To: "'permaculture'" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Gleying and such
Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 06:46:31 -0600
Alice Atwater, in her revelatory book "Water A Natural History" writes that
the tight rhizosphere of the great plains grasses disallowed any rainwater
passing through to recharge the lower aquifer, particularly the Oglalla.
She says it was only through the Buffalo wallows, and the prairie dog
colonies that a window of opportunity was created for water to percolate
below the root zone.
Gleying is another of those wonderful examples of man's beneficial use of
nature's lessons. If you drain a leaky pond and fence a bunch of cattle, or
hogs inside and spot feed and water them throughout the pond for a couple of
weeks and then slowly allow the pond to refill (remove live stock first!) it
will often seal and hold water thereafter. I certainly doesn't hurt to add
expansive clay to the manure urine mix the last couple of days and have that
trampled in also.
Gley derives from the Russian glei, or Polish glej which describes a bluish
gray clay which forms at the bottom of ponds.
This is typified by the presence of a gelatinous matrix, gliobacteria.
Another way of sealing ponds that is more difficult in these "Homeland
Security" days is shocking them. This takes some calculations but a
judicious amount of explosives are placed in the pond and set off. The
shock waves of the explosion force sediments and organic material into any
seeps and sometimes seal the pond, or, of course, the opposite could happen.
Scott Pittman
Director
Permaculture Institute
www.permaculture.org
-----Original Message-----
From: permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Dick Pierce
Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 3:27 PM
To: permaculture
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Suitablility of clay for building ponds
Is the answer - "gleying or glaying" (sp?) the pond? Manure, particularly
pig manure as I recall, is a good pond liner/sealer. Again my recall is to
dig the hole, let the pigs poop in it, and let them wallow in it - pressing
and troweling the manure into the soil (assume clay).
I lived for a time in Boulder, CO, USA and was fascinated in a chain of
small lakes - a couple were Boulder's water supply - that were referred to
as "Buffalo Wallows." They are on the start of the Prairie, just east of the
last of the Rockies where a lot of mountain melt water flowed onto the
plains. As the ponds dried up after the spring melt, the Buffalo would
wallow, and I assume poop liberally, in the mud. Over time/decades/centuries
these became very tight ponds. As I recall, much of the prairie in the area
was quite sandy, so the Buffalo and their poop did a great job.
On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 6:57 AM, christopher nesbitt <
christopher.nesbitt@mmrfbz.org> wrote:
> The term for biological barriers is "gley"ing the pod.