Jeff Fountain

I didn't think it needed sealing because the soil profile is mostly clay. I have other ponds on the site that are holding water perfectly without the sealing. However, after watching this pond this past two months it appears as though it is not holding like the other ponds. What I think I'll do is have the dogs run around in there and stir up some clay into the water. As it settles it should seal well enough. If not, then I'll have to hand tamp the pond. A days work or so because it's not that big.

Thanks for the subscription. I'll be updating every week or so except during my vacation.

I did consider a hugel bed but I already have two and actually I don't think I need them. Between the snow and the rain and a good cover of mulch, I should be good. Besides hugel beds collapse over time and I want the height permanently to stop the wind and trap the snow.

You were right about the area being small between the berm and the hugel mound. We pulled back the center another 6 feet the next day. It's not so much the flat area that's useful. It's where the slope meets flat and where flat meets water that the magic will happen. Not sure what I'll do with the flat spot, except put grapes beside the berm and haskap and rhubarb on the water edge. Perhaps we will put a little fire pit or gazebo in there. The mid berm area will be getting saskatoons (serviceberry), elderberry, goji and nanking cherry as well as some University of Sask hardy cherries (Manor, romeo and Juliet and cupid.) Backside will be gooseberry spruce and chokecherry.

This little system incorporates all that I know about heat sinks. The south facing berm, the rocks and water... it will be interesting to see how much this passive system can do for me.

Please have a look see. I could use any advice you can give me regarding this system. Please subscribe of Youtube if you like.

Help!

I attended a Holzer seminar in Gimli this spring where I first learned of Kratergartens. As I am in Zone 1 anything that can give me a small thermal bump is greatly desired. Unfortunately, the seminar yielded little practical info on these systems, despite asking. But I I love the idea and have been brainstorming ever since. Perhaps that is what Sepp intended by being vague.

I have built a small model of what I think is a Kratergarten at my "research station". If any of you have done these before or have any experience please provide me some feedback... and Hey! follow me on Facebook if you'd like.

I find the concept of the Kratergarten fascinating. I recently attended a Holzer event in Manitoba and this concept was the most valuable technique I picked up. Unfortunately, despite pressing Sepp to provide more detail on their construction, many questions remain. I live in one of the coldest cities in North America and this Kratergarten may be of significant benefit. After Sepp had left for the day, I pressed one of the permavitae people to "dish out the goods" on these Kratergartens. What I understand from that discussion is that the main reason for them was to capture snow allowing for sensitive crops to be buried and not exposed to the elements.

I have noticed with many of my more zone iffy plants, that the portion of the plant that remained under snow cover survives and thrives while the portion above the snowline dies back.

What I would like to try is to build a horseshoe shaped krater and terraces with the terraced berms blocking the northern, eastern and western winds and sun exposure leaving only southern exposure to the plants. I would then plant the backside of the berms with evergreens so that I would have a massive windshelter on the north east and west sides. I am assuming that this would act as a huge snow trap, suntrap and sheltered area. Combined with black rocks on the berms facing south and a pond, this would be an effective microclimate.

Thoughts?

Adrien!

Well I didn't think you would stay in Thompson, but you must have left just after we met, eh? probably not enough room in Thompson for two permies LOL!

Miles, thank you, I did look at the thread and the video of the Kratergarten how-to. I didn't get much from it so I will have to create my own and video document it.

Sepp mentioned that the value to Kratergartens was the snow capture in the depression allowing more of the plant to be sheltered under the snow. I have more to add but I'll do it in that thread.

I think voles girdled my shrubs. The gnawing occurred below the snow line, most of the shrubs survived this but the girdling set back the trees a year or more... I can't afford these setbacks in the orchard... need some return on investment. Any ideas how I can keep them off my shrubs.

So I had the privilege of attending the Holzer event in Gimli, Manitoba... I have let the workshop digest for a couple of weeks, so that I could summarize my thoughts and impressions more succinctly. Here are some of my unfiltered thoughts:

Sepp has a lot of passion. It is clear when he speaks that he loves this work and loves to speak to individuals and groups about his experience.

