First Images of Virgin Land

Hello Everybody!

I'm thrilled to give you a sneak peek into my latest venture – the transformation of high desert land into what I envision as the self-sustaining haven of Faehaven Farmstead. 🌱

As you can see from the initial images, the property is nestled in a high desert region. But with a strategic blend of permaculture and holistic techniques, I'm confident in my ability to turn this challenging terrain into a closed-loop oasis that thrives. Welcome to the beginning of the journey!

This land comes with its rough patches – quite literally, it's rough around the edges and in the middle, too! 😄 With an average annual rainfall of just 17 inches, water retention takes center stage. To address this, my plans involve using a Bunyip Level, a trusty shovel, and a hearty mix of dead wood, compost, and biochar. These elements will play a crucial role in crafting Huegal Kultur swales. Picture logs in trenches covered with terra preta blended soil, native soil on top, and an 8-inch layer of protective mulch. And yes, there's much more to dive into, which I'll share as I progress.

Excitingly, I'm now in Zone 6a, boasting a much longer growing season than I'm used to. Of course, every venture has its hurdles. In my case, it's dealing with contaminated groundwater. Drilling a well or tapping into city water isn't an option. While buying water isn't appealing, I'm up for the challenge. Rainwater harvesting is my game plan, aiming to reduce reliance on purchased water as much as possible.

I'm looking forward to exchanging ideas, insights, and experiences with all of you. Please let me know your wisdom as I begin this journey to turn a high desert landscape into a thriving oasis.

Wow! What a plot!

Do you know what exactly is contaminating the ground water in the area? Just for my own curiosity.

How much rain does the area get on average?

Timothy Norton wrote:Wow! What a plot!

Do you know what exactly is contaminating the groundwater in the area? Just for my own curiosity.

How much rain does the area get on average?

No, Unfortunately, I have not been told any more than it's contaminated. I am only allowed to have a cistern, so at some point, I am going to set up some means to harvest water from the air to supplement the supply. As far as rain, the area receives an average of 17" of rain per year, which means rainwater collection will be a must.

Congratulations on that beautiful piece of earth.. but I would suggest looking into water laws and regulations. Colorado is a bit funny about catching and using rain water. Go for it, but keep a low profile, and fly under the radar, friend.. stay free!

https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/natural-resources/rainwater-collection-colorado-6-707/

https://stormwater.wef.org/2014/02/colorados-taupe-infrastructure/

I live in a similar rainfall area.  what is your evaporation rate?what area do you have. Do you have buidings? 8 inches of mulch? where from? A poly water tank would work well. do you get damp mists?  They can be captured. water can be caught in small hat sized depressions, and enlarged after rainfall, [its done in Africa ] there is topic here about it. low walls built of loose rocks on contour will trap dust and water. I will come back with more considerations.

I work to improve the soil, not provide fodder for political movements IE 'stay free', you are free now. You just cant run rough shod over others, in the way some groups argue. Water laws are in place to try and spread it around, not like the way early landholders had to deal with larger ranchers. capturing run off water to soak in, having a tank for reasonable consumption will generally pass, 'the reasonable person' test.

Ted Abbey wrote:Congratulations on that beautiful piece of earth.. but I would suggest looking into water laws and regulations. Colorado is a bit funny about catching and using rainwater. Go for it, but keep a low profile and fly under the radar, friend.. stay free!

https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/natural-resources/rainwater-collection-colorado-6-707/

https://stormwater.wef.org/2014/02/colorados-taupe-infrastructure/

Thank you for the links! I heard there is some permit I can get due to my lack of well rights in this particular area. Also, my rainwater collection is going to definitely be hidden from plain view as I don't need someone knocking on my door. I would like to use as many soil-based storage systems as possible, like swales, etc., but I also plan to landscape with only native plants. One of the worst things in the world to me is accidentally introducing an invasive. I am eventually going to have a 5' thick hedge growing around the edge of the property, It will be set up like a food forest, but it will be built from native fruiting plants. I also would like to preserve as many of the individual species found on the site and use them in my non-productive landscaping (as little of it there will be.

