Steep Slope Strategies
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ย. 2024
- With one simple technique, we believe we have solved nearly every problem faced by farmers in general, and cultivation on steep slopes in particular. Our on-contour biomass bunds work by providing ecosystem services to mitigate the majority of issues faced, including soil health, humidity retention, erosion control and ecosystem biodiversity.
In this video we show two such 'contornos' at different stages of development.
This is incredible, thank you for sharing!
Beautiful work! I'm doing this for 2 years now in Kentucky USA on 15° slope combined with terraced/raised beds and swales. My hopes are that it turns into a wild hedge fence over time. Some people are opposed to these things because of "weeds" coming too close to the garden, but growing weeds is as much of a priority as growing crops in most areas I work on!! Great for wildlife and natural soil building, like you mentioned. I think more people will catch on to these ancient, free techniques over time, and I thank the indigenous people's of the world for inspiration.
One other good thing about the 'weeds' is often the bugs prefer them over your crops. I find this to be the case for leaf cutter ants for example.
@@EcoInstant We have seen that that depends largely on the soil.
Oh hello 😅 - This video is my quick vacation while on the train! Gold Alex, pure gold! 🎉
This comment made my day, how nice to see a familiar face!!
This is very similar to the solution we used in on a vegetable farm in the Altai mountains. We chose one of the shallower slopes in a valley for cultivation, and to eliminate erosion and drought at the same time, we cultivated 8-meter-wide strips (on-contour) while leaving 4-meter-wide strips between them, and to make it extra secure from flooding, we put a swale above the planting area. With the use of mulch, we get good yields without irrigation in the dry Altai summers. we plan to use the uncultivated strips for productive use, as well. Probably a mix of mulch production and crops like tea. But the key is to keep the ground unbroken in those areas.
Incredible video Alex! I am so excited to learn about all of these farming practices
Great work! I live in the mountains of western NC and have been doing this on our property. It was neglected for many years before we moved in...we cleared out the brush, mitigated erosion, and created fertile planting areas.
Fantastic! Thinking humans really can be good stewards, and a harmonious part of natural ecosystems 🤩
So very nice to see natural contour lines across slopes. Looks like your land is in a somewhat dry area and may not have a frosty /snowy time. A suggestion. You can try planting vetiver grass. Roots grow more than 10 feet straight down, stabilises the soil, prevents erosion, less effort, and roots are medicinal.
We do have some grasses very similar to Vetiver, which I do use sometimes in some areas. Its not the greatest grass for animals tho.
Cool to see someone else doing something similar to me, as I have felt a bit weird doing this! I am employing these "hugel swales" as I have been calling them - since I don't know a better name! - because my slope is too steep for swales and I have read suggestions that this approach is more appropriate for steeper inclines. I am looking forward to native species popping up in these piles, in fact some have already, and I have also been planting trees in front, behind and IN them to see what works best in our hot dry climate. I've done a few videos about it but hoping to show some concrete progress in the future.
Fantastic, I will be making more videos as well, this technique sounds perfect for you.
Some tips we have picked up: different species seem to respond differently to the different relative positions.
Some, but not all, seem to have a hard time 'in' the decomposing piles, succumbing to rot.
Below seems to work really good for secondary trees, as they respond well to the shade of the natives (which I keep pruning) and grow taller and straighter than they otherwise would.
Above, directly in front of, we have found humidity loving species very successful, banana, elephant ear, taro for examples in our climate.
A step above, the trees seem to 'lean out' away from the canopy of the bund. But we have had success with rows of turnips, medicinal plants and other crops of the same size.
@@EcoInstantThanks for the tips - yes, about planting trees actually IN the piles, I actually don't do that for the reason you mention, I plant them in the soil below, or even IN the ditch which I think is also fine for a hot climate. I haven't really been successful yet growing annuals in the shade of the perennials, I don't think the canopy is developed enough in most parts of the garden but that's definitely going to be the next thing because simply planting in rows in a garden bed just doesn't work in a dry climate unless you have access to a lot of water, which I don't. Will keep following!
I also live in Colombia. Now I´m farming on flat ground, but I used to have a farm on hilly land and I used a few techniques to prevent erosion. I have used vetiver grass to prevent erosion on the steeper areas, tree trunks across the hills. In ravines I used soil filled sacks and branches to slow the water. I had not seen this technique. Very interesting. Now I live in Cali and my farm is in the Cauca Vally. It´s small, about 6 hectares. But I enjoyed more the work on the hilly terrain. It´s more interesting and you can do many things to prevent erosion.
Saludos Alex- Just watched your recent videos and went back to my photos (only a couple unfortunately) from our Penn State visit to your farm back in 2016! I'm glad everything is progressing nicely, in 4th-dimension permaculture time.
Great to hear from you! So great to get the view from someone that can appreciate the changes over time!!!
Dude you got great vibes
Que suave hermano alex. Im doing something similar Texas on my slope, and have a few strategic wild areas im work on to control erosion and keep all my hard work from washing away 😅. Cant wait for the update. I got BlackBerry vines growing in my blacklocust wish i could do beans up here all year... How much is a hecacre up there? 😮
This is the way! Ecosystem services can provide great value in bands, bunds, patches or strips.
Land prices depend on a lot of factors but we have paid between 2k and 7k USD per hectare around here, we prefer 'fixing up' cheaper degraded or harder to access lands, which can include restoration but also road building. I certainly wouldn't sell at these prices mentioned!
@@EcoInstant I'd like to travel everywhere and build/breed a collection of plants that could oxygenize mars and maybe a few astroid clusters with enough gravity between them... Plants in space could be an infinite problem consuming Stars taking root in ice worlds vining through black holes...