Sepp works from instinct and uses natural feedback to progress. This was somewhat frustrating for me and a few others at the workshop. My biggest criticism of the workshop was that we were not told what to expect content-wise. The organizer (who did an excellent job) clearly mentioned that the content was at Sepp's discretion, however, the entire educational portion lasted about a day and a half and the rest of the time was for review and critique of our projects. Now normally this would be excellent and of high value to anyone serious about their project, unfortunately though, Sepp's team required us to have diagrams, contour maps and other info in order for a consultation to happen. Most people were unprepared for this, as was I, and the lost opportunity meant that, for those of us who didn't have the prepared info and documents, that we would be spending the next two days listening to consultations for other people's projects. Keep in mind that the lecture portion of the Workshop was really about a day and a half. There was value in listening to these project consultations for sure, but for me it was a difficult pill because none of these projects even remotely reflected my own project situation. Kudos to the organizer for doing all that she could to enable people to track down the info and docs they needed, it just wasn't a possibility for me.

The one and only technique of value that I picked up was the idea of the Kratergarten. This concept alone was worth the money of the workshop. I live in zone 0b which gets to minus 50 C occasionally, so any technique to get my plants through the winter was welcomed. In fact, micro-climate creation was the sole motive for my attendance. Unfortunately the info on building and siting these was vague and brief. While I will search out info on my own on Kratergartens (and would like to point out someone else asked about where we can find info on Kratergartens on this forum and was unanswered), but it would have been nice to get some practical info during the workshop.

Sepp really doesn't like government or politicians. I am both a government employee and an aspiring politician so I made sure I pointed that out to him to "give him the gears"! We had a good-natured exchange, but it was clear that he would feed me to the pigs if he could...

The workshop overall was light on practical education and consisted of many rants down one road over another. I think Sepp is brilliant, it is clear that he is, but I just wanted something more tangible than was delivered. Some things may have been lost in translation, others just not clearly answered. Of course, one of the major issues was that everyone was told not to ask stupid questions which immediately made people more hesitant to ask them to Sepp. (Nonetheless, there were one or two really dumb questions.)

I felt that the one hour sessions with Judy (?) of Permavitae, prior to Sepp coming in the morning were of more benefit than the time with Sepp. The answers were more direct, practical and useful. I regret that I didn't spend any time with the permavitae folks. It seems to me that time with Zach would have been much more productive. I regret not being there for those permavitae days after Sepp left, I just couldn't afford the time with little kids at home.

The absolute most valuable thing about attending the event was meeting the diverse group of people that attended. There were many people in attendance from my Province and are close by (if 800 km away is close). These connections will be valuable in the future and I look forward to keeping up with these people and their projects in the years to come. The workshop drew some people from far away places as well and many of the conversations with these people were wonderfully enlightening and a pleasure (thanks guys if you're reading this). The crowd seemed to be half purple, half practical, many of whom were drawn in by Jack Spirko's podcast (as was I). It was interesting to see the very different focuses for these two "groups". It made for a good mix of people and I truly enjoyed the balance of people.

All in all I would recommend this to people for the reasons I stated above... you are going to make invaluable connections to people who are of a similar mind, have similar goals and are discovering Permaculture at the same time as you. I would recommend a session with Zach and the permavitae folks over a session with Sepp, but that won't matter now as Sepp will not likely make it to N. America again. I look forward to getting more detail about Kratergartens and implementing this strategy when I understand it more clearly.

Finally, Kudos to the organizer, Kristen Benot. All you hard work and organization definitely did not go unnoticed. You ran circles around us to ensure that we were fed, sheltered and educated. Thanks Kristen!

I didn't realize there was another post on this somewhere... ah well this one was worth some redundancy.

Miles Flansburg wrote:Thanks for the info Jeff !
Is it only saskatoons planted in the hugel?

I am hoping to build one in the next summer or two and saskatoons are on my list, as well as raspberries,apples, all sorts of veggies and wild locals.

No I only measured the saskatoons because they are the most numerous on site. I have interplanted them with sea buckthorn, goji, plum, rhubarb, haskap, currants, chives, nanking cherry, hardy apples, and elderberry... i would like to use some more nitrogen fixers... perhaps siberian pea shrub.

I have alfalfa, clover buckwheat and daikon in the beds as well