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Summary
Paul consults with Molly Mac about her property
It's about 1½ acres located on a peninsula in Massachusetts. There's about 43" of annual precip and it gets quite cold in winter, this year down to 15°F but last year it got down to 4°. It tends to be windy but there are a lot of
trees around so that gives some
shelter. It tends to be warmer in fall and colder in spring.
There are a lot of trees, mainly oak, some beech and conifer. Paul disapproves of the conifers and suggests removing them all.
Although Molly rents the property it's a long term rental and the owners are OK with the idea of hügelkulturs.
The shape of the property doesn't lend itself to making
berms, so Paul focuses on hügelkulturs, nicely wavy ones to mitigate the effect of the wind. He thinks they
should be built about 10ft tall.
There's a former garden area where the previous occupiers grew vegetables. Paul sees this as a good source of organic matter for the hügelkulturs but later also suggests that it could be used to grow stuff to make organic fertilizer.
Water is from the
city which isn't great but Paul says if it's left to stand for a day or more, chlorine will off-gas from it. It's still better than saving roof water, due to the type of roof on the house, and anyway once the hügelkulturs are established they won't need much water.
The trees provide a lot of leaves which make good mulch, and by mixing in some sticks you can avoid them making an impenetrable mat.
They consider
chickens, which would require coyote-proof fences, but the property could easily have 4 paddocks to rotate the
chickens around.
Molly has also been wondering about heating: There's a place in the house where a
wood cookstove has been removed. Paul thinks about this and declares that a pebble-style
RMH could go there provided the mass was tall rather than wide. Pebble style is good for rented property as it can readily be moved later.
Relevant Threads
New England regional forum
Hugelkultur forum
Rocket Mass Heater forum
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This podcast was made possible thanks to:
Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Kyle Neath
Bill Crim
anonymous
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Kerry JustTooLazy
Jocelyn Campbell
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Leanne
Eric Tolbert
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Opalyn
Rose
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Ivar Vasara
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Weston prestage
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Song Zheng
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