Sam Rosenthal

I can't seem to find the link again, but I saw somewhere people who were repairing and preserving their roads using low quality coarse, half decomposed compost. They would lay it out in berms across their roads and driveway to slow the water and to direct it to flow where it would benefit plants. When it packs down from traffic they reapply and as a result have less wear and tear and soil erosion on the road. This is probably best used to keep water from eroding your road and making some repairs. If your road is severely damaged you may need to use machinery but I would suggest using a method like this to keep your road like new, while collecting valuable runoff water from your road.

Perfect! It's been laid out and solarized by chance and I'm also adding great compost and some seaweeds.

Oh, and the manures aren't from animals not feed organic hay, but just hay. Also I do the smaller veterinary tasks for the owner of the steer manure so I know they haven't been medicated, etc.

Awesome! I've never really used rocks and have a ton I've been waiting to look for uses for. Sounds interesting! What do you mean by "heavy" water?

Do you think I should have a drip line for each berm or that if I have one at highest berm it will permeate enough? Great tip about the early winter watering, I hadn't heard about that.

If your just looking to clear some land during part of the year I think I would just build myself a chicken tractor and fill it with male meat chicks during seasons where there was lots of forage you need cleared and for them to eat You could probably use http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/red_ranger_broiler.html but I prefer to stick with my New Hampshires, the commercial meat breed used in early america on farms (I would never use Cornish X, especially not for foraging/clearing.). This way you dont need nesting boxes, you can build it predator proof easily (dont use chicken wire! predators go in through it so easily), you can clear you land, and at the end you get a freezer full of poultry.

1. Good breeds for this are style are hamburgs http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/silver_spangled_hamburgs.htm because they dont take much food and will roost to get away from most predators. The breeds suited for this are normally very unfriendly, cant handle confinment, and are poor meat caracasses. You will needs lots of insects and crops to do this. Consider adding compost piles near them and/or maggot/black soldier fly compostors.Chickens are very destructive, which can be a great help, but if they run out of food (and probably before) they will destroy any nearby plants you have. Good crops included millet, alfalfa, heirloom corn varieties, etc and http://www.greenharvest.com.au/PoultrySupplies/PoultryForageSeed.html. Fruit trees are excellent and the fruit itself and the spoiled fruit (insects) will feed your chickens. Mulberries are great and produce chicken food for 3 months.

2. If your going to let them free range they will find places to lay eggs out in your garden, however this can end up in stepping on some really old eggs, makes your hens in the field more vulnerable to predators, and means you are less likely to have chicks being raised successfully, plus I'm sure you can find uses for the eggs, or your neighbors would be happy to have extras. So no, but I would definetly build the boxes.

3. Not from hawks and stuff, obviously. I have seen coyotes buy me jump pretty high fences so I would get the extra tall netting if taking this route. However, hamburgs and most of the "flighty", light breeds ideal for subsisting without feed will have no problem clearing anything less than 5 feet I'd say and could probably get higher. I raised large cochins and much lighter hamburgs. The cochins would stay in their enclosure, not going more than a few feet off the ground, the hamburgs would be on the 6 foot chain link, on the barn, up in trees, whatever. A tall (6-7 foot) electric netting fence is very effective for most breeds though and most predators.

4. Roses, bamboo, any dense cover really, is good for the bird, but without locking them in at night and/or livestock guardian dogs this wouldn't even be a consideration where I live because of large numbers of coyotes. Plus chickens like to roam, especially hamburgs.

5. Turkey I've heard yes before, never raised them myself. Quail I hear some breeds are very aggressive and others docile. On a large enough plot you should be fine.


If your goal is patch clearing, if its stuff like new grass, tender greens, etc I would go with geese or ducks and avoid the destructiveness of chickens that needs to always be focused. It sounds like you want free range (from question one) but chickens wil clear what they want, when they want, if not fenced in. If fenced in having no purchased feed would be very tough and they would need to be rotated ALOT to get enough insects/protein. If you dont care about production though nutrition isn't quite as important. Really, the main questions I would ask is how much land do you have that you could allow the chickens to tear up, and really consider if you want to produce eggs/meat. These and some other factors will narrow down what breeds and housing make sense in your situation. Hope this helps.

You access to plenty of seaweed which makes good mulch and compost. I've never used it myself, but plan to and hear many good things about it as mulch and a soil/compost additive. Should be lots of info on this site and online.

Also, youre to late this year, but definitely put Tomato Mania at Tapia Brothers in the Valley on you list calendar. Its a huge heirloom tomato seedling sale. Lots of rare and unique varieties. \

Hi Guys,

I live in Agua Dulce, a few miles from Vasquez Rock National Park, located between LA and the Antelope Valley. It's a hot (hottest summer I remember was 113) and dry (average rainfall about 12 inches) climate with chaparral vegetation dominated by junipers, yucca, and schrub oaks, and annually mustard and foxtail's.

