British Columbia, new climate clay soil
Hi all! Hoping for your tips and tricks for our new property. We have 1.25 acres in southern BC on what used to be a horse ranch. The entire property subsoil is clay and gravel (lots of quarries in this area) and we are right on the boundary of a flood plain.
Our neighbours have been telling us that for over a year, our front field was used as a dumping ground for fill and all kinds of debris, then minimally skimmed with topsoil and used to graze horses. We have very hot and dry summers (35-40 degrees) and very wet, windy and decently cold winters (VERY windy for 6 months, down to -30 with windchill).
Our front field takes the run off from the neighbours property and we get a large pond sitting there. We would like to turn it into a seasonal pond that infiltrates water to the ditch on the other side.
We installed a veggie garden last summer, amended down 2 feet, and still had rocks coming through constantly, as well as carrots and other tubers being pushed out of the ground. We are lasagna layering that garden, but would love some tips on managing the field. I would like to turn it into a wildflower/grazing field for goats and install a pond that will deal with the winter water. Should we abandon going down except for the pond and focus on building up? I am adverse to digging too much as I don't really want to start unearthing all the debris under the surface. We were denied a permit to excavate the field and remove the debris.
Tips for the following would be appreciated:
Building a natural, seasonal pond that can intake and infiltrate water in the winter but be dry in the summer, without using any plastics.
Best way to amend the soil...hugelkulture? Swales? Combinations of both? Other thoughts?
Any suggestions for plantings? The typical water managing plants are struggling in the soil, such as willows.
My husband and I are both trained horticulturists, but this area is new to us and so is permaculture! I'm currently taking an online course in permiculture design, but we want to get a few things going ASAP.
Thanks!
Edit: Soil type is listed as sombric brunisolic soil on clay (so acidic soil), but I believe most of that topsoil is gone.
Posted May 14, 2019, 6:49 PM UTC · edited
Did the previous owner illegally cap a wetland watershed? Oof.
If you can source enough material I’d suggest you try windrow composting across the area, starting up slope and moving down (truck in the initial pile, use small machinery or elbow grease to kick it down the hill thereafter). You’ve heard of chicken tractors? A windrow is a worm tractor.
In BC it should still be temperate enough for daikon to grow. They should punch through material the carrots couldn’t. I tried alfalfa in one spot but my results were inconclusive. I’d like to run that experiment again in a couple of years when I will have a similar problem due to construction fill.
There are lots and lots of native seasonal wetland plants you could look at. I’m fond of camas myself but nobody I know has had enough of it to try to work up a recipe for cooking. I can’t recall how evergreen huckleberry feels about wet feet [edit: they prefer uplands] but it’s pretty in the winter. Cranberries?
Excellent suggestions, thanks so much! The previous owner did a loooot of illegal things, unfortunately!
Our slope is very very minimal but we will try to work down the grade. We are heavily restricted due to double zoning (ALR and RR2) and the bylaw guy is a hawk, but I think I can get away with a certain amount. I know how to work with ALR and their rules circumvent municipal, so we are going to get some ducks to make the pond a "need", and goats to make soil remediation a need.
I can actually get camas from one of my old professors! Good idea! Ditto with the daikon, we will give that a shot. There is a native plant nursery down the road but i have so far been unable to get them to return calls.
The problem is that it's not functioning as a wetland and is horrendously dry in the summer and we are always on water restrictions and our well almost runs dry with just household and one veg garden use. Water collection is also on the list!
Thanks again!
Camas I think will survive as a spring ephemeral. Down here the camas is already in bloom so as long as it sets seed before the dry spell hits you should be fine.
Spring ephemerals are probably good for quite a bit of your property. Sheet mulch in spots where you can get some shade established. Dried out saprophytic mushrooms become hydrophobic. The first rain after a dry spell will sheet off unfortunately.
If the land is mostly flat you might be able to haul in a couple of deciduous logs for nurse logs. Licorice ferns on the north side tucked up close to the might fry a bit in the summer but they’re tougher than they look. The rhizome is hardy.
Edit: I seem to be suggesting you use a mix of woodland and prairie biomes here. With that soil getting the whole thing into “food forest” shape will take a lot of effort so I recommend you let a big part be prairie now and concentrate effort on trying to get deeper forest soil in a few islands. Once the soil food web is established there, you can expand outward.
Some people swear that they can build soil faster by taking a couple pints of soil from healthy forest and tucking it under the wood chips in their sheet mulch. Haven’t done any experiments myself.
Awesome thank you. We lost a lot of limbs from a horse chestnut and some maples went down across the street in a storm. We earmarked them for firewood but will re-assign some for nurse logs. I can wild forage licorice fern super close to here, great idea.
Licorice fern loves big leaf maple, dead or alive.
Separate out the small diameter wood for straight compost. Google ramial wood.