My two takeaways - the healthy grasses growing just downstream of the pockets you have created by picking a rock. That surprises me. There are grasses that survive in the area. Those grasses will spread out and form natural barriers to erosion as their roots dive deep. They just need a little more water to grow into the erosion proof mats of green. The organic matter that collects in the basins. That's your future topsoil - almost as good as gold. Prior to your structures - that black gold slid right off your land. The magic is happening. Stick to your priorities and keep at it. Get your house dried in so you have a place to live this winter. The process of picking rocks, building structures and fine tuning them is a lifelong commitment. I suspect it will take 30 years to be mostly satisfied with the placement and workings of enough structures to cover your entire property. You're making great progress! 😊👍
A consideration for your future monsoon-ish activities, get your raincoat on, and the rake out while it's raining. A little landscaping while the water is flowing gives one an amazing perspective on how to help it flow better or worse, as your needs be. Love what you're doing, best with all. Hello, from southern Colorado. It's raining here as I type this. 😊❤🌧
Another benefit to a rain wander with light hoe in hand is being able to check water flow while its happening and use the force of flowing water to correct/alter/repair and mark what needs doing for later work. It is amazing how easy it is to redirect drainage with a shallow gouge line when it is raining. The water does a lot of the work for you - and a quick scoop over an eroding edge to reinforce it save alot of time later.
@bookwyrms.2658 most definitely! Although have to be careful carrying around a metal rake or shovel during the storms... my umbrella is carbon fiber not metal as well. But I do agree with what you're saying but that's what the videos are for, I can look back and see exactly what happened and where! ✌🏾
You are making a lot of progress; I think you will be surprised at the positive effects in a few years. I think you found the type of property that can really be effective to improve the land by slowing the water down and soaking a large territory. It will also benefit others living on the perimeters, in the long run. I also hope you can move your buildings forward and make them more livable than a tent-that must roar during downpours. Of course, it takes a long period of sacrifice on your part. Most people would not be able to do it. Congratulations.
Third thought to consider: Studies have been done on reforestation efforts where organic waste (orange peels, coffee grounds) was laid down on the soil in a 1-3 foot layer. Turns out it really pays off in two years. Consider networking with your local town for gathering used coffee grounds (and other waste). I point out coffee grounds specifically because, when dried and compressed into bricks with saw dust waste, they make fire logs that burn hotter than most common wood. If there are any organic vegetable processing plants close, they will be happy to deliver truck loads to you rather than pay dump fees.
@ learn to spell poisons. The only poisoning that occurs is in your diabolical hallucinations. I never once advocated the use of untreated sewage on the Dustups. The game plan is to put all the sewage in a biodigester this would: reduce pathogens, create methane gas for fuel, and also, organic fertilizer. The treatment period would be be forty days or until the digestate reaches a pH of 7.1 or higher. You can not say that the Dustups can not use organic fertilizer obtain by this methodology.
This is so awesome!!! I can’t tell you how much I love this. Land reclamation is where it’s at. I can tell you from what I have seen, this plus cover crops is where it’s at!!!
Wow , what you have now is what Shaun Overton (sp?) is trying to achieve in his extremely dry acreage in Texas . I love what you guardians of nature are doing ! Great job , props !😊
He seems to get much more rain than Shaun though. I think it will take Shaun several years, if not decades, to get real growth anywhere that isn't watered. Though that's also kind of why I first got interested in Shauns project. Hoping to be wrong. 😅
Shaun has more money than drive to actually do the work, as his property is just a youtube money making exercise, in the time he has owned the first piece of land he bought he has done zero on it, that couldnt have been done in a week, growing Prickly Pear was crazy especially then its good for nothing.
@jamesmatheson5115 - isn't that the point! It's a learning process, and he is changing as he goes. His failures aren't failures if the change is part of the process. The issue is that he doesn't seem to have a whole lot of outside learning. I may be wrong, but, at least the viewers are helping with the process. Look at the stuff he had to remove as it was not allowed by the state. Also, that place is not going to be an easy task at all. It may take him 5 years of mistakes, and another 20-50 years to get it correctly established. His process and mistakes are why he get the views though. Those of us that want to do what he is doing are using his process to make sure we don't make those mistakes when we start our own.
This approach has not only restored grasslands but also enhanced the fertility of agricultural land and improved the ecological health of degraded areas. It's a great example of how innovative water management techniques can make a significant impact on the environment.
Hi from Lightning Ridge NSW Australia 👋 this is fascinating. Very doable on my outback, arid block, which I'm starting to "landscape ". Capturing the water we do get is my priority, especially in the planning stage.
