I vacationed with my wife until the middle of last week in Greece, on an island called Andros. Spent the time swimming, sunning, eating, and socializing. And of course, plotting and thinking about how to reverse the desertification of the island’s environment!

In this fantastic and detailed thread by people in California, and to my great excitement, some Greeks living in Greece, they discuss how to re-green hot dry climates. The main researcher, Konstantinos Karoubas, says that the first step is to plant drought-tolerant trees and over time the tree canopy will lower the ground temperature so that other species of edibles can survive.

To my joy, on the last day of my vacation, the gardener for my Greek family’s plot brought in some almond seeds. He wouldn’t bring them if they were bitter — so I planted six sweet almonds near the compost bin up a very dry, windy, sunny hill. I’m hoping the almond seeds will develop roots and naturally start taking nutrients out of the ground near the compost.

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