John C Daley wrote:I live in a similar rainfall area.  What is your evaporation rate? What area do you have? Do you have buildings? 8 inches of mulch? Where from? A poly water tank would work well. Do you get damp mists?  They can be captured. Water can be caught in small hat-sized depressions and enlarged after rainfall [it's done in Africa ]. There is a topic here about it. Low walls built of loose rocks on a contour will trap dust and water. I will come back with more considerations.

I'm not yet acquainted with the specific evaporation rate in our area, but it's high on my list of things to explore. I've embarked on a journey with a raw piece of land, which means each building will be built or acquired on-site. Fortunately, there are some nearby spots where I can gather whole tree mulch at a minimal cost. These locations also offer logs that are too hefty for their equipment. The property is 6.2 acres of land.

My plan includes setting up a sizable poly tank atop a hill when I construct an atmospheric water harvester. This clever setup would grant me free water pressure throughout the property. In my efforts to manage water flow, I'm considering the implementation of Hugelkultur mounds as swales at 5' or 10' elevation intervals across the land. Naturally, while working the land, I anticipate stumbling upon quite a few loose stones – something I've become well-versed in growing up in Maine. A charming tidbit: Maine farmers used to gather these stones, creating loosely piled rock walls that can still be found in our forests, marking old property boundaries.

I'm also interested in generating water from the air. Let me post the best 2 options I've found so far:

https://www.source.co/

https://www.atmosparktech.com/

I also tried to create my own Peltier cooler-based element. Don't waste your time with that, it hardly worked at all.

CONGRATS!!! Enjoy the journey!

Looks like plenty of hills to assist your rainwater collection swales.

If it were me, I would really like to know what contamination is in the groundwater. I'd get/make some gift baskets and introduce myself to the neighbors, betting they have all kinds of information they could share about the property, water, climate etc...

I worked for decades trying to green a section of desert in northern Nevada, with about half that rain. Based on my experiences, I suggest the following...

Hugelkulture seems like a technique for damp areas that encounter short term intermittent water deficiencies. They seem less useful in locations with chronic water shortages.

Grow species where they will grow, rather than trying to make a hedge along the property line. If you have ample irrigation, then no worries, plant whatever you want wherever you want. Though a hedge of cholla sounds fascinating.

Most native food forest crops barely pass an edibility test. I wouldn't want to try to feed a family only on crops native to a particular county in Colorado. Apricot and Goji survived in the Nevada desert without supplemental water or special care.  Roam your local area, and observe what edible plants grow in the badlands. Some might thrive for you, regardless of where they happened to live 500 years ago.

Observe, observe, observe. See where the water actually flows, and start there, especially at the highest point where water consistently transits. I love spots where water runs off the hard packed roads. Water concentrates there. If possible, go outside during the fiercest rain events to see what really happens. Where I thought water flowed in my youth doesn't match where I observe it flowing in my old age.

Single layer rock dams, and single layer deep logs laid perpendicular to the flow of water worked best for me. Then after a run-off event, I added another single layer deep check dam. That way, I didn't impede the water in any visible way, the structures acted as sediment traps. Sand dams hold 40% water after a run-off event. That water becomes invisible to passers-by, but still seeps into the ground, and may come out downhill, or nurture plants.

At my place, the air contained so little moisture that collecting it from the air broke the bank.

Joseph, great experiences there.Frank, when you are removing mulch from another area, is that' stealing from nature'?

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:I worked for decades trying to green a section of desert in northern Nevada with about half that rain. Based on my experiences, I suggest the following...

Hugelkulture seems like a technique for damp areas that encounter short-term intermittent water deficiencies. They seem less useful in locations with chronic water shortages.

Grow species where they will grow rather than trying to make a hedge along the property line. If you have ample irrigation, then no worries, plant whatever you want wherever you want. Though a hedge of cholla sounds fascinating.

Most native food forest crops barely pass an edibility test. I wouldn't want to try to feed a family only on crops native to a particular county in Colorado. Apricot and Goji survived in the Nevada desert without supplemental water or special care.  Roam your local area, and observe what edible plants grow in the badlands. Some might thrive for you, regardless of where they happened to live 500 years ago.

Observe, observe, observe. See where the water actually flows and start there, especially at the highest point where water consistently transits. I love spots where water runs off the hard-packed roads. Water concentrates there. If possible, go outside during the fiercest rain events to see what really happens. Where I thought water flowed in my youth doesn't match where I observed it flowing in my old age.