I love this! The US Embassies in the Sahel countries in Africa have been supporting a similar initiative to block the Sahara from spreading into the greener side of Africa. It’s Reilly amazing to realize how simple it is for man to effectively alter the ecology of such a large area, so quickly. Well done!
I watch those videos too. It’s kind of encouraging that these project are relatively cheap and low tech and very effective. It’s mostly elbow grease. Hopefully the success in Sahal will begate more projects.
It's not uncommon for us to get 2-3 inches in a single day. Can we share some with you? Good seeing you doing water conservation.I know that you need it . We here have the problem of how to get rid of it. Not enough verses too much. No win both ways.⛈️☀️
Man Ive learned so much about desert rainwater harvesting from watching your channel. I live Long Beach CA but my family used to go out camping in Mojave on the regular and theres something about the desert I love. Im planning to do something similar and make an off grid cabin with a lot of rainwater collection using something like a 20x20 metal car cover and expand from there. But aside from drinking water which would be potable water ive learned so much from your channel about natural features to direct the water. I was even thinking like a small moat around the property that directs the water to some type of lined sump and you could pump the water to wherever your storage is. I think one of the best ideas for water storage ive seen is on Frugal Off Grids channel where you use heavy duty tarps like 40x40 or even 40x60 20 mil thick to create underground cisterns. Those tarps are cheap, like 350 bucks and you could even double up if you were concerned about tears. Then you make framing and a manhole to cover it all. Its way cheaper to store thousands of gallons than the traditional buck a gallon for above ground storage. It requires a lot of digging, but thats nothing if you have access to machinery like that tractor or a mini excavator. Also being that the tarps are underground and not exposed to UV radiation, they should last damn near forever in that state, but thats also why you put a tarp over the cistern like an umbrella to protect that lower lining. Subbed and like your content is great man!👍
Earthworks you say. :) Water is the one ingredient to make everything else with what you have. Dig those storage areas DEEP and wide. You have infinite clay. Looks like a great project.
I found this channel a few weeks ago, really nice to see all the water works. You are getting quite reasonable amounts of rain to harvest. My question: I've see a lot of earth works, but not a lot of content about what kind of plants you are trying to grow. the ecology of things. Do you have videos about your plans, do you plant pioneer species, or (fast) growing mulch plants that are suited for your area? What kind of produce do you intend to grow? Love to see more about that, keep it up!
Appreciate you joining the journey. I haven't talked much about planting, but winter time is when we'll be doing lots of planting and I'll talk about that!✌🏾
Great work, well done making the land better and greater. This water catching reminds me of what is being done in some parts of Africa where they dig a series of half circles (I think they call it half moons). With many half moons near each other creates a very vast are where water is retained. Keep up the great work!
@@GrowTreeOrganics You're welcome mate, such a good thing you're doing. Ah that's awesome about the basins, same thing but different name for it. Keep it up, with time you will grow an oasis. Your project to make a desert into a forest reminds me of a similar project by Shaun Overton called Dustups.
@lukaszbebnowski7633 I watch Shaun! Interesting approaches we all take to achieve similar results. Thanks for your support, still plenty more to do here!✌🏾
@@GrowTreeOrganics That's awesome to hear you watch Shaun. You're right about the approaches for similar results. One day when your done, you'll sit back and admire the results :)
Thank you so much for all of this. I have a small parcel and no earth moving equipment or budget for the same. You showed me how small things can make a huge difference. First Zuni bowls and microswales went up on my land this weekend :)
Very cool! I've done a few small-scale remediation projects in soil comprised of ~70% rock. The best method I've found to retain water is dig 4 feet deep, drop in logs at least 12 inches in diameter and cover with screened soil. It really helps to screen as fine as practical - 3/8 inch minimum, 1/4 inch is better and 3/16 inch is best. Before back filling, I mix with as much organic matter as I can muster, plus something to improve drainage. Certified organic rice hulls are very cost effective when bought in bulk. (Avoid cheap-o rice hulls - they're likely to be loaded with nasty chemicals, especially if they're coming from Indonesia.) 1/4 inch or finer pumice is better. If I intend to grow vegetables, I mix 2 parts rice hulls with 1 part 1/8 inch pumice by volume.
I guess this is to answer people insisting they know better than Brandon does what plants to allow to grow. Me, I am thinking about biochar. In the Amazon, for _terra preta,_ they also mix in fragments of broken pottery. They say the biochar and pottery mustn't be chopped too fine, I imagine so it won't be rinsed down and out of reach of roots. My wife just told me about "hügelkultur" mounds, a substitute for raised garden beds that I had not heard of: you dig a wide, shallow trench, lay logs at the bottom, smaller branches on those, then twigs and scrub, with compost throughout, and the soil you excavated on top, and grow your garden there. They retain water better than the native soil, and can be long and straight, or weave around drunkenly.
