Tyler Woodson

Roberto pokachinni wrote:Depending on your tree's water needs, either plant it in a (circular) hole above the ditch or below it.  Depending on how dry the slope becomes, you can tie the hole to the ditch with a small connector channel to feed the hole water.  

Ah I see now, thank you for clarifying!

Roberto pokachinni wrote:Hi Tyler...

Thank you SO much for this detailed response!  I have read through it a few times and love this plan.  Can you elaborate more on the circular holes you reference?  That's not something I'm familiar with.

Judielaine Bush wrote:I'm on the north slope of clay hill, too. Our house caught sheets of run off during heavy rain events. We cleared the overgrowth behind our house and did have the opportunity for some heavier equipment, so we put in swale/hugels:  the largest trunks of some of big sweetgums were laid out almost on contour (but with a clear drainage to away from the house) and dirt from the uphill side was scooped and dumped on the logs. We had many many logs and no need to burn them. Using the logs as sponges and the swales to redirect has made a huge difference, especially during some historically wet seasons. Getting something to check and redirect runoff might help you.

Hmm I have some pine trees upslope of this area that I was contemplating clearing out to let more winter light through to our solar panels, but I didn't know what I'd do with them once they were felled, this might be perfect for those.

Eric Hanson wrote:Tyler,

I was actually thinking about some type of swale, even if just a short one.

Eric

This makes sense. I had kind of ruled out swales because of the steepness, but I think one right at the bottom before the foot traffic area may help.

Thanks!

Sebastian Köln wrote:Alder could work. It grows fast and loves water and clay.
We have an alder forest here on varying slopes from 0 to 100%. The forest floor is generally good to walk on unless it is a very steep slope or animals or humans have exposed the clay below it…

Thank you, I'll look into this!

Eric Hanson wrote:Tyler,

Welcome to Permies!

Tough challenges!  I can think of two things that you could possibly do to help.  The first, as already mentioned, is to get some good, deep rooting cover crops growing.  This will help to improve/build soil and will help with the mud.

Secondly, is it possible that you could divert some of the water that flows across the land?  Even if you could adjust drainage a little bit, you might be able to save yourself some goopy, sloppy conditions.

Eric

Thanks Eric!  I have some winter rye cover crop on it now, think I'll start resrearching what to follow that up with.  Its also a challenge because the wetest spot is a natural walkway (flat spot at the bottom of the slope).  I think maybe water diversion just before that might make sense.  Would a swale off contour be a good fit there?  Or do you think something more traditional like a french drain since it runs right behind (and uphill) relative to the house.

Hi Everyone, long time lurker, first time poster.  I have done a lot of reading trying to figure out the best solution and feel like I'm spinning in circles at this point, so I'm looking for some expertise from this awesome community!

I lived on the north face of a mountain in the southeast US, zone 6.  There is a space behind our house that is fairly seep 20-30% slope, soil is pretty heavy clay and it stays wet and mucky for most of the year, and I am looking for ways to imrpove it for both growing/and the ability to walk on it.  Long term I would like this to be an Orchard/food forest area.

We get pretty consistent rain throughout the year (2-5" a month), and the slope stays consistently wet and mucky for most of the year, except for in the heat of summer.  

What would you do with this to build soil/and help it stay more dry?  I have let it go to prairie for the last 2 years (previous owners kept it tightly mowed), that has helped a bit, but I'm looking to accelerate the process.  The area is fairly big (75 yards by 20 yards) and I don't have access to big equipment due to driveway difficulties and retaining walls I can't get anything sizeable there to do large scale earth moving, so solution that require earth moving will have to be done with a shovel.

Picture attached for some perspective on the space.