My tiered wattle garden beds

I have an area above my chufa garden that I wanted to make better use of. The green area above these beds that were formed last fall.


There are several asperagus plants growing well there. But it is steep and I am not the most coordinated person... As it is near 34* slope, I decided that tiers would be an excellent idea. I used an a frame level to mark my contours. But with the cost of lumber, whatever shall I make the walls out of?


For the back story on this mess.

Actually, only the stakes were from this pile. We decided we needed fresh cut lengths of branches so they could be more easily bent. How about my horribly overgrown forsythia colony? It covered over 120 square feet. I need my front yard back! The front yard is the only flat-ish portion of our acre.

I caged, or otherwise supported each asperagus plant to protect them from me. I marked the few strawberries that survived the overgrown weeds that I allowed to overwhelm the area the previous year. I started with stakes 20 inches long, cut flat on top with the bottom end cut at a 45* angle. I placed the stake with the angled cut facing uphill. Holding the stake tight, trying to keep it vertical drove them in. I wanted the tiers to be like stairs with 9 inch risers, so I drove them in to be 12 inches tall. The 3 extra inches are to keep the mulch in place. I began by driving in the stakes at 27 inch intervals, filling in the empty areas for finished spacing of 9 inches. I could not keep the stakes perpendicular. The resulting row of stakes leaned slightly uphill at the same angle. Perfect.





We made 3 piles of similar length branches to choose from. I wove the branches to create the wattle wall. Then I placed cardboard down to fully smother those weed seeds from last season. Then the kid dug our tiny pond a bit deeper to fill in the tiers with dirt.



And the first tier is mulched!

Nicely done!!

Wow!  This is just beautiful!  How much time did it take (if that's possible to measure)?

I am about to move to a new place and start over again.  So good-looking wattled fencing piques my interest.

Thank you Carla and Anne.

How long? This is per tier. The beds are about 22 feet long, and 4 ish feet wide. It took about an hour to choose and pull the branches for the stakes and cut them to size on a miter saw. An hour to pound the stakes. Maybe an hour to weave the wall? The Kid was handing the branches to me. It takes longer without that help.

I didn't think to count how long it took to cut and strip the branches. And hauling the dirt, I dunno. The kid did that for me. He filled buckets with soppy mud and hauled them 50 feet or so, and dumped them out.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote: And hauling the dirt, I dunno. The kid did that for me. He filled buckets with soppy mud and hauled them 50 feet or so, and dumped them out.

Now, in my opinion, that is one handy kid to have around!

Thanks for the rundown.

Apparently, I need to borrow your kid! Lol! Y'all did a great job!

Carla, he did a good portion of the work in drizzling rain too!

I'm not pleased with the wall structure's abrupt ending. Some erosion will occur. I did better on the second one, tapering the wall off, so it is less likely to loose soil from an open end. It's still not right, I cut a V branch, and pinned down the end. Then I cut off the tops of the too tall stakes. Looks much better.

We have a... mini 'bluff'() running parallel to & about 15 feet from the front of our house. From the bottom, the top would be about 5feet straight up, but it's on about a 45° angle incline. To get to what I consider the front yard, one must either go to the driveway, and up, or to the far end, where there's a more gradual slope. But, it's all rocks (everything from pebble sized, up to 'I ain't picking that up!') and clay, so very difficult to shovel, that trying to landscape some manageable steps, to get up and down just can't happen, without heavy equipment. I've been trying to figure this out ever since we bought this place. I'm not sure this will work for us, because it's so steep, but it's worth a shot, I think. Thank you for the idea!

Oh, I forgot to mention, I burried old rotting wood near the wattle walls. Hugle tier!

Stands back to admire my achievement. Oh look. The blueberry bushes look weirdly lonely and out of place now.

Tada! Two new tiers. This time we layed down the cardboard first and pounded the stakes in through the cardboard.

The guys hauled out a mess of what I really hope is silt from the bottom of the big pond. The neighboring yard has been dumping topsoil in our pond since former owners messed with the watershed. They filled in their small pond, Now every spring and fall, the heavy thunderstorms cause the next neighbor's stock pond to overflow a river overland, instead of as it was designed.



I extended the ends of my wall further up the slope. It ends at almost ground level about 18 inches below where the next tier starts so I don't have to step over anything to walk on the path. This time we used an assortment of privit and small diameter tree branches. We regained a lot of ground next to the fenceline.

From back in September.

I love this, and the new pics, with the broader view seem to explain it visually, very well! Lucky blueberries, to have your stewardship!

Wow, Joylyn, great job!!  Hug your Kid for me.  (or better yet, send him over here!!!)

I am near you (MS) so I think you may also have random stands of native bamboo here and there, in your area...I think when it comes time to renew the wattle, this stuff would last longer.  It is usually pretty skinny and when green, flexible.  Gotta cut it with a machete or a sharp bread knife, though.

This project of yours is like homemade swales.  I was wanting to hire someone with an earth mover to come in and do big ones for me; but your lovely wattle tiers project in small has given me pause.

One question I have: chufa is considered a "pest plant" in the South...is it the native variety you are growing, or one of the (bigger corms) agricultural varieties, like what is grown in Spain?  Asking because it is a brilliant thing to include in landscaping.

Thanks! Betsy

Thank you. I've considered using the bamboo. How likely is it to resprout?? I don't know where it grows in quantity. I may have access to an over grown patch of larger bamboo. Again, if used still green, I'm concerned with regrowth.

I assume that it is native Chufa. It showed up on its own, and it is not my friend. This link details my ongoing battle with it. I refer to a chufa garden, tongue in cheek.

