Cody DeBaun

I wonder if the perfect is the enemy of the good, here.

Building a well mulched garden bed with some basic soil amendments will provide everything you need to grow a garden. That same bed will be better the year after, and the year after that, etc, but that doesn't mean it won't work well year 1.

Geoff explains a bit about that towards the end of this video

Howdy Jon!

Looks to me like the Devil's Walking Stick, Aralia spinosa.

I'm a ways North of you, but here's some thoughts that should still apply:

-Compost or mulch too heavy in oak leaves can be a problem. They're best in a mix. That plenty of manure you mentioned should do the trick!
-Magnolia, Mesquite, Cedar, Pecan and Walnut are all to varying degrees allelopathic, and may not play well with a garden. Especially the shells of pecans and walnuts. Buried under the garden wouldn't have the same effect necessarily, but
-Black Locust, Honey Locust, Catalpas and all of the above are pretty rot resistant, can take a long time to break down.
-Most of the Texas metros have services like Chipdrop, that take chipped wood from landscapers and deliver it to gardeners. I pay them $5 for the inconvenience of keeping out the above mentioned species and they bring me tons of mulch
-And speaking of: TONS of mulch. Even Spring and Winter gardens tend to dry out under the Texas sun, especially if you're in part of the hill country that still gets the full blast of the wind. Mulch helps, I hear some have had good luck with sunken beds, and something upwind to help break the wind (shrubs, corn, sunflowers, etc) can be a huge help. A little wind isn't bad of course, but this part of the state at least loves to flatten a garden.
-Mulch also helps with the 5-inches-of-rain-in-two-hours storms, and with hail season.

Keeping to a single species can be beneficial in certain instances,  such as: building a reed bed water filtration system for gray water, setting up in ground areas for things like king stroph, wine caps, miatakie, etc.  

Interesting! This makes a lot of sense to me, as most reedbeds are wetlands established far from any wetland microbiome. It also brings to mind Stamet's water mycofiltration system(s). Could you elaborate on this, RedHawk? I would very much appreciate it!

Hello all,

Total biochar novice here, hoping for guidance! I recently saw this little clip from an interview with Mark Shepard in which he said that, if there was a ready resource and it was appropriate to his situation, he could see creating a system that produced biochar, and generated electricity from the heat. This made so much sense to me, but I couldn't find any examples of this having been done.

A search of the wonderful biochar forum here at Permies yielded this post, but nothing else.

Is this a potential possibility? Or is the reason I can't find any examples that it's not feasible/would only work at a very large scale?

Wow, those walls are beautiful!

My understanding is that the problem with acrylic/similar finishes when it comes to natural walls is that they're waterproof-  no water in, no water out. Makes sense in keeping the rain in and the damp out, but it also seals whatever moisture is still inside the walls, so they don't cure properly. Just like rushed/improperly cured concrete, the wall will rot over time, due to the moisture trapped inside it.

That's my limited understand on the topic, hopefully one of the (WAY) more knowledgeable natural builders around here can contribute more!

Whoa. That's a great idea.

I think you won't find this sort of system at the residential level because finished compost offers its own benefits. It's a great idea for lower quality compost, like the stuff that results from sewage sludge, but for me, seems like more effort than its worth for the individual farmer/gardener.

I like having both compost and worm compost/castings for plants. I think they provide complementary benefits to the garden.

Hey there Markus,

I see no one's jumped in on your thread so allow me!

I hate to be the 'it depends' guy, but... =)

Any of those systems provide enough thermal mass to effectively cool a house in summer and keep it warm in winter. Integrating that wall style with passive solar design, appropriate tech heating/cooling systems and other elements of house design can create a home that is comfortable year round.

Which is most appropriate for your specific area depends on some other factors. How humid is the region? How wet are the soils? How much rainfall? Water plays a big part in the long term health and efficiency of walls. Also what's the elevation? How much wind reaches the site? Is it from a consistent direction, or is it more seasonal?

Rammed earth is traditionally seen in more arid circumstances, though there are notable exceptions to that rule. They're great for absorbing the heat throughout the day, and releasing it throughout cold desert nights.

Cob and strawbale are more universal in their use, though it's my understanding that straw bale is a little more common in temperate situations (where straw is more abundant/readily available).

There are a number of other strategies that are very helpful to keeping a home cool in the hotter parts of the world:

- Move heat sources outside. An outdoor/detached kitchen, shower, and laundry facilities help to prevent you from heating up the house you're trying to cool.
- Build to where the wind blows. Catching a cool breeze can make a huge difference in a home's comfort, and building with the direction of the prevailing wind in mind can mean a one-time action with benefits for years.
- Get low. This one is very dependent on your soils, but as we see in Paul's WOFATI building style, sinking a home a few feet into the earth can greatly contribute to the coolness and temperature regulation of a structure.
- Grow your house. Integrating plant systems, especially when paired with your ventilation system, can cool a structure significantly, while providing clean refreshing air at the same time.
- Cool in, hot out. Speaking of ventilation, being intentional about how air moves through the structure can help keep temps low. Venting hot air from the top of a structure, and using that movement to pull in cool air from near or even under the ground (using the Bernoulli effect) can continually cool your house, using the energy of the heat that you're expelling.
- Shade. Shading your roof and walls, either with plants or nonliving shade materials, can reduce the amount of heat energy entering a structure.

I know this didn't directly answer your question, but I hope it was helpful!

I see what you're saying, but I don't know that I would want to block any winter sunlight, even in Central Texas.


If it's permanent and relatively high up, what about angling the cloth? If the shade cloth sloped about 30 degrees, with the Northern side at the lowest point and the Southern side at the highest, you may get the best of both worlds. Taking more cloth to the side of the garden the wind blows from (should generally be the North or West where you are, though local topography counts), you could get the direct sunlight in winter, plus the warmth generated by a dark colored shade cloth. In the summer with the sun directly overhead, you could get the shade from the cloth while still allowing a breeze over your garden.

Might be kind of a pain, but for a more permanent structure like you're describing, it might be worth considering.

As for materials, I like wooden or galvanized metal fenceposts, and aluminet shadecloth. If you use wood be careful about finishes, if you use metal, same thing. Don't want to start adding toxic gick to your garden soil. Where you plant under the shadecloth, taking advantage of microclimates of light exposure, would make a difference. Your tomatoes would probably thrive at the edges of the shade, while your lettuce and asparagus would probably be perfectly happy at the center.

Howdy Phil!

I'll admit, I'm completely out of my depth when it comes to the specifics of your question. But I'll offer what thoughts it brought to mind, and maybe bumping it back up on recent topics will get a nibble from someone more knowledgeable.

Are the Vicuna you're referring to domesticated?

Here in Texas, there are a lot of farms that have had success raising exotic animals like elephants, giraffes, and goats from around the world. They're successful because the climate is close enough, and the animals have access to food similar to what they're acclimated to eating.

For an Alpine species native to areas with large temperature variations, I would hazard a guess that the main difficulty will be in finding a place at lower elevation with similar flora.

What draws you to Vicuna, specifically?