Podcast 661 - Bonnie Bassan's Consultation - Part 1

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Summary

part 1 of a 2 part podcast

Paul consults with Bonnie Bassan about her property in New Mexico

She has about a half acre lot, pretty much flat with a smallish house.  Part of it has a leach field for the septic tank.  The ground is mostly clay and not much grows there.  They get about 10" of precipitation; it can get as low as 0°F in winter and there's quite a lot of wind. There's a well, which makes Paul happy, and an old chicken coop.

As usual, Paul suggests hügelkulturs.  Jeff P asks in the chat where are the logs gonna come from:  There's a dead tree but it may not be enough.  However Paul suggests building the hügelkulturs by digging down about 3ft, and using the clay/dirt which is dug out to build up about 4ft.  This gets you a 7ft hügelkultur with less wood and dirt/soil required.  The hügelkulturs are going to need irrigation for the first few years to build soil.

He also suggests making taller hügelkulturs around the boundary, leaving some gaps for access.  The best way to make tall hügelkulturs is to hire an excavator for day.  By putting the hügelkulturs at different angles, they will create shelter from the wind, and the lowered paths will help to retain the rain when it happens.  The exception will be the leach field for the septic tank, which you don't want to build on.

Bonnie was thinking of importing manure to improve the soil, but Paul is wary of manure, it's hard to get known organic manure with no toxic gick (in this case, persistent herbicides which have a half-life of 7-10 years).  A good tip when sourcing manure is to ask if it's likely to contain a lot of weed seeds: if they say "no, it's fine", then they probably use weedkiller.  The same applies to some chicken manure in the old coop: it depends what the chickens were fed on.

Paul suggests planning out the hügelkulturs on paper to see where they can go, as Bonnie already has a drawing of the plot.

Relevant Threads

Southwest USA regional forum (including New Mexico)

Hugelkultur forum

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