permaculture

[kfinigan@telus.net]

hi:

just backing up Mark's observation about the amount of work being excessive
(possibly - don't where you are...) , I thought I'd share my experience:

year 2001: planted 35 hardy and apple cherry trees in a field that had been 
neglected (old garden returned to weeds) for about 8 years. Land has a slight 
slope. Dug three swales (contour ditches) going down the slope, each about 10 
to 12 inches deep (one shovel) and 12 to 18 inches wide (one shovel plus some 
edge-shaping). Planted trees on the downslope side of the swales.

Precipitation:

average annual precipitation around here is about 17 inches, Potential 
evapotranspiration about 21 inches (i.e. we lose more water than we get)

actual precipitation:
2001: 3rd lowest precip. in "recorded history" (about 120 or 130 years) 
2002: 1st lowest precip. recorded

we watered the trees (the swales actually), 3 times in the first 3 weeks in 
2001. Zero times in 2002. About 8 trees had some cardboard and straw mulch 
around them. 34 out of 35 trees are still alive.

seems to be working for us...

Kelly





Quoting Mark <mpludwig@facstaff.wisc.edu>:

> At 10:23 AM 11/12/02 -0500, you wrote:
> >   When googling "water harvesting" I found an African site which had lots
> of
> >water catchment berms used for growing trees. I thought I'd adapt that
> >concept in an easier way and create a diamond pattern on my sloping crop
> >fields using the half V trencher instead of so many berms, like a cocked
> >tic-tac-toe board or a giant piece of graph paper on a slight rotation off
> >alignment with the slope. Thus we could plant all shade and orchard trees
> in
> >the intersections and all extra unabsorbed water in that 'quadrant' would
> be
> >channelled by the surrouding half V trenches directly to the trees, thus
> >multiplying the use of rain- as if several times the rainfall had
> occurred.
> 
> This sound both excessively complex and possibly failure prone.  Unless I 
> misunderstand you, these channels will all run down hill, and though you 
> might think this will get more water to your trees, my guess is that it 
> will actually hold less and will cause streams of water to meet at your 
> trees and possibly wash them out.  The advantage of trenches or keylines on
> 
> the contour is that the water stops there and can soak in rater than 
> running down the hill, this cross hatch will not really halt the 
> water.  Always keep in mind when working with runoff that you have to 
> design for peak loads (referred to here as X year events, ie 10 year events
> 
> happen once every 10 years on average).  What would your system look like 
> if a serious thunderstorm took place?  How about a hurricane?  I can't 
> imagine this would be much fun to mow either.  I also question wether water
> 
> is such a limiting factor in your area to require extensive effort to 
> conserve it, simple contours and efforts to build soil organic matter to 
> hold water longer between rains may be quite sufficient.
> 
> 
> This comment on poplars' longevity makes me wonder what other more
> permanent
> trees could be suggested.?? I'd think some poplars would get 40-60 years
> old
> or more. That should suffice fine for seasonal vegetable gardens.
> Permanence
> is of course the best.
> 
> I would guess the life span to be about half that if our northern Quaking 
> aspen is similar.
> 
> 
> 
> Mark P. Ludwig
> Poultry Research Lab
> University of Wisconsin -Madison
> 608-262-1730 WK
> 608-846-7125 HM
> 
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