Homestead mailing list

["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

It is just plain weird.  You'da thought someone had taken the twelve acres 
and neatly divided into four parcels.  If you sliced a wedge out of our 
hill, you'd see that our property is terraced naturally.  Each of the 
"terraces" has at least one section that has standing water or a marshy area 
until June, sometimes July.  Except, as the weirdness continues, the bottom 
section which is next to our two creeks.  I can drive all over it all year 
round.

We haven't decided what to do with the old garden area.  At some point 
someone put a lot of work into, composted like crazy (you can almost dig in 
it with your hands) and actually terraced the hillside and hauled a load of 
rock to do it.  The problem is that although it faces west, it gets 
relatively little sun.  At first we used that garden area only to find that 
the fruit trees and berry bushes were drowning and that the main sloop 
simply didn't get enough sun for the corn and beans.

It's a shame to waste the area but I haven't figured out what will do well 
there except willow trees <g>

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Jones" <billj AT harborside.com>


> It sounds as if you're blessed with low areas with some water flow
> underground.  In the area I originally chose for my garden, at the
> highest point on the property (it was convenient and never flooded),
> everything required watering every few days (with the usual lack of
> rain).  When I planted a summer crop in the area downhill from the
> seasonal spring flow, further down the hill, it hardly ever did, even
> though it was the water-loving yacon (Polymnia sonchifolia).  I wish
> that every piece of ground was similarly blessed, for you could just
> create raised beds, but I don't think it's possible for every point to
> be a low spot.