There is a horse trail running up a hill on the side of my property which collects a lot of rainwater and sediment, bringing it onto my property each year. To help, I built 4 15-60 foot swales (about 2 foot deep x 3 foot wide) on contour along the hill side. With the two feet of dirt I dug out of the swale, I made a mound in front of the ditch and used it covered up a small amount of random pine and other wood I had layed there (I think I added in some pepper tree I learned later is bad for hugelkultur, anyone know just how bad??) Currently I am in the midst of converting them into 6-7 foot tall hugelkultur beds to try and absorb all this water and hold it in for plantings.

I began converting one of these swales into a bed already and have filled it with some of my extra firewood and then alot of dry branches, twigs, juniper and shrubs a neighbor cleared. This woody pile is about 3 feet tall by 3 feet wide. I then added a 8" layer or so of loose alfalfa hay with goat manure that accumulates in barn, hoping to add some nitrogen, and to act in place of the traditional layer of upside down sod which is only available commercially out here. However, I recently discovered access to lots of large stumps (some are 100's of pounds), firewood sized pieces , branches, twigs, you name it, that a friend wants cleared. Is it too late to put the large stumps on this pile? I'm wondering if they will take to long to rot in my dry climate. With the other swales I was planning to partially bury the stumps in the swales and use smaller pieces branches above, but I am unsure how much wood, of what size, is ideal. In my desert hugelkultur, how much wood should I use relative to how much branches twigs, "sod" and soil I use ideally?? My soil to cover the wood pile also is also pretty poor and sandy and becomes a layer of clay after a few feet. Should I mix it with compost or something? Get new soil? Also are there any special considerations when doing hugelkultur is an desert climate? Do I want a wider based bed so to avoid drying out I think would be a problem in a narrow bed, etc? The wood I'm using very dry and the farmers almanac predicts .6 inches of rain in the next two months so should I water the bed as I build it up to get water holding benefits planting this season?

Also I have free access to several truck loads of composted dairy cow /sheep manure, and have practically unlimited availability of composted horse manure, alfalfa mulch, and straw and some goat manure.

My general plan for the untouched swales goes add 3 feet of stumps, then 2 feet of braches/twigs/leaves, then a foot of 3/4 composted dairy cow/goat manure mixed 1/4 alfalfa mulch. Then I was going to add a foot of native topsoil. Blend this into the compost beneath a little, cover with alfalfa mulch and plant. I have a good amount of extra tomato, squash, watermelon, lima bean, sunflower, and corn seedlings I can plant their too, I dont really expect them to survive with summer coming up with no water at al but I would love to be wrong. I also, could bring up a hose or soaker hose to the area. I was thinking a soaker hose under mulch behind the first swale would trickle down and help it all during the intense summer drought and heat. I also really want to plant alfalfa, millet, several fruit and legume trees, and a lot of the pioneer plants from the "Greening the Desert" series, which Geoff Lawton’s used on the site (I posted the list immediately before this post if interested), to really get the system where I think the veggies will thrive. I already have the pig's face plant on the property which I just have to take cuttings from! Also, I have apple red I feel would be a very similar plant.

Any suggestions/comments/improvements? What would you guys do with these material? I'll try to add some pictures soon.

Been doing research on this website for a long time now and it feels great to be finally building my first hugelkultur!
Thanks so much,
Sam

Not my original information, but can't remember exactly where I found it.

