Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Ken Hargesheimer <minifarms2@yahoo.com>]

This is the steepest farm I have seen but there are thousands of them using land up to 45°.  The plantations take the best and that leaves the other for the poor family farmers. 

I leave 13 May for South Africa to teach at the University of Port Hare.

Ken

---

From: Tradingpost <tradingpost@lobo.net>
To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Sunday, May 1, 2011 10:44 PM
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] [KC No-Till] Growing Veggies on a Former Parking Lot


Fairly extreme terracing, hmm? It's always about adapting best methods to wherever we hang our hat. To begin with we have shallow topsoil so it needs raised beds to get soil depth. Also we're on a slight slope, not bad but enough to rule out flat gardening. So I've made a LOT of framed beds with salvage 2" lumber, wider boards on the downside. Sides sit in a shallow trough with dirt fill around to help keep water inside the bed. And since the ground is uneven I make 8' sections 3' wide and join the next 8' section a little higher or lower so beds can be as long or short as needed on uneven ground. All screwed together cheap, no fancy brackets or kits. Somewhere else it all might be different, huh?

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 5/1/2011 at 8:58 PM Marty Kraft wrote:

>I would like that information.
>
>Marty
>On May 1, 2011, at 3:52 PM, Ken Hargesheimer wrote:
>
>> I visited a farm in Honduras that had a 72° slope.  Had been farmed 
>> for 6 years. During Hurricane Mitch with 30 inches of rain, no 
>> erosion!!!  The farmer had built benches one meter wide and each 
>> one meter below the next one with a very slight slope to a grassed 
>> waterway.
>>
>> That could be adjusted to be used anywhere in the world.  I can 
>> send info to anyone who wants it.
>>
>> Ken H
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>
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