10 Acre Island Homestead Design

Hi,
Pre-posting pictures and context for a consult with Paul!  I have 10 acres of land on an Island in Howe Sound, British Columbia, growth zone 9A.  It's mostly forested with hemlock, fir, and cedar, with a few open areas.  The top 5 acres are steep and rocky, the bottom 5 acres gently sloped.  Lots of rain in the winter, maybe 2-4 weeks of snow only.  Dry summers, but there is a shallow dug well that has never run dry, and I've created a large natural swimming pond with 2 smaller filtration ponds.  The soil is not great, sand/gravel/clay, thin forest soil layer of good stuff.

The property is used a lot in the summer, and intermittently in the winter.  I'm looking at how to design the property for growing food, with possible food forest, hugelkultur, etc, keeping in mind the poor soil and dry summers.

Attached are some pics of the property,

Thanks!

Hi Tim,

Welcome to Permies.

Hi Tim, your land sounds beautiful! I can't seem to see the pictures you attached. I'm not sure if maybe they didn't attach or properly or not.

Tim and Andrew, welcome to the forum.

Tim, I wish you had posted those pictures as I would love to see them.

For Folks interested in a consultation with Paul:

https://permies.com/t/131485/permaculture/permaculture-consultation-paul-wheaton

Tim Kostamo wrote: The soil is not great, sand/gravel/clay, thin forest soil layer of good stuff.

The joys of living where the last Ice Age redistributed all sorts of stuff, except good topsoil!

I've been improving my soil in places with a mix of portable chicken shelters, home-made biochar (made out of wood that's a fire risk), small Hugel mounds, and just planting anything that will leave roots in the soil.

I'm a bit surprised that your area is rated 9A. I'm across the water on the south end of the Big Island, and particularly with some of the cold snaps we've been having lately, I'm really looking at trying to develop some heat traps that can be semi-enclosed to help with weather like we had in Jan. of this year, when we had two nights at -10C in a row.  

Here are the pictures of the property for the consult, thanks!