If ever there was a powerhouse of an environmental kickstarter, it’s Kate Tirion. With her husband and partner, Richard Connolly, and thousands of volunteers, she has been painstakingly developing a 34-acre sustainable permaculture farm in the steeply rolling Sonoran Desert landscape of Stevens Canyon in Patagonia. Her goal is to establish a working educational model of what we can do individually, communally and globally to live in concert with Earth and each other. She hopes to inspire and educate for social change so people are able to develop the skills to do these things themselves. That means learning, hands-on, how to create a resilient and regenerative world.
Much has been accomplished at Deep Dirt Farm with recycled and donated materials, coupled with innovation and perspiration. But implementing additional infrastructure and educational workshop and outreach programs needed a financial kickstart, which took the form of internet crowd funding. Deep Dirt Farm Institute launched its first Kickstarter campaign on January 22 and by January 30 had achieved and exceeded its initial goal of $2,500 to fund the seed storage roof extension. Additional campaigns will raise funds for additional projects.
Deep Dirt’s underground seed storage unit (an old shipping container) stores many native pollinator plant seeds as well as heirloom vegetable seeds grown at the farm. The extended roof structure will shade the exposed end of the container to maintain the best temperature range for long-term seed storage. This is just one of many of Deep Dirt’s eco-innovations that can be replicated around the world.
A tour of Deep Dirt Farm today reveals works of invention and resource conservation. As Tirion says, this took “many hands and few dollars.” It is a community undertaking that includes people from all over the world. The tiny Mulberry House at the top of a draw, for instance, was completed a year ago. A workshop group led by local artisan, Erasmo Lagunas, built it with adobe mud brick and repurposed waste.
Knowing the lay of the land is essential to managing water retention, infiltration, and flow in a dry, folded landscape subject to an annual three-month monsoon season. Tirion spent the first seven months developing a relationship with the site, learning how it came to be as it is, and determining how to put in a multifunction road that didn’t require constant maintenance. Aerial photos were key to understanding how to work with the terrain.
One of the best ways to retain and direct water flow is to build wire baskets known as gabions. Over time, groups of young people have built these heavy wire structures using rocks and urbanite as fill. The urbanite was once cracked pavement at the high school. In a major recycling effort, DM Engineering & Excavating transported the urbanite, saving the school a few thousand dollars in landfill and transport fees.
It’s not surprising that Deep Dirt’s water management methods and innovative erosion systems have caught the attention of the Town of Patagonia, itself situated at the bottom of the watershed. Tirion now serves on the town’s Flood and Flow Committee. She emphasizes that flood mitigation starts up at the 247 square mile watershed level, not the town. Structures need to be built upstream to reduce flooding downstream. By slowing surface flows, more water hydrates the soil, supporting groundwater storage throughout the watershed, rather than sweeping it through town. This also improves vegetation, including grasses that support ranching and wildlife, and makes the landscape better able to withstand fire.
Partnering with Borderlands Restoration, Wildlife Corridors and other supportive organizations as well as university departments and government agencies, Deep Dirt Farm Institute is on the leading edge of helping to create a global partnership with the planet that sustains us, but is now in a state of biological distress. The farm was recently awarded a $25,000 Fish & Wildlife grant to focus on increasing wildlife habitat, erosion control and water retention structures.
To arrange a tour, get involved as a volunteer, or to be a part of the Women Grow Food Group, contact Kate Tirion at ddfillc@gmail.com or call at 520-604-7654. To learn more about Deep Dirt Farm Institute, visit facebook.com/DeepDirtFarm Institute