Mike Barkley wrote:Howdy again. Sorry to hear about the pond but I would consider getting a second opinion or two. I live not too far from ya'll but on the other side of the mountains. That being said, I've found in my 3 years of gardening in TN that supplemental water is rarely needed for the garden. Again, being on the other side of the mountains could be the difference. Didn't see any mention of hugelkulturs. Have you considered that? They're great for water retention.
Shortly after your initial post I was offered more elderberry plants. So we now have about 20 more going. elderberry flu prevention
Elderberries are so easy to grow, we've been propagating them all over and the birds have done some too! You can root cuttings pretty easily in the spring, that is how we've been getting more from the 3 plants we initially purchased.
We were going to use the pond for irrigation on some pretty intensive gardens to avoid using the well for the house. I'm not a huge fan of pulling out that much water out of the ground that we rely on for ourselves. The problem with the pond appears to be the soil type is sandy clay down to about 3-4ft and we would have to have the pond excavated. Below that level is rock. This information came from our county extension and their experience in our area. We were going to pretty much plan on bringing in clay anyway, so I'm not sure the basis for that. We'd like to get a second opinion but we cant get anyone to pose any interest! Maybe I'll just dig a 6ft hole and see what happens,...that should be easy, haha.
At a minimum we will be putting in some swales on the hill above the pond location if it does not work out, at least that way i feel a bit better about using the well and it can become our nut/berry forest. The other option was to add rain catchment to the house on a large scale(~10,000 gallons) and use that water. But that also poses its own problems and will definitely be something we look into later if needed.
