Happy Sunday! I'm up early, and got the south project on my brain, so here's a bit about it. Hang on, it's gonna be a long one.
The south project has changed a lot since we first moved here. It's been a place of learning and experience so far. These are the first seven months of progress.
Spring, shortly after moving in.
This picture was before I first mowed our half acre lot. This part of the yard had the greenest grass on the property, and I thought that meant the best soil. I would later learn that is not necessarily the case.
The first thing planted in the south project was clover. The previous owners dogs had worn a path from the porch and along the fence, which had contributed to a lot of water erosion on the bare earth. At the time, clover seemed the best choice for its nitrogen fixating properties and as a living mulch. I still think we made a good choice there, as the clover is doing well and the ground is covered.
As indicated by the T-posts, I was obsessed at the time with sectioning off our property and having everything separate and not integrated. That thinking has changed. A lot.
Summer, when everything died.
Summer challenged my belief that the soil in the south project was the best on property. If the soil was so good, why did everything die? Turns out the soil over here is very sandy, and dries out easily. Being the highest point on our land, water doesn't collect here, but runs off to the rest of the yard. The lone oak tree here also doesn't drop as many leaves as elsewhere, so there's not as much mulching and feeding of the soil. Grass alone isn't very good for that.
Projects over the summer included the south bed (left side by the tree), the long south bed (right side with all the leaves for mulch), and the south hugel (not yet created in this picture).
I saw the dryness of this area and recognized that we would need mulch for moisture retention wherever we wanted to plant, so that became a focus for any beds placed in the south project. When I learned about the water saving and soil building properties of hugelkultur, I was excited to add a hugel bed as well.
Fall, and the addition of swales.
With fall came rain. Everything greened up and we got to observe a few significant rain events that had some destructive potential. I had been reading about swales, and everything I read said wisely that you want to observe such significant rain events before building your swales because you want to learn and understand how water moves on your property.
After observing the murderous drying effects of summer on this part of the property, and with it being the most contoured area, it was pretty easy to see that the power of swales could be of great benefit here by way of their water holding and soil building properties.
Soil health is a thread that runs through all our projects here. There's no place on our property where that's more relevant than the south project. Soil is alive, and it supports all life on Earth. So it is important to us. If there's something that supports soil health, I want to be doing it. Swales, compost, mulch, wood chips, hugelkultur, it all has a place on our property. Soon we plan to add worm bins too, as a means of dealing with our organic kitchen scraps.
When we first got here, I had only barely heard of food forests. I didn't imagine that one would take over my mind and my yard! That looks to be the plan for the south project. An abundant and fertile forest garden.
So much progress made, and so much more in store!
Y'all stay tuned and we'll be sure to post about every ounce of progress we can make.
Stay relevant
Nate