I think there is a place for it in landscaping. In someone else's yard.

Here are those four tiered beds in December. I have garlic and radishes thriving without protection. I found out that swiss chard doesn't like it here at 24*, they died. Sigh.


Here are beds number 6 and 7. Did you think I was done? I went big on this experiment. Here you can better see the tapering of the wattle wall.

4*F a couple weeks ago killed off my radishes. I was hoping the freezing air would roll downhill, like frosts can do. The garlic was damaged to about three inches above ground, but the remainder of the leaves are the proper bright green.

So, my well considered opinion is, don't do this.

My wattle is deteriorating after only 2 years. It's still holding in the soil, but look at this bed end. It has met the lawn mower too many times.



The other end is coming undone too.



On the other hand, I think they looked gorgeous! And I don't listen to well considered advice. So I have planted a bunch of willow stakes to grow me some replacement rods.

Once upon a time, before there were tiers here, I tried to establish some strawberries among the asparagus. By the time I started the tiers, there was one lone strawberry plant in the area. If you desire to see this poor distressed plant, it can be found in the first post of this thread. I planted some more in the early summer of the year the tiers were made. Only my original plant survived.

In the spring of 2023 the renters next door moved to newly purchased acreage. They left behind a large patch of strawberries. They gave their blessing to us to relocate the poor things. Here's what they looked like when we brought them home.



So I teased out the grass and planted them in their new homes. They are sad and yellow. The one green strawberry plant is my old survivor.

If any of you also choose to ignore my well-considered advice of not making wattle tiers, do remember to keep an eye on them for regrowth. My forsythia tried to root. I do not want a forsythia hedge on my tiers. So I pulled off the sprouting parts a few times before they stopped sending up shoots.



Also in the spring of 2023, I transplanted a few common violets as an experimental barrier to keep bermuda grass from invading the wattle walls. You can see them below guarding the ends of my wattle walls. I had a source of lots of fresh cowpea shells, and I used them as mulch. They made the microbes very happy. I also got a nice cover crop of cowpeas from the remaining fresh peas that escaped harvest.



 

Remember that lone survivor from several years ago? Here is that plant, last fall, with all her babies. did you notice that one runner climbed up a tier? Good mamma plant!

I have no idea what variety came from my neighbor's yard. Some kind used commercially I am sure, as they are market gardeners. I found a tag listing the strawberry I planted a couple of years ago as Ozark Beauty, mentioning it so I have a record of it.

And because I found this in my driveway,



My tiers now look like this!



I have so far harvested 30 strawberries this year!!! I am happy to that they are finally producing!

Awesome!  I too have lots of forsythia and was wondering about using it as wattle material but feared it sprouting.  Now I think I'm going to go for it!

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Oh, I forgot to mention, I burried old rotting wood near the wattle walls. Hugle tier!

Stands back to admire my achievement. Oh look. The blueberry bushes look weirdly lonely and out of place now.

Have you considered an Electroculture tower and line down through your Blueberry bushes? I've had some BB bushes in for 3 years, replacing those that just died, however late last year I ran such a line down through mine row and it is looking a bit healthier now. Mine is a 10ft thick wall 1" PVC pipe with a small bare copper tower on the top with a bare copper wire attached to that and going down to and through the patch. Simple and not too expensive. [Consider the height of the tower compared to a radio antenna - the higher you go the better the reception, especially above 6 ft.]

Hey Jesse. Could you post a picture of what you are describing? I just don't grasp it.

I have been dumping all my unused pickle and fermenting juices about 5 feet away from the trunks of my bushes. Redhawk suggested something similar somewhere on Permies to acidify the soil. The bushes have responded well. They are doing even better since I began mulching them when I built the tiers. From 3 surviving plants, I've gotten 5 quarts of berries so far this spring, mostly from the oldest bush. A wonderful luxury I could not justify at the store. I have one additional 3-foot-tall stick that has a few leaves. It's alive, but not yet worthy of the title bush.

I started some cuttings this past late winter. A few have rooted. They'd have done better if I would water them regularly.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Hey Jesse. Could you post a picture of what you are describing? I just don't grasp it.
I started some cuttings this past late winter. A few have rooted. They'd have done better if I would water them regularly.

Here is the antenna and the pole at one of my raised beds. Bare copper wire is used throughout. IF you do this make sure your pole goes above 6 ft to get better (reception) aether running down the wires. The vertical wire is soldered to the antenna and I also soldered it to the wires running through the garden plots. This pole serves two sets of raised beds with another short wire connecting the second set of long raised beds.

I made the mandrel to turn the Antennas from a 4" X 4" block about 12" long and turned down to about a one inch diameter. Strong hands were needed to turn the 8 AWG copper wire around and around. A small piece of wood dowel is stuffed into the top with a hole the size of the copper, however, bend the copper wire going into it so it has some GRIP on the wire to retain it there. The bottom of the pole is another piece of larger PVC about 18 inches long that is pounded down into the ground with about 4" above ground. A Cotter Pin is used at both TOP and BOTTOM through the PVC to hold the pieces together - also making it easier to dis-assemble if needed.

You'll have to check on-line in Electro-Gardening articles to figure WHICH WAY TO WIND THE ANTENNA. It is wound differently for each of the two hemispheres. IF you just want to try this on a CONTAINER PLANT strip some 18 or 20 AWG wire and wind it according to which hemisphere you're in down a dowel or stick so that it goes to the bottom of the container and sticks up above the container about 24 inches or more.

HEY!  HAVE FUN!!!