Maybe not my best idea...

[matt walker]

Well, I'm wrecking the fence as fast, or maybe faster than I'm building it. Here's yesterday's effort...

What I started with...Cottonwood log from a tree I dropped in January. It's been patiently waiting for this project..




Cut it up so I could move the pieces...







Found some stuff around the property to put in there....OOPS!





Okay, moving forward, I'm gonna just live with that messed up fence, since it's not going to be visible from my perspective shortly...





Filling it up with the soil from behind the barn, getting rid of the muck area and scraping back down to the hard so it will drain, and bringing the good stuff up to grow in...you can see where it's coming from in the background..





And done for the day. UPS showed up about 7pm with a box of new trees, blueberries, grapes, and stuff. It's going in today!

[TruGrit]

... woah! .. good work .. and lot's of it .. gettin' it done right there .. reminds me .. gotta get a tractor with a FL and blades .. soon!

[SilverFlame819]

Jesus, you're a fast-working little bundle of energy. So... You put in a new fence, but are transforming the area in front of it into hugel beds? I'd think with a pretty new fence like that, most people would just line it with fruit trees or something pretty... Or maybe that's just me.

[Lollykoko]

Interesting fix of functions, Matt. I will be interested in hearing more about how it works out.

[pa_friendly_guy]

The Hugelculture bed looks great Matt. The berries and the trees should work great there. Sorry about the minor mess up with the fence. After all that work that just sucks. I too have had many plans that worked out way better in my head. I would say this was just a major learning experience.

[matt walker]

I'm pretty excited about this concept, fence damage notwithstanding. It's not supposed to be supported by, or even on, the fence, but I knew it would eventually end up incorporating the fence.

So, yeah, the whole property faces North and slopes North, so by creating that mound there I create a small south facing slope that will be protected down on it's lower slope from the cold North wind. It will collect water from the drive, and the heat from the drive and wind protection should help it be a warm spot. The back side will grow grass vertically that the critters can eat off the fence, and maybe I'll plug some of the back of the rounds with mushroom plugs. That spot was an area that sloped into the fence and just was a constant pain to try to mow, it was a labor sucker and provided no function, allowed cold wind to blow across my living area, and, well, you get the idea. I'm going to try to convert all of my property into these shapes, inspired by my garden beds. South facing slopes on small, on contour mounds that create edge boundary zones that slow water and collect nutrients, absorb sunlight and garner warmth.

My latest overview of the concept is; animal use zones on upslope areas above fenced boundary zones that transition to south facing slopes on mounds. Nutrients run down to collect and be used by the plantings on the warm mounds. We'll see...