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Chinampa in marshy area - water terraces

 
steward and tree herder
Posts: 8454
Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year
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Jay Angler wrote:Deer like hostas - they killed the ones that came with the property. Have you got extra garlic? Planting garlic bulbs 3-4 inches out from plants they like *might* discourage them, or something like Egyptian walking onions. Both of those might not fit your eco-system?



Ooh thanks Jay! Somethig like that may be worth a try. Maybe not garlic - I think it prefers warmer summers, but I do have some babbington leek which is forming aerial bulbils just now. I'm pretty sure I could get some of that to establish in the area, and that ought to come back year after year as a perennial bulb. I was a bit taken by surprise with how garlicky the flavour of Babbington leek is, so I think that may work!
 
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When we lived in the Piney Woods of East Texas, we had lots of deer and my neighbor had lots of hostas.  

I wonder if the deer just like a certain variety or was it that the neighbor just had so many that the deer could not eat them all?
 
Nancy Reading
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Spring 2024 - One year in.

I left the water terraces to fend for themselves pretty much over the winter - there is enough rain to keep the soil damp. The water is fed by two hoses and unfortunately both got dislodged over the winter, so the top terrace ended up almost dry at times. The other two always had some standing water. I may have lost plants that were more tender, since flowing water would normally keep the frost off more. The area still looks greener than the surrounding grass, presumably due to the disturbance of the soil that I did during construction.
chinampa in Scotland
Water terraces low in water in March

Do you remember I relocated some tadpoles last year? Well they're back! Or maybe it is some different frogs, I'm not sure how old they start breeding. They have laid a couple of clumps of spawn in the middle pool.
common frog spawn
frog spawn in water terrace

So I need to make the water supply more reliable for the tadpoles - and anyway for the future, so to stop the hoses getting blocked or washed out quite so quickly, I'll make some filters and bury them down in the stream bed. I've done one so far, using a 1l milk carton and some old windbreak fabric. I made extra holes in the carton to spread out the water flow, and tied it all together with a bit of twine (rescued from the beach), then weighed it down with a couple of stones. Once I've made the other I'll cover them both with more rocks to protect them, and so they won't be visible.
Plastic bottle held down with stones under water
Home made inlet filter in streambed

I don't have another 1l carton presently so may have to find another durable bottle for the other hose. However just the one has been enough for the water to fill all three terraces pretty well. I do want two hoses to allow some redundancy in future.
edible water plants
Water terraces after filling from top of East bank

The plants are starting to grow back :). The rhubarb in particular is growing nicely. This is only it's second year (and it got eaten last year by deer) so I'll leave it to bulk up rather than harvesting any. It is too early to see what the blueberries are going to do, but the strawberries look OK and the cranberries seem to be spreading well. The elderberries, mostly seem OK, although not all of the cuttings took. Hopefully the comfrey will start to make a barrier to the grass this year. I can see bistort leaves along the edge of one of the water terraces and at least one of the hosta survived the deer browsing. I'm also very happy that the wasabi is coming back quite strongly. The leaves still a little small, but otherwise the plants look quite good. Still early days, so hopefully some of the other plants will reappear over the next month or so....
how to grow wasabia japonica
Wasabi leaves growing in spring
 
Nancy Reading
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Late summer update:
I've done virtually nothing in the chinampa/water terrace area this summer. The only real maintenance, other than sorting out the inlet filters is to pluck some long grass during my morning and evening walks with the dogs and use that as mulch around the surviving land plants. This means that the area does look a little messy - I prefer 'natural' as a descriptor :P !
chinampa in Scotland
chinampa from above; August year 2

The long grass and reeds overhang the water a bit and it would perhaps look better if the water was more visible. Making the water terraces wider would have made the height of the steps in the terrace even bigger. It is a pity that my area wasn't flatter, as that would have made the design more flexible. The banks do seem to be holding up and not slumping into the water.
Most of the plants seem to have come back fairly well. I didn't see any fruit on the cranberry, or flowers on the blueberries (but they are pretty small plants as yet). I'm expecting the balance of plants to change as time goes on and the ones that are happier get established.
establishing a new garden area
using grass to mulch around plants

It looks like I might get a harvest from the wapato at least this year: it has come back strongly in the middle terrace. I'm not sure about walking around barefoot to harvest tubers as the first Americans did. I might stop the water input and let the water drain out to make harvesting easier.
edible aquatic plants
wapato in middle water terrace

 
steward
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I might stop the water input and let the water drain out to make harvesting easier.

The Japanese have controlled the water level in their rice paddies for centuries - no reason you shouldn't if it makes it easier. I suspect it would be easier to see what you're harvesting if nothing else, but don't underestimate the ability of mud to suck you in if you stay still too long!
 
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