Single-layer rock dams and single-layer deep logs laid perpendicular to the flow of water worked best for me. Then, after a run-off event, I added another single-layer deep check dam. That way, I didn't impede the water in any visible way; the structures acted as sediment traps. Sand dams hold 40% water after a run-off event. That water becomes invisible to passers-by, but still seeps into the ground and may come out downhill or nurture plants.

At my place, the air contained so little moisture that collecting it from the air broke the bank.

This is excellent advice, and if you don't mind, I will be reading up on all of your posts to see what other information I can glean from your conversations. 😉 I never considered a sand dam before! Being from the East Coast, sand was something to try to eliminate lol.

I plan on going out daily to write an observation log and a personal self-reflection log. This will help me to not only learn about my property and its quirks but also help me get my mental health under control. I will start in stage one, which is very small, only beginning enough to help me get my feet wet before expanding.

I am not sure, as text conveys emotions poorly, but I sense I may have caused friction somehow…I am sorry if that is the case. As I said in my introduction; I am new to the community and new to actively using and discussing permaculture. I will try to answer all of your questions to the best of my ability though. 😅

John C Daley wrote:I work to improve the soil, not provide fodder for political movements IE, 'stay free,' you are free now. You just can't run roughshod over others in the way some groups argue. Water laws are in place to try and spread it around, not like the way early landholders had to deal with larger ranchers. Capturing runoff water to soak in, having a tank for reasonable consumption, will generally pass the 'reasonable person' test.

My overall goal is to try and improve the ecology of the property I am on first and foremost. Second, I need to take care of myself and provide water security for myself while living small and efficiently. I plan on using water in the most efficient ways I can whilst ensuring the soil on my property is storing as much moisture as in can use. If I am storing 4” of rain in the soil but my plants are using 5” of rain then I need to do something to adjust my plant’s consumption or my soil’s storage capacity.

Water will always eventually move off the land, it's inevitable. But I feel like since it fell on my property first, it's my water first. If I am a responsible steward whatever water falls on my property will also leave my property at the same time because I have replenished the ecosystem on my land effectively. I am sure that as I slowly grown my property I will encounter intermittent periods where I am taking in more water than I am releasing until an equilibrium is reached.

Although I disagree with the water laws for my own deeply held personal beliefs, I know they exist to keep people from just collection absurd amounts of water in poly tanks. If I were to store a year’s worth of water for my own use, it would equate to around 3-5 thousand gallons. Even if I did that from purely rainwater collection, it would be a temporary pause in the water leaving the property. Once the system was full, it would move back to an equal amount of water in and out of the system.

This type of consumption is really not my style. I cannot forsee a period where the rain would ever stop locally long enough to warrant storing an entire year’s worth of water.

John C Daley wrote:Joseph, great experiences there. Frank, when you are removing mulch from another area, is that ‘stealing from nature?’

Technically yes? I think that so long as the resources are not being trucked a thousand miles away, you are still within the ecological impact zone of the original resource. The local chippers' dump sites are gathering and collecting material from all over the county into these dumps and giving it away for free. Free material which will simply sit and rot in one spot instead of being distributed back amongst the community on everyone’s properties. Since this site is devoid of trees or sources of mulch I would need to collect it from outside my property.. But I don't want to accidentally import an invasive insect/mold/fungus/etc. By buying large commercial grade mulch.

Timothy Norton wrote:Wow! What a plot!

Do you know what exactly is contaminating the ground water in the area? Just for my own curiosity.

How much rain does the area get on average?

I do intend on finding out what might be the contaminant in the ground water, but as of yet I have a few suspects including a fire suppressant, a road Deicer, oil from a nearby raceway, or something from the bombing test range that the us military uses nearby. The rainfall in the area is 17” of rain annually.

During heavy runoff events in the desert, the mountain moves downhill, filling any basin with sediment. You can estimate the rate of flow by the size of the sediments.

https://permies.com/t/202087/Swales-bunds-puddles-terraces-meanders

But I feel like since it fell on my property first, it's my water first.

This is an issue around the world, but communities do generally manage to sort an equitable sharing out.
Basically if you take a ' domestic and stock ' allowance its ok, if you want to snatch 95 % 0f the flow its not ok.