The buildings have been specially designed to bank the cool. ![]() And, we’ve set up renewable energy systems–solar electricity and solar hot water-to take advantage of the abundant sun. We are demonstrating wicking beds from recycled materials, crop systems in the shade instead of polytunnels, sunken vegetable beds to help with water, and small animals for manure. The men’s and women’s shower blocks feed greywater into a biological cleaning system via reed beds and gravity-fed irrigation to trees. Waterless compost toilets conserve water and provide fertility. There is a house with a kitchen because there was a need for a large kitchen for students and staff. With these strategies, we’ve established a desert forest garden that has moved into crops, herbs, and small animal husbandry, which also provides site-sourced, natural fertilizer. It was so crucial to capture all the water available and sink it into the landscape, so we developed strategies of water conservation using shade, wind buffering, and production of nitrogen-rich mulch. The challenges included having very little soil, dealing with an overabundance of rock, and metering out only 150-200 mm of rain a year. It was not the ideal place to settle, but it was an accurate example of what many people have to live with. The site is 3,000 square meters that came as a hard, harsh landscape. In other words, the Greening the Desert site has been seriously tested, but it’s providing incredible results. ![]() In the past year, there has been the coldest winter on record as well as the hottest summer. The soil and water are the saltiest I’ve ever worked with. The Dead Sea Valley, at 400 meters below sea level, is also the lowest place on earth, so the climate has Mediterranean weather with subtropical heat. I’ve been working in Jordan since 1999, and it is one of the most water-scarce countries on earth. To learn more about Geoff Lawton and the Permaculture Masterclass series!
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