I was digging another of my mini hugels yesterday and thinking about destruction, or more precisely renewal. We think of digging as a destructive method of soil cultivation, but sometimes great upheaval to reset a situation is a benefit. For me - my acidic silty soil had become compacted through generations of ploughing and rain so that in some areas the rain actually runs off the soil even here.
a site of destruction and renewal
Two years after digging my mini chinampa/water terraces the vegetation is still noticably greener than the surrounding grass. The effect of killing off all those plants and microbes is obvious, as is the reason why people moved to ploughing.
What other conditions would a great reset like this have a beneficial effect rather than a detrimental effect? Fire, floods, tree falling are all natural phenomenons we can use to our advantage is sculpting our surroundings.
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