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Summary
Paul continues his consultation call with Evan, who owns land in Massachusetts.
Evan suspects that the previous owners buried a lot of old asphalt when they built the house, so the first thing Paul would do is try to find some place to test soil for toxins and get a bunch of samples tested. If it is contaminated, Paul would want to dig a lot of the contaminated soil out and get rid of it, then get some new soil from somewhere with tonnes of weeds. If the soil is fine, then he’d put in some hugelkultur beds along one of the border fences, made of good soil, wherever it’s from. Fortunately, the number of trees and amount of vines growing implies that the soil is at least decent. The hugelkultur beds will best be placed and angled so that they help drain cold air away from the house’s main window and with 6-8 feet wide paths because they tend to create jungle. The land can be quite windy as it’s on a hill, so hugelkultur beds can also be useful as a windbreak, particularly with interlocking curved beds, but there’s not
enough space for that. House can also be used to help keep wind out from between hugelkultur beds.
There’s a bank that looks like it could use some trees to support it. Paul started off using grasses, bushes, and nitrogen fixers to keep hugelkultur beds intact, which is a similar principle, and Evan’s bank doesn’t want to cast too much shade. Speaking of shade, there’s some trees on the boundary line that Paul suggest removing to get more sun on the property, unfortunately most are on the neighbour’s side but he might be willing to have them removed in return for bribes? Naturally Paul suggests pies…
Relevant Threads
Hugelkultur Forum
Permaculture consultation with Paul Wheaton
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This podcast was made possible thanks to:
Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Eivind W. Bjørkavåg
Suleiman, Karrie, and Sasquatch
Bill Crim
anonymous
Kerry JustTooLazy
Jocelyn Campbell
Wade Luger
Sasquatch
Kyle Neath
Chris Sugg
havokeachday
Bill Erickson
Dominic Crolius
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
G Cooper
Penny McLoughlin
Ash Jackson
Mehron Kugler
Lisa Goodspeed
Mark
Pasquale DeAngelis
Sean Benedict
Greg Martin
Rita Bliden
Dana Martin
Candace Dahlk
Keith Kuhnsman
Eric Tolbert
Ruwan Nanayakkara
Polly Jayne Smyth
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