permaculture

[Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>]

Friend / colleague Rod had this printed in a local paper.

K

http://www.mountainx.com/garden/2005/0518rylander.php
Mountainside gardening

by Rod Rylander in Vol. 11 / Iss. 41 on 05/18/2005

I often hear people say, "Bottomland -- flat bottomland -- is what I 
want for farming." Mention mountainsides and the quick reply is, "No, 
it's marginal land and too expensive to farm."

But mountainside gardening or farming does have its advantages:

1. An acre is measured on the horizontal, so there's more surface area 
in an acre of mountainside than in an acre of flatland.

2. Mountainside trees have more leaf-surface area exposed to the sun; on 
flatland, solar energy is delivered mainly to the tops of trees.

3. Mountain acreage usually costs less.

4. A south-facing mountain slope receives more hours of direct sunlight 
each day (hence, more solar energy) than mountain valleys do.

5. The growing season is longer on south-facing slopes, since cold air 
sinks into the valleys and longer days mean more heat is stored in the 
soil. In Western North Carolina, it's not unusual to gain two frost-free 
months at higher elevations.

6. The side of a mountain has good airflow compared to the stagnant, 
flat bottomlands.

7. Gravity can help move water between beds.

Of course, there are disadvantages too:

1. It takes more energy to go up the mountainside (though it is good 
exercise).

2. Motor-driven machines can't operate as well on steep slopes (on the 
other hand, fuel scarcity may soon limit their use anyway).

3. Terraces can be difficult and expensive to build.

Converting a mountainside into a viable agricultural system doesn't have 
to entail a big investment, however. The reduced use of mechanical 
equipment can actually offset some of the costs of terracing. And if 
there's timber, it can be harvested for construction or sale.

But trees hold 80 percent of a forest's carbon, so when you log, you 
remove most of the system's growing capacity. That makes soil-building 
and terracing (to prevent erosion) urgent.

When I cleared my mountainside of timber, I wanted to be sure that I 
caused no erosion -- I needed every bit of dirt for my plants! The 
forest floor had about two inches of soil packed with small rootlets. I 
knew that as soon as I cut through this layer, it would open the door to 
erosion. So before planting, I raked the leaves into contours and 
scattered grass, wild lettuce, clover and other seeds, plus fertilizer, 
several times. It worked! Many of the seeds sprouted, creating a cover 
crop of legumes before any erosion took place.

After clearing the land, I had a huge pile of small limbs left over. I 
used them to create rows on the contour, helping form terraces. I also 
arranged some big logs along the terraces, secured with stakes made of 
highly rot-resistant black locust.

If the goal is to create an orchard, each tree or shrub requires only a 
small swale behind a short log. Essentially, you're creating a series of 
separate raised beds.

There are several ways to make terraces. The conventional -- and 
expensive -- approach is to hire someone with a bulldozer. But for some 
of my terraces, I erected small, 7-foot-long logs vertically in a 
2-foot-deep ditch to create a temporary terrace wall. I will now use old 
automobile tires (filled with dirt and stacked on top of one another, 
slanting into the mountainside) to construct a retaining wall in front 
of the log wall. It will be a race between my tire collection and 
fungus. Hopefully the logs' decomposition will be slow enough for me to 
finish the tire wall first.

Because trees contain so much of a forest's nutrients, burying logs is 
actually one of the most efficient ways to build soil. Masanobu Fukuoka, 
a Japanese agronomist and philosopher who's considered one of the 
founders of permaculture, proved this through extensive experiments in 
the mid-20th century (see /The One-Straw Revolution/, Rodale Press, 1978).

In Colonial times, farmers would put corn into stumps and let the hogs 
tear the stumps to pieces in pursuit of the corn. I plan to modify this 
method slightly, putting corn in holes in the ground above terrace walls 
to entice the hogs to help level the dirt.

Last year I tried the Fukuoka method of gardening, cutting small areas 
out of the cover crop for planting vegetables, and I'm now an ardent 
follower. The legumes keep growing, providing a continuous supply of 
nitrogen to the plants. When we get too much rain, the cover crop 
absorbs the excess; and during dry times, it shades the soil, reducing 
evaporation and drying.

To manage a sustainable farm or garden, soil health must be improved 
each year. Forest soils in this region are usually acidic; most 
vegetables, however, grow better in neutral or basic soils. The common 
solution is to add agricultural lime, but it's been shown that as the 
amount of organic matter in soil increases, the soil's pH has less 
effect on the plants in it.

At this point, let me confess that I am not a fan of composting -- I 
guess I'm just lazy! More importantly, when plants are composted, the 
aerobic breakdown releases nitrogen into the air. But when animals eat 
plants, the nitrogen is captured and made available to fertilize new 
plants. So a rotation of plants and animals seems to be the natural way 
of sustaining an agricultural system. (Of course, some residential areas 
prohibit keeping animals, forcing suburban farmers to rely on worms or 
hidden rabbits.)

And because mountainside farming eliminates the costs of buying, 
operating and maintaining equipment, more of the income is potential 
profit. Or, put another way, you can earn less and keep the same amount. 
And if you choose crops that require more attention and hand labor, you 
may be able to compete with mechanized producers. Also, by using 
Fukuoka's (or someone else's) organic methods to grow food, you can get 
a premium price selling to the burgeoning organic market.

Crops to consider include strawberries, berry bushes, fruit trees, 
asparagus, herbs and any vegetables you want to eat. North-facing 
mountain slopes may be suitable for growing ginseng, goldenseal and 
shiitake mushrooms.

Insect pests can be less of a problem on mountainsides too, due to the 
enhanced airflow and elevation changes. In addition, I built a long bat 
house on the front of my house that can accommodate up to 500 bats. I 
also put platforms underneath the eaves for phoebes and swallows -- 
insectivores that happily nest near human habitations.

I've also had good results with a combination of Muscovy and Indian 
runner ducks (the latter, I've found, will even eliminate fire ants). On 
my rooftop, I have a cover crop where the ducks can graze, and I keep my 
vegetable crops in cages, so the ducks can't eat the plants while 
they're consuming any insects trying to get into the cages. As a bonus, 
you get eggs: Indian runner ducks outlay the best chickens, and they 
don't scratch up the place.

So don't be afraid to turn a south-facing mountainside into your 
agricultural dream.

[Rod Rylander grew up on a farm, studied agriculture in college, and was 
a government agricultural agent in Belize and the Philippines. He lives 
in Earthaven Ecovillage outside Black Mountain.]

--
Keith Johnson
"Be fruitful and mulch apply."
Permaculture Activist Magazine
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