neighbors will take notice of your succesful efforts and follow suite.
Heiko says:
Feb 25, 2012
The attitude of the farmers must be something more prevalent down south. Up here virtually everybody leaves a weed cover, making olive groves great hunting ground for wild food foragers like myself. Some areas up here, such as the Cinque Terre and the Val di Vara in fact actively ban the use of herbicides AND pesticides. Any products for these areas are defacto organic, even if they are usually not labeled as such.
contadina says:
Feb 25, 2012
I really hope so Mike.
We get quite a lot of foragers in our garden Heiko as we have more edible goodies growing than any of our neighbours. I had a chat with one neighbour last year who was bemoaning the fact that it was getting more difficult to find wild asparagus, and when I mentioned the endemic use of weedkiller, it’s not something he had ever considered before.