@@EcoInstant that's not bad, and I appreciate your hard work I couldn't dream of low balling you on a bad deal. I'd happily pay what it's worth, but I know when you love something you can never part with it! I'd never take your dream away
@@houseofspadesamoderngarden6425 Its so true, there are 'market prices' for everything, but somehow when we put our love and energy into something it just seems to be worth much more, at least to us!
There is a saying here in Colombia, when someone asks the price of some land, the reply might be "Pide para no vender" - "They are asking (price) to not sell".
@@houseofspadesamoderngarden6425 Life is anti-entropy! I love this plan :) Count me in to garden some space rocks 😅
Very interesting, thanks for sharing it. Dealing with planning on slopes too, even if on an alpine terrain ))
Be sure to take advantage as much as you can of the native and already existing trees! On steeper sections these bunds become my walking paths :)
I struggle to implement the swail concept on ourland as we need great accessibility to our olive trees for harvest. The way you present might be adaptable to us. Great thanks buddy, send you some oil when that works out! 😉
This makes my heart happy! Blessings and Good Luck!
Interesting to hear about this. For a couple of years here in NZ I've been doing something similar. I wish I thought of it earlier! We have chickens and a steep slope, so I started laying down collections of branches every few metres on contour to reduce erosion. We're just building a bigger bund to prepare for some new trees and this one has a few waratahs to hold it in place. However with all the 'knitting' together of all the branches that have been cut it's probably self supporting now. How steep is your slope?
I had to look up the waratah bushes but they look beautiful!
We have slopes from 30 degrees to 60 degrees and more, the best video I have so far is this short one with a drone gives some impression of the steepness. th-cam.com/video/pTrFqpIlrmg/w-d-xo.html
Keep up the great work! Some of those can become permanent fixtures on the land, and might even distract the chickens from going down further 😅
Love the idea of the buns! Have you looked in to bio digestors?
I like the idea of biodigestors when you have pigs (or at least cows).
I used to flip compost but here in the tropics it does the work for us, and less work for me is better! So I pile it all up on contour and I guess the germans can it 'bunds', best english word I have found so far, seems better than 'berms' although that could be another one
@@EcoInstant Ah 'bunds' sorry, blame my bad hearing!
You have at least 2 humans and a dog, but doubt that would be enough to run a digestor! 👍👍
@@SimonHume81 Not enough poop!
Excellent video. Very sustainable management technique. The microme is like a mini jungle in its own beautiful miniature way ❤
Do you have a broad range of ant species?
Indeed we do! some are even considered pests by many farmers, such as certain species of leaf cutters, but increasing biodiversity gives ants places to live and 'food' to eat. They actually don't prefer to harvest leaves from crops such as chocolate and coffee plants, they much prefer the natives.
@EcoInstant can you catch some footage if you get a chance?
Australia, Japan & USA were infiltrated by Argentine Ants due to their many queens, fast reproduction & lack of competing species.
Fortunately, due to weather changes, their 40 year reign has reduced somewhat 😀
What does the ants do because I have carpenter, fire, and sugar ants?
@@msdramamusic it depends on the type of ants, but generally ants are participants in healthy ecosystems, whether they are carnivorous, leaf cutter or garbage cleaners.
If ants are so great, why do so many people hate them so much? If ants are causing you problems, its likely that your ecosystem is missing something. And what you can do about that, will depend on what type of ant it is.
So even when they are causing problems, they can be a great indicator of what you might do.
@@EcoInstant thanks they aren't causing me any problems but I was wondering what do they contribute to my system.
I like this concept, easier than swales I’m thinking, my husband’s concern is snakes and scorpions, how do you find the buns first harbouring venomous creatures?
@@exodusfamilybelize This is a good question, one I will think deeper on and make a video about!
First - these are totally way easier than swales!
Dangerous creatures will depend on the ecosystem - we may have slightly different concerns but I think easy enough to consider the options - snakes, spiders, scorpions and maybe some other edge cases, certain beetles or chinches.
With these (and other less dangerous pests) we really have two options, find a way to live with them or find a way to eliminate them.
I have not seen snakes inside (doesn't mean they are not there!) But I have seen once in a while on a new one without shade yet, a snake sunning itself. Once they are shaded I haven' t seen this, they like direct sun.
Scorpions seem to like the rocky areas much more, never seen them in the biomass. Spiders on the other hand - I do occassionally see some hiding out on the underside.
If it is the case that a particular pest in your ecosystem likes your biomass piles - at least you will know where to find them! This can be useful information, and if eliminating them is off the table, knowing where they will be is a good alternative. We have not had this problem in our ecosystem.
One final note, I have picked up a technique which I call 'farmer presence', when we go out into the farm I always announce what I am doing. I'm not sure the ecosytem, the trees and animals understand exactly what I am saying - but I am never surprising anyone, I talk outloud so everyone knows I'm coming. And this has seemed to help a lot, I've had noticeably less problems with getting affected by our pests (poisonous Caterpillar is the easiest to 'miss' for us).
@@EcoInstant thanks so much for your explanation! We are in Belize so a somewhat similar environment I believe.
I'm curious if it retains moisture and improves soil fertility in that specific area or does it (eventually) expand beyond the contour?
It seems to be expanding but this could just be the general fact that years ago we stopped using poisons.
I personally am convinced though, based on my anecdotal observations, that these underground resources are shared over an expanding area.
Isnt it same as hugelculture!
Its somewhat similar, but we don't dig down but stack on the surface all the wood. Over time the biomass piles on top and creates a similar effect