Jeff Jefferson

Rabbits, Goats and chickens

Im considering starting a rotational grazing plan on roughly one acre of land, I would "jump start the system" with a cover of about 1/4th of an inch high. I would likely be using rabbits / goats / chickens. I guess my question is how would one help prevent against ecoli in a rotational grazing "food forest" system?

paul wheaton wrote:From Jack's link:

I think this is a great idea. I am tempted to call this a "johnson style air well"

Thats a genius Idea, I would really like to stack that with a solar chimney.

I have seen his video, about 23,000 sq ft of area im 100% sure I can garden, as well as 140,000sq ft I could ask my landlord if he would mind If i planted(pretty sure he would be fine with it)



I've been tinkering with the idea of using a computer fan on a timer(on 5 min, off 5 min), powered by a solar panel to pretty much passively add to the water table / farm area.

Also entertaining the idea of using a Solar Chimney to power the condenser.

Wayne Mackenzie wrote:I have been using a lot of coffee grounds with the usual woodchips & horse manure on my sandy soil. I'm happy with the results so far.

Nice, I could probably get large amounts of coffee grounds from a few restaurants in town.

I dug about a 20x45ft area once over, covered it with roughly 200 gallons(filled trash cans) of leaf's and tumbleweeds that i cut small with a shovel, and about 250 gallons of a mixture of fresh/aged horse manure. Then I applied sparing amounts of kellogs organic fertilizer as well as neem cake and ground crustacean shells and turned it once more, then buried 3 gallons of vermicompost with worms, babies and eggs directly in the middle.

I have constructed small hugels(against all your advice) on both sides of my swale planting areas as my land is very flat and I was trying to maximize gains. I used small branches from an old dead tamerisc, piled maybe 8-10 inches tall then covered with horse manure and then desert sand. im going to be planting some strawberrys, broccoli, lettuce, kale and chard.

Do I really need rock dust here in the desert? I feel like theres enough rock dust blowing around as it lol.


In the coming weeks ill have some funding twords some green houses(winter) / shade houses(Summer) I was planning on the steel rebar / pvc frames. Im not aware of a good source for green house plastics thou. What kind(%) of shade would you folks reccomend for the desert? I would also like to build a solar chimney to keep air flowing through the green houses.

How carefully do I need select horse rap for trench compost?

I really like the idea of black soildier flys, as I would love to get some chickens going. Are there any good cheap Diy coop?

As far as the dehumidifier I figured I could use a solar still to destill water for watering the land as I have plenty of sun to go around. I think once I have the area planted and its being irrigated the humidity should exceed 30% (the average annual humiditiy is 77.52) i am near the mojave river as well. I would love to use a more passive system for collecting water from the air like an airwell, but i doubt their effectiveness in arid climates.

For hugelkultur, I Was wondering if I could use creosote and cottonwood? What about horse manure? Im also considering buying either a cord or half cord to bury and make a few hugelkultur rows. What would be the ideal height? Im also thinking about planting some bushes(prefurably N fixing) around the yard for more privacy as well as to keep the wind out (very open surroundings)

Are there any desert guilds?

Would I be able to raise bees? does a hive need shade?

Mimiosa tree would be the winner in my opinion just from browsing the wiki's. As far as a ground cover what would be the best in the mojave area?

Excellent videos, Im instantly sold on hugelkultur. The 2 main sources of organic matter i have are horse poop and creosote would these provide decent structure for a hugelkultur? I would probably have to let it "cook" for a few weeks but im just wondering if would be suitable? There are also lots of cottonwoods in the riverbed, im pretty sure they are invasive could i trim these trees legaly and use the wood for hugelkultur(not my property, pretty sure its owned by the county)?

Another idea im really interested in is the idea of airdrop irrigation. I found a DIY online for drinking water from the air here http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Atmospheric-Water-Generator/

It seems that I could simplify this and use solar panels for power and have air drop irrigation, I'm curious to see the ideas that flow in.


How much of a benefit would biochar have in mojave desert sandy soil?


Would it be possible to start a mushroom farm in the desert? I hear mushroom compost is awesome.

Would creosote work?

Hi,

I plan on starting up a permiculture operation less then 1 mile from the mojave river and was hoping you might be able to point me in better directions :]

I plan on utilizing well water, a source of free horse manure, Alfalfa as a ground cover, A moveable rabbit cage controlling where they can graze on said alfalfa, Id even like to use a solar powered dehumidifier to collect water from the air and put it back in the ground as to spread greening

Ive heard about an idea called swales, and also ideas about putting landscape fabric under soil to retain more water.



My main questions are
*What kind of nitrogen fixing plants can i grow in this climate? zone 8b
*Small Scale BioChar Production
*Effective AquaPonics in the desert