Geoff Lawton’s list of pioneer plant species used on the site
If you came to a site like this and just started planting typical fruit and vegetables, you would fail miserably. Conditions are far too harsh. Without pioneer species (like these listed below) first setting the stage, the show just would not go on….
• Leacaena: a fast growing, medium size and life span tree; a very heavy nitrogen fixer and very high quality animal forage that coppices and pollards very well.
• Sesbania sesban: an extremely fast growing small tree with a short life span; a very heavy nitrogen fixer, grows very easily from seed.
• Albizia lebbek: a slower growing, long-term, large canopy, long-lived shade tree; a good nitrogen fixer and very drought tolerant.
• Tipuana tipu: a slower growing, long-term, large canopy, long-lived shade tree, with excellent filtered shade form for food forest canopy inter-planting; a good nitrogen fixer and moderately drought tolerant. Will coppice or pollard.
• Prosopis: a medium to large tree, long-lived, a good nitrogen fixer, a good forage including the pods which can be human food; coppices and pollards well but is very spiny and is usually pruned to a high standard to reduce human contact with the spines, unless being used as an animal barrier hedge or for firewood production as it is quite good stick fuel for rocket stoves. Extremely drought tolerant.
• Aciacia Farnesiana: a small, medium-term nitrogen fixing tree with food, medicinal, dye and perfume uses; also a thorny barrier plant. Very drought resistant.
• Poinciana: a large and beautiful flowering and exotic leaf form, very wide canopy long-lived nitrogen fixer that will coppice and pollard. Quite drought tolerant.
• Acacia Saligna: a small medium-term nitrogen fixer, fast growing, good fire wood, very drought tolerant.
• Bauhinia: a very beautiful flowering plant with an unusual leaf, a slower growing, large canopy, long-lived shade tree; a good nitrogen fixer and moderately drought tolerant. Will coppice or pollard.
• Honey Locust: a long-term, medium-size nitrogen fixer that is very thorny; will coppice and pollard and is very good firewood and a very good bee forage.
• Jerusalem Torn: a medium to large long-lived tree, a good nitrogen fixer, small thorns, very hardy with light shade canopy.
• Casuarina Torulosa: a fast-growing, long-lived, tall, slender form nitrogen fixer and phosphate fixer through fungi relationship; a very good wind break tree and excellent firewood.
• Cassia: a small, local bush cassia that is a medium-term nitrogen fixer that can be cut for mulch.
• Tecom Stans: a medium-size and -term fast growing, very hardy tree that can be heavily coppiced or pollarded for mulch. Not a legume.
• Pig Face: a succulent ground cover that insulates the ground from the intense heat, reducing evaporation and trapping organic matter and wind blown nutrient, creating a much improved topsoil environment. Extremely drought tolerant.

Also I wanted to include the list of pioneer species fromGeoff Lawton’s Greening the Desert. The following is from his website, I believe.

"If you came to a site like this and just started planting typical fruit and vegetables, you would fail miserably. Conditions are far too harsh. Without pioneer species (like these listed below) first setting the stage, the show just would not go on….
• Leacaena: a fast growing, medium size and life span tree; a very heavy nitrogen fixer and very high quality animal forage that coppices and pollards very well.
• Sesbania sesban: an extremely fast growing small tree with a short life span; a very heavy nitrogen fixer, grows very easily from seed.
• Albizia lebbek: a slower growing, long-term, large canopy, long-lived shade tree; a good nitrogen fixer and very drought tolerant.
• Tipuana tipu: a slower growing, long-term, large canopy, long-lived shade tree, with excellent filtered shade form for food forest canopy inter-planting; a good nitrogen fixer and moderately drought tolerant. Will coppice or pollard.
• Prosopis: a medium to large tree, long-lived, a good nitrogen fixer, a good forage including the pods which can be human food; coppices and pollards well but is very spiny and is usually pruned to a high standard to reduce human contact with the spines, unless being used as an animal barrier hedge or for firewood production as it is quite good stick fuel for rocket stoves. Extremely drought tolerant.
• Aciacia Farnesiana: a small, medium-term nitrogen fixing tree with food, medicinal, dye and perfume uses; also a thorny barrier plant. Very drought resistant.
• Poinciana: a large and beautiful flowering and exotic leaf form, very wide canopy long-lived nitrogen fixer that will coppice and pollard. Quite drought tolerant.
• Acacia Saligna: a small medium-term nitrogen fixer, fast growing, good fire wood, very drought tolerant.
• Bauhinia: a very beautiful flowering plant with an unusual leaf, a slower growing, large canopy, long-lived shade tree; a good nitrogen fixer and moderately drought tolerant. Will coppice or pollard.
• Honey Locust: a long-term, medium-size nitrogen fixer that is very thorny; will coppice and pollard and is very good firewood and a very good bee forage.
• Jerusalem Torn: a medium to large long-lived tree, a good nitrogen fixer, small thorns, very hardy with light shade canopy.
• Casuarina Torulosa: a fast-growing, long-lived, tall, slender form nitrogen fixer and phosphate fixer through fungi relationship; a very good wind break tree and excellent firewood.
• Cassia: a small, local bush cassia that is a medium-term nitrogen fixer that can be cut for mulch.
• Tecom Stans: a medium-size and -term fast growing, very hardy tree that can be heavily coppiced or pollarded for mulch. Not a legume.
• Pig Face: a succulent ground cover that insulates the ground from the intense heat, reducing evaporation and trapping organic matter and wind blown nutrient, creating a much improved topsoil environment. Extremely drought tolerant."

My neighbor has pig face so I just need to take some cuttings Anyone know of a supplier of these seeds or possibly started plants? Anyone know if apple red would work equally well? It looks similar and I have tons that seems to be greatly improving the soil in a section of my yard.