A catapiller D8 with a single leg ripper pulling through on contour would create mini swales & berms across the whole 10 acres in a couple of days...Seed or plant them before the rains, any grass growth would create cover & cool the land down, any rocks lifted would also make for good shelter... Writing from the very wet UK today...
Hey Brandon I love your channel. Getting ready to start a similar project in Zambia. May I ask how you created that water flow plan that you flashed in the beginning of the video?
Thank you. I started with the satellite image put the image through a program to give me the contour elevation lines. Lots of study of the land before I even saw the property for myself, which I'd advise seeing a property first, but I had already drew out a plan because of the goals we had and such and now being here it's just making slight adjustments to the plan to accommodate to what couldn't be seen on the map. ✌🏾
What is the clay content of your soil, you may be able to sift out enough clay to line your larger basin's thus holding the water even longer, like a large "oya", water pot
Very low clay content. More clay in some spots but mostly sand and silt. Some basins will be lined in one way or another while others are meant to simply soak.
So all in all rainwater harvesting is pretty simple. Work out where your contour lines are using an A-frame and then collect the rocks scattered around and pile 'em up on contour (all damn hard work of course) and slow down that water flow :) And dig out water basins for slow seepage. Looks like this is exactly what you are doing (seems very similar to Dustups in Western Texas). Out of interest, what will you be using your land for? Grazing for ruminants? Fruit and veg?
A- frame and a laser level as well really helps. But we'll be establishing a good forest, gardens, and just rejuvenating the land back to at least what it was and hopefully more! We are grazing goats and chickens on rotation as well!✌🏾
i'm just a humble geologist, your techniques shown here have a lot of merit. if i was on this job, i would do a perk test to more focus attention on water retention
Very sandy soil down about 15 inches then we have rock shelves I think of basalt with small fractures so water can get down, but we also have a caliche layer. Takes about 1 min for 1 gallon of water to penetrate!✌🏾 what are thoughts?
@@GrowTreeOrganics Well my friend, that's great news for when you put in your drainfield, not so good for growing apple trees... We could talk about soil amendment and natural water retention until the sun comes up but i think that keeping your forest growing during the stressful summer months should be the priority, to nurture topsoil, it needs an assload of water, yeah, my thoughts are soil amendment and F tons of water, like a 10 thousand gallon underground tank.
Learning little bits by watching you but .... in much less arid yet sandy soils, putting some cardboard down in the dirt adds to water retention and soil biome diversity. Would that work at all on your property?
Nice to see you guys regreening the desert.I just love it. Personally I’d focus on ground water and improving permeability of the surface. As ground water will not evaporate that easily.
Hello and greetings from Germany😀 Great work! Start regenerate the earth, perhaps by planting elefantgras or sedum or sudangras. It will stabilize the ground and build up mulch. CU🖖🖖
@ I always wanted to do an experiment whereas you take a dead log drill a longitudinal hole through the log then cap it at both ends after filling it with water. This water will work its way through both side of the log and retain water faster or so I speculate. Bury it and hopefully in a deserted area mycelium can make its way to plants roots and speed up growth…
The native grasses there have deep roots that will allow water to penetrate the soil better, so collect and spread their seeds whenever you are able. I love what you are doing, so please keep the videos coming!
Just holding water is not enough, I saw a video explaining what was done in an dry area of Africa. They encouraged tribes to bring in livestock for grazing and within just a few years, it had turned green like farmland with grass and lush trees and brush.
So I have seen the places in Africa, India, and other places doing similar, but also different earthworks, per their area, community, goals, etc. You'll have to check my older videos, we do have goats and chickens being rotated on the land to help fertilize and such!👍🏾✌🏾
Hi I live about 45 minutes away from you in ashfork I am working on my land and definitely appreciate some of the things you are doing I will adding some stuff to my plans
Amazing project. New subscriber and loving the content. One thing I will point out for you. All the juniper trees on the property are sucking your land dry. They are prolific water drinkers and even small junipers drink a ton of water. You should start thinning them out and planting dynamic accumulating deciduous trees. These will pull nutrients from deep down in the soil and bring them to the surface. They also are not as water dependent as the juniper is.
We have a different view of the junipers. They play a pivotal role in the existing ecosystem here. Shade, bio mass, as well as under and around them is where much of our vegetation grows. Also, pine trees, fruit trees and most other trees actually suck up way more water than the junipers.
Amazing how much work gets done with equipment…back in the Zoony video time I was possibly near as progressed in catchments but especially in the last month this is flown way past Franch Venus.
