馃懡 danrl

i need to learn about forests and planting trees. 2/3 of the coastal redwoods i planted survived the summer (with plenty of watering) but it becomes too expensive. how do i reforest my land without spending hundreds of dollars each month on water?

we have rain season coming up in november. enough time to learn about forests? which books to read? anyone has an idea?

3 months ago

Actions

馃憢 Join Station

6 Replies

馃懡 danrl

@whixr as always, gold advice in your replies! what a treasure it is to have you on gemini/station. my appreciation! 路 3 months ago

馃懡 whixr

@danrl Converting erosion problem areas into assets :)

Making an A-Frame Level for contouring terracing swales could make for a fun quick video. 路 3 months ago

馃懡 danrl

@whixr this is hugely helpful. especially shaping for water to collect, that is something i haven鈥檛 tried yet. there鈥檚 a lot to experiment with this rainy season. once it starts i will try a bunch of things and see which ones work best. we do have some odd shapes where runoff is tough to control. 路 3 months ago

馃懡 whixr

@danrl maybe something there will proove helpful 路 3 months ago

馃懡 whixr

I have been doing this in the desert for a few years so I do have a few useful tricks:

1. Read the property to know where water collects and flows.

2. Redirect this flow using swales.

3. Planting locations are in areas filled by the swales.

4. If the soil drainage is fast, use some clay to form a cistern under each location.

5. Mulch, reed, grass, moss, or tile over with rocks each planting to slow evaporation.

6. Include water crystals and mycelium in the back fill medium when filling the cistern around the sapling.

7. Provide some defense against grazing animals via piles of thorny brush, hardware fabric, fencing, etc. 路 3 months ago

馃懡 bavarianbarbarian

dig a spring? or if you are lucky like me, have your own creek and a river behind the house ;) 路 3 months ago