Rob Lisa

That is epic work. Great job. I hope it serves you well for years to come.

Funny you should mention that, I forgot pics of the brush layer.

I too am sitting here listening to a loud chorus of amphibious noise. It is dark so I can't tell if they are toads or frogs. about 1.5", squat, grayish, and they jumped into my pond and swam to the bottom when I approached. I have also seen them 7' up in the trees.

Are frogs a good sign as well? how about 1.5 million tadpoles, which it seems I have in the hereterfore unstocked pond.

Hey Scott, I'm in NC as well. Crazy weather here lately.

The bamboo was cut, dried, then buried under wet mud for 8 months or so. If it sprouts, well, I will be surprised. :0

Funny you mention the drought proofing turning into water protection. I get both routinely. Dry as a bone one week, flooded the next. I'm hoping this will help.

I did not know that all the wood had to be buried. I have a few odd branches sticking out. I'll see they get buried. Thanks!

I am un/fortunate enough to live on expanding clay soil. It is good when you need some clay. Bad when you want to grow things or have a stable foundation.

Lust for a pizza oven has filled my heart for years, but I never knew how to get a economical, solid foundation. Meanwhile, this 80-year-old oak stump just won't rot...

A-ha. I decided to use the stump as the oven foundation. I know it is an impermanent solution. Sometime between now and 20 years from now, that stump will rot and take the oven down. But it has been rock solid for three years now.

I built rocks around the stump and then layed down a six inch insulation layer of clay slip mixed with hardwood planer shavings (toothpick shaped fluff). Put a sand/firebrick hearth on that.

I've made a paper-mache dome and entry chamber instead of sand. One, I don't have that much sand. Two, I want to see if I can premake the form and quickly build other ovens. Three, paper mache is cool. Four, I can just burn it out.

This decision has already had consequences. I was feeling pretty good about mixing cob with the kids on a nice spring evening and getting the refractory layer built. But I ran out of cob at the top. So I mixed up a way-too-wet quickie batch and slathered it over the top. it wetted the paper mache and caused a collapse.

The rest of the oven stayed standing and was a thing of beauty, but I took it all down and will try again tomorrow with the already mixed cob (in sealed buckets for now).

When I started my aquaponics setup, I dug a smallish (4 foot x 8 foot x 3 foot) pond. Ended up using a different tank so I decided to use that for hugelkultur. I filled it with wet logs and decomposed matter, mostly oak limbs and bamboo. Next, a friend and I built a retaining wall out of 2" hickory lumber from a local mill. Filled that with a dead oak that was razed a year ago. Next I put a bunch of hedge trimmings on top until they were mounded slightly above the bed. I'm adding compost and manure, though I only have one bag of each so it won't go far. Anyway, it is off to a start.

Cj, thanks a bunch for the replies. Lots of good info to think about.

I am planning constant flood, or at least I should say the water will circulate 24/7 with no timers. I'm aware of bell siphons but I'd rather do constant flood to reduce the temperature fluctuations that come with flood/drain cycles.

Level growbeds... that is something I have pondered as well, but decided it was better not to. In my thinking, water seeks its own level. So with a small input relative to the growbed volume, the water should flow down through the bed and exit at the sump, never really rising in the growbed. That was my line of thinking. It could be dead wrong.

The diagram may not be good enough but I don't think the tank will ever empty. I'm putting the pipe at the top. Worst case if the pump dies is I lose 6" of water from the top of the tank and the growbeds start to dry out.

I think you're right that this is CHIFT/PIST. I had kinda forgotten about it but now I will follow your link and read up on it again.

Thanks for taking a look!

I am designing my aquaponics system as I go because I was paralyzed by thinking through options. So I have taken up the shovel.

I've dug out a ~2000 gallon tank at the highest point of my yard. (the lowest point was already taken by tree roots and such.) Then I have two growbeds at 30 x 4 feet and 40 x 4 feet, on a slope with a three foot differential between the tank and the growbed endpoint. So that's where the water comes out... how to get it back up?

As you can see in the attachment, a mains-powered water pump is the default option. I would like to sustainably power the system.

Could I put a microhydro generator near the bottom, parallel to the growbeds, that recharges a battery bank and powers the return pump? Could I mount stationary solar panels that do the same? Should I just buy a normal pump, forget about alternative energy, and move on? I'd be grateful for your thoughts.

This is an extremely cool thread. Nice job!

You could have a case of, what we call in the IT industry, "Analysis Paralysis." I get this myself quite often so I know what you are going through. You see a grand vision and you know it is a ball of yarn, and right now it all looks like a tangle.

I suggest you tug at one thread and pull it until you start to see how to unloosen the knot. That thread could be hugelkultur, or buying some seeds, or what I suggest is container gardening. I have never been disappointed with growing veggies in containers. Get a couple earth boxes, or just large plant pots, put soil in, and plant some seeds and/or smaller plants from a nursery. Learn how plants grow, how to tend them, how to harvest them... low pressure, learn as you go. While your container garden is flourishing (or even failing if that occurs) you can learn about the other aspects.

For me the starter thread was actually composting. I composted for 6 months or so before planting a modest garden. It was very rewarding to watch the plant matter break down and see steam rising.

Hugelkultur is a pretty solid start IMO. Just dig the hole. Then find the wood. maybe next year, put seeds in it. Or sooner if that happens.