How do you keep soil healthy during a drought?
A grower from Cornwall says soil, density of crop, a good irrigation have protected him in drought.
How do you keep soil healthy during a drought?
Conor Kendrew said the density of the crop creates a canopy that stops the soil from evaporating water
It has been a summer marked by record-breaking temperatures, heatwaves, drought and hosepipe bans, and many farmers and growers have been left struggling.
But one grower near St Columb, Cornwall, who runs a small-scale market garden, said he has been relatively unaffected by the drought.
Conor Kendrew has installed an irrigation system that draws on a spring, a pond and any rainwater collected, and because the site is 0.5 acre (0.2 hectare), sprinklers can cover much of the crop.
Kendrew said: "We invested very very heavily from the outset on a very good irrigation system. We could probably push pressure that is about six times what people's houses are sitting at, which means we can make it rain."
Conor Kendrew operates a veg box scheme from his farm
Kendrew said preparing the ground for drought resilience was the single most important thing to do.
He said he used plenty of compost and carried out minimal cultivation, with the residual crop always mown and returned to the ground.
He said: "We are building soil organic matter and soil organic carbon all the time.
"The whole farm is powered by solar energy as well, so we've got the free water but we've also got the free energy. I'm not a grower who staring at a massively inflated electric or water bill each month.
"We've [also] set up an off-grid resilient system.
"We all kind of know climate change is coming.
I think, perhaps, I and my wife Rose have had a little bit more of an idea how real it is going to get quite quickly, so we've prepared for it.
"To say we're OK for water isn't to say everything has been a breeze.
"The heat itself stresses crops out tremendously, no matter how wet they are.
"Like everyone, I am shocked [at recent weather and heatwaves], but, like an engineer, you would sort of over design your system for this sort of thing."