Losing Continents

Climate change scientists tell us what we may lose in the future. Already they reckon the ozone hole is as large as Antarctica.

I learned from my gardening teacher, Klaus Lautenberger, that we have lost soil the size of North America. We lose it through wind and rain. Remember the Grapes of Wrath? John Steinbeck’s classic told the economic and personal dislocation experienced by the climate catastrophe experienced in the American Midwest during the Great Depression of the early 1930s.

One of my fellow students exclaimed, “But then soil is more costly then oil!”

Yes, soil is precious. In Ireland we have lost a huge amount through lashing rain and bellowing wind. We use wind turbines to create renewable energy quite efficiently here in the Northwest. After a heavy rain the streams are brown with the soil that is getting washed away. Because Ireland is the most heavily deforested country in Europe we lose even more because we don’t have trees to help anchor the soil.

Whether it is the prairies or the wind-blasted Northwest of Ireland, what I keep coming round to are trees. We really need more trees. We can help deter soil erosion with them. We can carbon offset with them. They create beautiful green lungs to combat air pollution.

Growing our own vegetables is good in terms of reducing food miles and getting us to eat our five a day for health. The veggie scraps help create compost, which creates the organic matter we need to keep soil healthy and productive. But we need to also plan in trees into any planting scheme. Rowans and certain dessert apples or plums are quite happy in smaller gardens. Really small gardens can sport acers and dwarf Japanese weeping cherry trees.

If you really have no space at all try growing a lemon tree from a pip. You need to make a terrarium. Get a shallow wide-mouthed jar and put a few drainage pebbles at the bottom; fill it up with seed growing compost. Take a couple pips from an unwaxed, preferably organic lemon. Put them in the compost and then cover the top with some cling film. Or pop it into a sandwich bag. Put it on a sunny, south-facing window sill and wait. Be patient. Check for any signs of germination. Once the leaf has broken though the surface you can take off the cling film top. It will still need to stay dampish but don’t get too frisky with the watering. Once there is the ‘true’ leaf - two or three leaves formed - transfer it to a plant pot. With care and warm, keeping it out of cold drafts in winter, you will watch your lemon plant go from strength to strength. It will take a few years for it to flower and fruit but the leaves always have the most delicious clean, citrus scent.