21 AUGUST 2023 AUGUST

It is easy to lull oneself into believing that the warm sultry days of August will never end. Many people begin to complain about the relentless heat, which I do not understand; because most of them have air conditioning. Some people; however, seem to thrive on looking for things to complain about. If they cannot complain about the weather, they complain about their physical or emotional distress, whether real or imaginary, or about some person who has wronged them.

While these days hover around 90 to 100 degrees fahrenheit, it can be a bit uncomfortable at times; but I relish every one of them. I know that soon enough I will have to begin piling on layers of clothing in order to stay warm. Where I live, desertification of the land around me has resulted in weather extremes. The nighttime temperatures drop drastically and daytime temperatures soar, with little vegetation to absorb the heat and moisture, or to create enough humidity and clouds to give us rain. There is nothing to slow the speed and ferocity with which the wind slams into existing structures. Creating windbreaks, by planting strong evergreens close together, is the only means by which we can protect our homes and our gardens from wind damage. The problem is that it takes a few years for the trees to grow large enough to do any good.

Much of the desertification, which is land that is literally turning into desert, has been created by modern agriculture. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s came as a result of successive planting of monocultures and leaving soil bare and exposed to the elements. Fortunately, more farmers are turning to regenerative agriculture, planting cover crops, switching to polycultures, and eliminating the use of herbicides and pesticides.

I have worked for the past two and a half months to restore the depleted soil here. It has been challenging. The soil was dead and insects nearly non-existent. Little by little, I am re-establishing biodiversity within this tiny piece of land. Slowly, much more slowly than I would like, I see Nature returning and I feel immense gratitude for the small changes that I have been able to implement. I am reluctant to see August slipping away, knowing that the first fall frost is lurking just around the corner. I will continue to do all that I can, for as long as I can. While most are already looking ahead to autumn and the ghoulish celebration of Halloween, I am already anticipating next spring’s garden.