Ben Zumeta

I think you are looking in the right direction. I would hot compost the horse manure first for weed reduction, and to make the N more stable, with arborist woodchips, straw, and/or your hay and various weeds. Look up Dr. Elaine Ingham's composting recipes for more info. I would loosen the clay with a broadfork or digging fork, add a layer of sticks and then add the finished (not hot anymore) compost. Daikon is a good choice, but diversity is always better for soil life. Nitrogen fixators will be suppressed by the N in the horse manure, so they could be redundant together if resources are scarce. I like wild bird seed as a filler for a cheap bulk soil building mix, as birds will bring their own microbes and nutrients to the party. Locally native wildflowers are also a good addition if seed is available, but would probably not benefit from horse manure much. Horse manure is good for green growth, and can be much less helpful for flowers and fruit.

I have been surprised that our tick season here in NW California at 1500-1800ft is in the winter, or more accurately the wet season (Oct-May). I find 5-10 on my dog any time we go out in the woods and he goes off trail into the manzanita dominated brush below mixed conifer forest. Luckily he is white and they are easier to find, but still some get to his skin.

Coffee grounds (used) are surprisingly in the low 6’s for pH in my testing and reading, with the acidity coming out in the brew. As are most conifer needles, with the acidity of conifer forest coming mostly from root exudates and fungal dominant soil processes. Still, again counter intuitively, I have seen creeks in old growth conifer forests run in the upper 7s for pH.

As mentioned above, I would suspect the compost being used is alkaline and bacterially dominant due to hyper-aerobic conditions from frequent turning. I would let it age at least a month, and if that did not suffice I would mix in up to an equal amount of wood chips and let it age unturned and with chimneys (Johnson Su/BEAM style) up to a year. It will then be in the slightly acidic range and extremely diverse, with fungal dominance. If this seems too time consuming, I’d try intermediate amounts of woodchips or shredded leaves until you find your sweet spot.

I love alder trees and think they may be the most under appreciated of PNW native species. Burnt Ridge nursery sells them by the 10 and 100 bundle, for 2$ a piece when I got them. These have survived better than those I salvaged transplanted from places they would have likely been driven over, and if I actually value my time were worth the money. Of course seed is still likely the best, but I like supporting the good folks at Burnt Ridge and get an alder for every 1-2 other trees I get from them.

Good to see you here on permies Aliyah. It seems from my limited outsider’s knowledge that many aspects of Muslim cultures would align well with permaculture, especially what I know of the agricultural innovations brought to the Iberian peninsula long ago.  I might look into contacting Geoff Lawton, a well known and respected permaculture educator whose wife is Muslim (and I believe he converted upon marriage).  He leads the Permaculture Research Institute, and Zaytuna Farms in Australia. He has done a lot of work in the Muslim world and likely has connections to a network of folks in the global diaspora. I hope you find who you seek.

If you have access to a tractor for subsoiling, I would also widen the bottom of the swale. Generally gradual sloped sides and a flatter bottom will work better for absorption. If a tractor is not an option, I would use a broad fork or a sturdy digging fork to loosen but not invert the soil layers. If the soil is high in Magnesium relative to calcium like many coastal CA soils, oyster shell in addition to organic matter can be a good addition, and I would add it to the loosened soil. Looks like you have a great plan overall to me.

If I were to try to clone more difficult pome and stone fruits, I’d use the plastic bottle method. Putting a bottle with a hole in the bottom and slice down the side around a vigorous densely noded branch. Then use the slice to fill with cloning medium (for me, coconut coir and perlite soaked in willow water), with at least 3 nodes (5-7 is best) in the medium and 3 nodes sticking out the hole in the bottom. Then tape the bottle closed. A bucket of willow water and a wick can be used to keep it moist. I have seen this work well for other plants. Of course if its low enough to ground you could layer it there with less moisture and heat stress potential.

I think snap peas and cilantro are great easy gateway edible growies.

I think it will be fine, having built hugels under the drip line of a walnut and having all but the most sensitive plants (tomatoes) seem ok. It was a very old walnut that rarely produced many nuts, the husks of which seem to be the most concentrated with juglone, along with root exudates. It would be a good experiment to plant it with half juglone tolerant plants, and the other half intolerant plants, then observe and share the results. Gaia’s garden is a good resource for juglone sensitivity and much more. Thank yoi for getting this experiment started for us all!

When I first heard an experienced permie suggest drenching the biochar with compost tea as part of the cooling process, it seemed a bit crazy to me. An incalculable number of microbes would be cooked. Now, upon further consideration it makes some sense to me. I would use extract for its diversity and ease of production. and apply only on the latter end of the quenching, but I think it has some merits. The inoculation is immediate and establishes a positive pioneer effect in the ecosystem with diverse, mostly beneficial or innocuous microbes. The char pile would have different edges between too hot and barely tolerable for the toughest, and just warm—making for diverse niches for survival. Even some of the cooked and partially cooked microbes would leave some portion of biomass as an ideal food for something.  It would also likely mimic the post fire ecosystem in the first quenching rain, so in areas like CA, local microbes would be in homemade compost. Just a few thoughts on this great thread!