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Thought I'd share my new experiment and put the results here when I see what happens. I got some red cinder delivered (cheapest) and had the guy dump several large piles of it in a low spot on my property. I am then going to have soil delivered and dumped on top of the cinder. I dont plan on doing any shoveling at all. I will then plant some fruit trees on the top of the piles. With any luck, the height will deter pigs and also produce great drainage and rooting. Later on, when I have more money I will fill in the rest of the area so it's level. I bought all the fruit trees on craigslist or had them given to me. I am not putting cinder anywhere else because I dont want to have to maintain it. I will also put perrenial peanut under the fruit trees for an allnatural nitrogen fixer. I'll see how it works out!
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Getting soil on wed and need to try and remember what kind of avocados you gave to me Carey. I tried to email but I dont think it went through. Do you recall if they were spring or fall bearing? I think fall. Anyhow, thanks again!
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The email did go through, I just haven't checked... but ours are fall/winter...so if those seedling follow their probable parentage it will be a good idea to get spring bearing ....
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The implementation of this idea of plantings has surpassed my wildest expectations. The mounds are 5 or 6 feet tall, and I guess this has deterred the animals. I dont have weeds growing yet, and I know I'll have to deal with this in the future, but everything that I planted has taken off really well. I also put some blueberry bushes, strawberries, and thornless blackberries in the sides of the mounds. I planted some veggies on the top of one of the mounds as well. Yesterday, I got my first "harvest" of spinach (enough to make a salad). I suppose this is just a "hypervariant" of the traditional hawaiian way to growing taro in mounds. Just in shock over how well this has worked out, and the best part is that I did zero ground prep (aside from watching the dumptruck dump the dirt), and it was so incredibly easy to plant everything in the freshly delivered dirt.
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I'm very intrigued. I have considered planting in mounds as well, large mounds. Digging in the ground is so hard and only gets you a foot or two at the most unless you use heavy machinery and also manage to break through a lava layer to soil underneath, otherwise you only get the benefit of the hole you dug. Just seems like more bang for the buck. Julie, where did you get your soil?
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I got it delivered from a guy named "Jim". His details and info about the soil are on the "soil delivery" thread. I bought one big dumptruck full of red cinder, and then one half of a truckload full of soil. I have a really low point that I wanted to fill in totally, but it would have cost a fortune, so I just figured I'd make 4 mounds and then later, if I had the money I'd fill in around them. They are big mounds!
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There is a possible downside to the mound theory. Without being able to penetrate down the roots will spread out wide on the surface of the substrate. I have seen trees like this fall over when they get big. Once they fall over you really can't stand them up again. So some years of effort can be lost.
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OH, I want them to be able to be movable in a few years if I ever get the money to fill in that area properly. I'll move everything around then.
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Eventually, I'd expect the sides of your pile will be difficult to maintain unless you use hand tools. We've stacked concrete blocks three layers high in a rectangle shape that's about twelve feet long and about four feet wide. The middle was filled in with some topsoil that was being cleared off a lot and was given to us. Cinders and soil would work well, too. Putting a metal pipe or chunk of rebar down the holes in the concrete blocks and filling the holes with rocks does a lot to keep the blocks in place. One raised bed planter has a papaya growing in it, the rest are all vegetables. They are extremely easy to care for, easy to pick the vegetables, especially the short ones that you'd usually have to bend over to pick. It's also easy to keep them neat and tidy since they can be mowed or trimmed with a string trimmer.
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"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
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Yeah, this is an experiment. I agree that the sides may need to be reinforced somehow in the future. OR possibly the entire mound will just sort of spread out. That's actually what I'm hoping for. Things sort of shift naturally, if I dont fill in around the mounds. My longrange plan is to "fillin" the space around the mounds so they will be more level but I just didnt have the money initially and wanted to get stuff planted and started. They've worked well for that.
