Ok, so I've been reading all this and I'm still not sure in my situation what to take away from it all. In the big picture I'm just not sure how permaculture earthworks applies to my flat land. I will give a very specific site though that I'd like to do something with and hopefully I can get some advice to atleast give me a place to start. I have this little hill, it's not much of a hill, most of my unforested land is very flat. So I have a high tunnel on the top where the hill flattens out and on the downslope toward the driveway I would like to put in a terrace that would catch the water coming off the high tunnel going down the hill before it got to the gully beside the driveway. The wall for this terrace will be somewhere between one and two feet high on contour. It will probably stretch back about 15 to 20 feet to where it meets the hill. I will plant a food forest on it with many types of fruiting trees, bushes, and vines. I watched a video from Jack Sirko and he mentioned combining the terrace and hugel ideas. I had been thinking of filling it partially with wood chips to make a hugel type effect but then read that they would breakdown too fast and steal too much nitrogen. So then I was thinking I would get wood from our forest where there are downed trees etc to fill it in. But now I've read that we shouldn't plant tree (according to some) in the hugel type plantings because of the wood breaking down and the whole thing sinking with that. Then I thought, of course, if I make a terrace with wood in it, it's going to get sink hole type areas and this is not going to be good! Anyone have any suggestions? By the way I'm in Massachusetts, right near the RI and CT borders. It gets cold, zone 5-6. We get a pretty good amount of rain evenly through the year. Thank you!!
Wenona
Chockalog Farm
