Hello,
I just purchased our 11
acre homestead and was gifted a few
fruit trees that I would really like to get in the ground in the next month or two.
The acre that the house is on is very flat. 2% or less, and clay soil with an existing grass mix. The rest of the property is a very gradual slope and I can see some wonderful
berms and swales and ponds in the future.
But for now, I just want to focus on that flat acre, and I'd really like to plant some trees (the ones I was gifted), and I'd like to start establishing an evergreen screen because I am closer to my neighbors than I prefer.
Of
course I don't want to plant anywhere that I would regret later. I have helped many friends install food forests planted on berm and
swale systems, but they all had bigger areas, with more slope, and had preexisting drainage problems. I have walked the area in question during a rainstorm and don't see any run off issues. And the day after a storm, the ground is always nice and spongey but not ever boggy. So, it seems that a berm and swale system may not be as effective here. Am I right? What are my other options?
Some more info about the site....clay soil (I
think I would need to build berms at the very least so that the trees are happy, but I dont know how to place a berm without a swale); this is central texas so drought can be a problem in the summer and any and all rainwater harvesting techniques
should definitely be applied. I will be irrigating with a 4200 gallon rainwater tank in times of drought. Temps get to be 105 in August, down to 25 in January, albeit usually for just a few hours at a time. The
native vegetation is prairie grasses so I'd like to keep that theme going throughout the property (later will be using mob grazing to restore native grasses) while also establishing a few fruit tree guilds here and there.
I appreciate any input you have...this is my first
project here and I don't want to mess it up.