#18 - Aug 2018 - Garden Stuff - © Sandy Lang - slang@xtra.co.nz
CLIMATE CHANGEAugust: The last month of winter - yeah…! Time to get on with the pruning. If you want a new tree/shrub, now’s the time to buy it. There’s no rush to plant it as it’ll not do much till the soil warms up. So why buy now?
Because you’ll find the range and quality of garden-centre trees/shrubs is best now. The range will lessen as spring stocks dwindle and the quality will lessen as early buyers choose the best plants - leaving you the residue and the weaklings. The early bird gets the (fattest) worm…
Now for those late-winter days when it’s wet and you can’t prune. Let’s ponder CO2, your garden and your grandchildren…
Climate change: The greatest threat to humankind is climate change. Arguably more dangerous than nuclear war. Climate change is mostly due to rising atmospheric CO2 and this to burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas). When I was born, atmospheric CO2 was 310 ppm (parts per million), today it’s 410 ppm and rising fast. It's atmospheric CO2 that's the main driver of global warming and climate change.
Not only do we urgently need to stop burning fossil fuels (coal, oil) but we also need to find ways to put the extra atmospheric carbon back underground where it belongs. All that’s proving difficult without collapsing the world economy…
Biochar: I bet you’ve never heard of biochar (see biochar Wikipedia). I’ve often banged on about adding tree chip to your sandy Eastbourne soil to increase its organic content and its biome, and so also its water- and nutrient-holding capacities. From 450 BC through 950 AD Amazonian farmers added biochar (charcoal) to their low-grade soils to create terra preta – a highly fertile ‘anthropogenic’ black soil. Terra preta is also found around ancient settlements in Africa and Asia (see terra preta Wikipedia).
Sequestration: Mixing biochar into the soil takes carbon out of the plant-atmosphere cycle and puts it back underground. Biochar is a form of carbon that’s resistant to oxidation so it stays where you put it - almost forever. Biochar works with organic carbon (tree chip) to enhance soil fertility, even further raising its water- and nutrient-holding capacities.
How to: Put tree chip in a biscuit tin (hole in lid so it doesn’t explode) and put it in a fire (1 hour?). ‘Cooking’ the tree chip without air pyrolyses it. What’s left is biochar - charcoal - more or less pure carbon. Break it up to a coarse powder and mix it with your garden soil. Nature will do the rest and hey presto terra preta…! Upscale: I'm not suggsting your tiny efforts at home will save the world but were we to deal with, say, the woody trash from our forestry industry in this way, we would create a soil additive that would improve our poorer agricultural soils AND sequester carbon for eternity. Recall, most of our cities are built on prime horticultural land so our farmers are required to produce increasing amounts of food (for a rising world population) from land of decreasing fertility. ___________________________________
CLIMATE CHANGEAugust: The last month of winter - yeah…! Time to get on with the pruning. If you want a new tree/shrub, now’s the time to buy it. There’s no rush to plant it as it’ll not do much till the soil warms up. So why buy now?
Because you’ll find the range and quality of garden-centre trees/shrubs is best now. The range will lessen as spring stocks dwindle and the quality will lessen as early buyers choose the best plants - leaving you the residue and the weaklings. The early bird gets the (fattest) worm…
Now for those late-winter days when it’s wet and you can’t prune. Let’s ponder CO2, your garden and your grandchildren…
Climate change: The greatest threat to humankind is climate change. Arguably more dangerous than nuclear war. Climate change is mostly due to rising atmospheric CO2 and this to burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas). When I was born, atmospheric CO2 was 310 ppm (parts per million), today it’s 410 ppm and rising fast. It's atmospheric CO2 that's the main driver of global warming and climate change.
Not only do we urgently need to stop burning fossil fuels (coal, oil) but we also need to find ways to put the extra atmospheric carbon back underground where it belongs. All that’s proving difficult without collapsing the world economy…
Biochar: I bet you’ve never heard of biochar (see biochar Wikipedia). I’ve often banged on about adding tree chip to your sandy Eastbourne soil to increase its organic content and its biome, and so also its water- and nutrient-holding capacities. From 450 BC through 950 AD Amazonian farmers added biochar (charcoal) to their low-grade soils to create terra preta – a highly fertile ‘anthropogenic’ black soil. Terra preta is also found around ancient settlements in Africa and Asia (see terra preta Wikipedia).
Sequestration: Mixing biochar into the soil takes carbon out of the plant-atmosphere cycle and puts it back underground. Biochar is a form of carbon that’s resistant to oxidation so it stays where you put it - almost forever. Biochar works with organic carbon (tree chip) to enhance soil fertility, even further raising its water- and nutrient-holding capacities.
How to: Put tree chip in a biscuit tin (hole in lid so it doesn’t explode) and put it in a fire (1 hour?). ‘Cooking’ the tree chip without air pyrolyses it. What’s left is biochar - charcoal - more or less pure carbon. Break it up to a coarse powder and mix it with your garden soil. Nature will do the rest and hey presto terra preta…! Upscale: I'm not suggsting your tiny efforts at home will save the world but were we to deal with, say, the woody trash from our forestry industry in this way, we would create a soil additive that would improve our poorer agricultural soils AND sequester carbon for eternity. Recall, most of our cities are built on prime horticultural land so our farmers are required to produce increasing amounts of food (for a rising world population) from land of decreasing fertility. ___________________________________