William Bronson

Connie Graham wrote:A follow-up question for those who have used rebar instead of stakes as discussed further up this post... Like I said I used 10 mm wide bar already in a spot where it's just doing minimal support and it was fine for that but hammering it in I could tell it as going to bend if there was too much resistance (stone in the ground) or if a lot of weight was pushing up against it. In your experience, what thickness of rebar offers the right amount of rigidity for building terraces? I don't want to overdo the thickness because of cost (materials as soooo expensive these days) and also all the saw blades I'll get through cutting it up into short lengths. Thanks for sharing any experiences you've had!

Your 10mm is the equivalent to our 3/8", and yes , it is  fairly bendable.

I think the 1/2" or 13 mm( ?) rebar would suffice against the forces you will be dealing with.
You might already know this but you might be able to save your sawblades by cutting 1/3rd or half way through, then breaking that section off by bending it back and forth.
Whatever you do, please cover the upward pointy bits in someway to prevent accidental impalement.

I won't be planting it , but I will probably try bagging the heads on mature specimensinstead of chopping them down.

I hear you, daikon is great, but burdock grows where they can't.
I often find my daikons growing mostly on the surface , with only a short root

I think we may be talking about two different plants.
The wild burdock I'm familiar with has rather large roots, at least by the time it sets seed.

There are burdock plants in the paths at our community garden.

The roots go so deep that digging them out of paths is a fools errand.
But I don't want them dropping seed in the beds,so I chop them at soil level and use the leaves as compost or mulch.
They seem to return very reliably.

Lately I've wondered, will these plants persist indefinitely untill they are able to set seed?
If so this could allow them to be used as a biomass generator, kinda like comfrey, as long as we don't let them set seed.

Stumbling across this thread again, I have another question.
Should we allow them to set seed (sequestering the seed with a bag or foil) so they will naturally die and rot, leaving deep holes filled with organic matter?
They do die after setting seeds, right?
Otherwise they would be a perennial,not a biannual, I think.

Still it would be nice to get berrys that have the potential to get that big!
So far I have only managed to to get fruit from one plant in this family, the jostaberry, and it was very good eating.
I think I have both a gooseberry and a currant or two,somewhere around, but I'm not 100% beyond the jostaberry.

The Jostaberries propagate very easily, a quality which I absolutely love.
I'm told this is true of the whole family, and I intend to find out, once I locate and identify the other plants!

I am a little concerned about thorns, but if they are really bad, I'll just donate my starts to someone who will love them, thorns and all .

Concerning your grey water, I believe you can store it just fine, as long as you aerate it continuously.
The third video I posted shares a way to do that with a solar powered water pump, but you could also use an aquarium aerator.

Bulkhead fittings can be expensive and hard to install.
Uniseals are a product that is commonly used in aquaponics.
They are cheaper and easier to install.

So there is a nursery that contains and spreads all of its irrigation water in a way similar to what you describe.
Edible Acres has many videos on this, here are a few qued up to points that I think will address your inquiry:

Hey, I just came across this, thought it might help:

Heres some details on the newer retaining "walls" .
They are so short, it's hard to credit them with being walls, but that short height also helps keeps things stable.

I have used small diameter logs instead of dimensional lumber, and they work well, and last a long but they don't look as nice.
I know it doesn't look like it but as I get older I am  trying to make things look nicer.
For stakes, I cannot recommend wood,treated or not.
Even cedar fails too soon for my liking.
I've turned to PVC for my stakes, which has its own problems, obviously, but it takes a screw and it's strong.

Ideally, I would have trees as the stakes, though I m not sure how that would affect the tree in question.
A mulberry, for example would be fine with logs and dirt piled against the trunk.
If you have access to trees that will grow from stakes, you can build your retaining walls from them.
I have elderberry, but it's not strong enough for stakes, but I have soaked a 5' elderberry cuttings in a pond , horizontally, and it sprouted roots all along the length.
I used that one elsewhere, but I hope to add elderberry stakes to some of these terraces,, but I won't count on them for strength.