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Summary
part 1 of a 2 part podcast.
Paul consults with John Tero about his property.
The property is about 1.8 acres, mostly south facing on a moderately slope. There's 40-50" of precipitation, not bad frost in winter. Summer can be dry but it's rare to have months with no rain. There are a lot of standing
trees, mostly conifers but some other nice things like mulberry John feels he will need to remove some of the conifers in due course in case they fall. He's looking for inspiration and also to get beyond the feeling that he might mess things up.
Paul asks how he feels about
chickens but John raises concern that sometimes he's away for a week or two, so
chickens might not be ideal.
John has some ideas to put in a kind of obstacle course. Paul mentions
Sepp Holzer's permaculture book where he advocates building multiple hügelkulturs which define a path around the property.
Paul also talks about a hierarchy of use for trees which you take out, so you get the best used from the
wood; for example, some can be sawn into lumber to create a deck. He also mentions the log picnic table that they built. And of course, wood can be used to make hügelkulturs. Paul describes his usual idea of digging between hügelkulturs so that they become effectively taller with less effort and suggests making them at least 9ft tall. John likes the idea that by creating a path defined by large hügelkulturs the property would seem larger when you walk around it.
Paul also suggests that renting a smallish excavator would make the work a lot easier, plus it's fun running the excavator. By using a smaller machine it would fit between the trees without cutting down too many trees.
to be continued in part 2
Relevant Threads
Hugelkultur forum
Thought Dump Re: Starting From "Zero" In Georgia - John's
thread
Southern USA regional forum
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This podcast was made possible thanks to:
Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Kyle Neath
Bill Crim
anonymous
Chris Sugg
Kerry JustTooLazy
Jocelyn Campbell
Bill Erickson
Sasquatch
G Cooper
Dominic Crolius
Penny McLoughlin
Mehron Kugler
Pasquale DeAngelis
havokeachday
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Greg Martin
Mark
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Dana Martin
Candace Dahlk
Keith Kuhnsman
Leanne
Eric Tolbert
Nick DePuy
Nathan Hale
Opalyn
Rose
Polly Jayne Smyth
Todd Gerardot
Katie Young
Ivar Vasara
Brent Lawson
Weston prestage
Candice Crawford
Chris Holtslag
Song Zheng
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