Devon Olsen wrote:ok so when i saw these, i was a little surprised, i expected the snow to act differently and drift on the opposite side of the bed, and perhaps it did a bit but melted already, anyway this is a drift on the north side of the bed, meaning its protected from the low-lying winter sun and perhaps it will stay there all winter but i suspect it will simply slow the melting (which of course is a huge improvement and really good, ill have to design some more basins in this area to take advantage of this i think:))
im going to comment on the observations i have made from these pictures via my computer and encourage any other observations or discussion of these pictures
in the picture titled: "snow_drift_hugelkultur1_top"
i seem to notice some slight curvature in the top right of the drift and it seems the snow is moving from the north running south to the west running eastward down the hill -everyone else seeing the same thing in the snow?
now just below where you see the snow collecting in the pond site in that picture is where i plan to have the end of an "A" shaped hugelbed, without the third line joing the other parts, this is to be there to create a bit of a heat trap and im assuming that by placing this here, it will further channel the wind and cause it to change direction when near the ground, and it may also build this drift up more, or eliminate a section of it as the wind MAY be too harsh there (of course there is always plants that can help to buffer that)
further down the hill, just to the right of the bare log in the bottom right of "snow_first_view" is the location of our fire pit for family eating and gathering (you can see the ring where the rocks melted the snow), this design may greatly increase moisture there at the bottom (damn near anyway) of the hill as it is and reduce fire danger from having fires, but it may also create quite the windy situation for the plot
so thinking of some solutions to this problem i may be creating, or rather one of the cons of the design, i am thinking of planting some tall, sturdy standing plants, such as perhaps some tall sunchokes bragging 15ft growing height, or some tall heirloom wheat boasting 8ft high and more tiller focused growth(a clump rather than a single stalk or two) and of course, more likely even, possibly a combination of the two and maybe more, the challenge will be to divert or slow the wind to a more pleasureable speed down there without outgrowing the many pathways that intersect the area which is why a million plants that are large will not work and ill be limited in the size of polyculture, perhaps even down to one plant that is walked around continously... anyone know of a good, wind hardy zone 1 (traffic speaking, not USDA zones) type plant for this, wheat and sunchokes are awesome and i think wheat would be wonderful to walk amongst but it doesnt need daily tending, harvesting and traffic at its roots by any means...
i was thinking of installing some 4ft hugelbeds or so about the location of the secondary, smaller drift in the background of "snow_drift_hugelkultur1_bottom" so as to create more edge and make an effecient heat trap to go with the "A" shape (with its orientation it would recieve sunlight throughout the day most of the year as the sun moved east to west (from the bottom of the hill to the top) and the heat moving up the hill would be trapped by the "A" and the cold moving down the hill would be shed away
my concerns with this plan are thus, it appears that the spot taht would house the center of this design would not recieve enough moisture for healthy plants as the "A" would also shed the moisture to some extent, by the time i plant sunchokes atop the current hugelkultur beds, the winter shade may make its way halfway up the current windblock, shading the entire area completely in the winter, and honestly making it damn near useless AS A HEAT TRAP (though im sure there would be many other uses for such an area) and if i put them in i have to use a mini excavator to reach the area, squeezing around the installed apple trees and lilac bushes while moving dirt and logs and it would absolutely have to be done before the "A" so im not sure how things would act with them after installing the "A" bed and i can also imitate its snow catching abilitys and possibly heat trap potential with plants, but i would not get the same benefits of a hugelkultur bed such as water absorbtion, rapid increase in organic matter and increased surface area/edge
does anyone have any ideas to contribute to this?
thats all for now i guess, off to bed for the night