Louis Romain

Hi guys

in one of my client's property, there is a hole in a swale, emptying a large proportion of the water that the swale holds. It is a deep hole, and looks like a collapsing or like it has been dug by an animal.
The hole is at least 1 meter (3 feet) deep and 60 cm (2 feet) wide.

I am about to fill it with clay, compact it, and plant it with trees. But I am curious what strategy you would adopt?

Thanks

Hi, great project ! I am wondering : why calories and not "nutrition" ?
Nutrition is what makes us thrive.
Nutrition is measurable using brix tests or other tools that measure the nutritional density of products.

Hi Peter, thanks for your message. I'll PM you.

Thank for your answer. I work in the whole country, so diverse climates. My own climate is oceanic mild temperate Cfb.

I don't speak spanish that much, but I can try cataluña.

Most of my client will want a RMH that is "good" and clean looking, probably with a white bench, and that can look good in a living room house. So probably no barrel.
I trust Paul and his enthusiasm for classic J-tubes : so I'd J-tube with a masonry bell.

Do you Erica Wisner would be willing to take my call and help me on this ?

Thanks a lot for your precious help

Thanks I'll try and call him.

I am looking for someone not necessarily based in Europe, someone I can send the specs to, and they will send back the design blueprint. I am editing the first post.

Hi everyone

I am a permaculture designer in Europe, and I am still looking for a clear and efficient adviser on rocket mass heaters installs at my clients. I often include Rocket mass heaters to my designs and push my clients to use this solution for their home as I am really convinced by Paul Wheaton research on this, as he has been pushing these for years. It is about saving the world after all  https://permies.com/t/269585/Poor-man-poll-alternate-RMH#2829801. I'm moving house myself, and I need help dimensioning the thing and I don't know how to get "experienced" help because it's not as developed in France, lots of people are experimenting but no one has a global experience to be able to advise on adapting RMH to different setups and contexts (home volume, climate, sun exposure, wall material, floor type, etc).

So if I need someone, a real human not only pdfs and videos, not necessarily based in Europe to help me and my clients with the designing/dimensioning/installation of rocket mass heaters, who would you recommend I could call/visio, brief him/her on the context and he/she sends me the design blueprint for the particular client case ?

I have someone here to build the design with me then.

@paulwheaton can you give me a pointer to help support the RMH cause in France ?

Thank you

Hi permies,

can you help me figure out the power I could get from this river to the house ?
I would like to use the power in this stream to make electricity for the house.
There is no head pressure, so I am thinking this type of system https://waterotor.com/.
I read tha DC electricity is easier to store but I need advices on this too.

The flow rate is 3.81 m3/s (60389 USgal/min).
The flow velocity is  0.42 m/s
The width is 10 m (33 feet).
The depth is around 90 cm.

Here are images of the river :

Thanks for your help

Hi everyone,

does someone have Sphagneticola trilobata seeds and would be willing to send to me in France ?
This plant is called singapore daisy, (synonym Wedelia trilabata) and is considered invasive.
I would like to try it in France as a ground cover.

Thanks for your help

Hi,

thanks a lot for your responses.
Indeed, I am planting a food forest and an orchad, but there will be open areas where I need to controle the ground cover. So there are two types of areas :
- the area around the newly planted trees, or maybe around the mulching and carboarding immediately place around the tree,
- and on the other side, there are the open areas.

So in the forested/orchad areas, I am planting trees first for sure, but I still need a bit of control on the ground cover during the time the trees grow.
And in the open areas, I need to find something useful (maybe nitrogen fixer or edible) that can replace the Poaceae. Ideally, an annual that grows fast and dominates the Poaceae, and then a perenial that stays in place for years.

I read the other thread you suggested, here are the ideas I've collected for now:

Annual:
- winter rye (Secale cereale)
- winter vetch (Vicia villosa)
- Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus)

Perenial:
- Sweet potatoes (Ipomea batatas)
- Viola sororia
- comfrey
- Thymus serpyllum et thymus praecox
- strawberry or wild strawberry
- white clover (Trifolium repens)

Hello Permies,

I would like to find a short-sized cover crop that would overcome Poaceae (grasses) on fields in a temperate climate (Cfb close to the west coast, south of France).
The grass fields are typically mowed or reaped around here, and when I get on this type of field and am asked to install a system (a food forest for example) I need to take control over the grasses.
I am thinking first a winter annual plant, that grows faster than the grasses, and then the perenial cover crop.
I need the final cover crop to be short sized so that I can plant productive plants (lower layers in a forest or orchad) and avoid competition.

Can you advise me on what plants would work?

In particular, I am working now on site where the soil is mostly sand.  But I could be also clay-loam soils.