My Malabar Ditches

Tweet

In the late 1930’s American writer Louis Bromfield, a successful novelist and screenwriter, was living in France with his family. As the threat of war loomed over Europe, he decided to return to the states. He settled in Ohio, the land of his youth, and purchased a large tract of exhausted farmland. Bromfield named his estate Malabar Farm after the Malabar Coast of India where he had once lived and began restoring the land, putting into practice soil and water conservation techniques he had learned. He also began writing books about his experiences restoring and farming the land. He became very influential in this field. One of those books was called Malabar Farm. Before my retirement, I had a dream of moving to the country and having my own little plot of land. Through the years I acquired several books about sustainable living. For years I loved reading these books about country living while I was working in an office in the city. One of those books was Malabar Farm by Louis Bromfield. One of the practices Bromfield suggested was filling up ditches to prevent further erosion of soil. After I acquired my little plot of land (only 5 acres), I dutifully began filling up ditches. Bromfield, of course, suggested filling up ditches with equipment like tractors or graders. Since I did not have any of that type of equipment, I did all of mine by hand. Ever since I have lived here, almost twenty years now, I’ve been filling up ditches with emptied flowerpots, leaves, weeding debris, ashes from the fire pit, or any other type of decayable debris. It works. It does stop erosion on our hillsides. I call these my Malabar Ditches. My husband thinks I am a little kooky, but he usually just smiles at me—and occasionally pitches in.