All.monsoon seasons are different chances are good that you'll get bigger rains from year to year here in northern new mex we've had 2" at my place in the last 2 weeks it's been great keep up the work your doing great
Absolutely love your project. Keep up the great work. But I do have a question. Why are you not planting anything that will create ground cover that is suitable for your soil type? You have spread straw in places which is good. Whatever plants you use now for ground cover may not be the ground cover that you want to end up with, but with the volume of rain you have been getting many plants/shrubs will be able to grow and start to protect and improve the soil. Even if you are planning earth works for many sections of your property, Im sure not all areas are going to require extensive digging. The process will take many years, but the sooner you start to improve the soil, the sooner you will start to see real change. I come back to a point I made before is that all farmers know that ground cover is vital to prevent erosion. And with the recent research showing that light by itself (even without heat) causes evaporation, ground cover has become even more important especially in areas where there are extended periods of time with little rainfall. The ground under vegetation has been shown to retain more moisture than ground without vegetation even in extreme drought conditions.
It really looks great if you manage to get some logs i suggest putting them on top of the big pits sideways and you can put some branches on top of that to prove shade to water most of the water heats with the sun since it gets direct hit
As an architect/interior designer I find eco-design, even in landscaping really interesting. It doesn't look as if your house is finished yet, but I'm curious what systems such as passive design, sustainable materials, and water collection/water conservation you might use. Hopefully you'll do some vids on these things in the future. Guess I'll have to subscribe to find out!
Those Junipers use over 4000 gallons of water each when mature. If you want any kind of water you will need to replace them. I have 65 axres in Northern Arizona between winslow and Holbrook. Also for the clay soil you need dormant calcium for that soil compactoon.
That's pretty minimal compared to let's say a pine that can uptake 7-10,000 gallons of water or say fruit trees that can uptake up to 40,000 gallons. As you can see in the video there is more growing where there is more trees and less growth with less trees on the other edge of the property. Everything is in a similar contour, so it's not a matter of North slope and South slope, which I have evidence of the abundance of trees and grass on our northeast corner of the property which is an actual southern slope. We also have a true northern slope, but if I show the two slopes on video, you'd never know the difference. There are many variables beside the trees being the problem. ✌🏾
@@GrowTreeOrganics The trees do take up water, true, but also provide subtle shade which keeps humidity at ground level. Another option , similarly being tried with success in Scotland would be to fell the jumpers ( not killing them but just laying over the taller ones . This will create long ground level dense shaded areas amongst which native plants will grow. Basic hedgerows.
@@GrowTreeOrganics I was wondering how much water a tree actually helps to keep in the ground by providing shadow and collecting dew during cold times? I remember seeing pretty high temperature differences of surface temperatures lets say on barren ground like a path and adjoing grassland next to it. Also tree tend to attract rain, new research shows by releasing molecules into the air which attract water to condensate, therefor we have rain forests even in areas with usually little rain.
@jenskoppka1870 the trees are so important. I think it's at least a 10% reduction in evaporation with a few inches of mulch, then add the trees shade. You're right on all fronts!👍🏾✌🏾
@@GrowTreeOrganics Thanks :) Glad to see that you had a good amount of rain and success in retaining a lot. Your trees and plants will be happy. Good work. All the best.
Is the map of your property available online? I love your project but struggle at times to understand how individual changes correlate to your Master Plan.
Super glad it was! I don't have anything posted, I do wanna keep my privacy to an extent. If you need help though you can email me. I do Permaculture Consulting, so I can help put together a design or plot map. ✌🏾
@@GrowTreeOrganics Thanks! I find your content super interesting. I took a screenshot of your map from my IPad and that seems to be a good interim step. Perhaps a contour map of the property might also be useful to help us novices better understand the placement of berms and bowls?
All that water is looking great and it will sure have an effect. But nature is a bit slow in that aspect. I guess that the logs are going to be used for a log cabin. Thanks for the update🙂👍
@@GrowTreeOrganics Yeah, but what I meant to say is that any sort of growth needs the natural seasonal cycle of hours of sunlight and temperature and all that sort of stuff before it really takes of. In that sense there is never an instant result. There are even many species that need freezing temperatures called stratification before the seeds can germinate at all. And the micro organisms like the extra moisture too, but it takes some time before their presence starts to contribute in a significant manner. In other words, there is always a bit of a delay, sort of speak. All the water that you are collecting now in the soil will be very good for the next season. 👍
You actually have quite a bit of plant material on your property, so I would suggest that you begin trimming trees, bushes, and grasses, and adding the trimmings to the soil to provide a food source for soil bacteria. Everything begins with healthy soil.
Pruning will increase the density of leaves (think hedges) which will increase shade for water retention and increase stem flow off the plants and increase wind breaks reducing water loss from drying winds. Good winter work when plants are dormant. But don't hedge them - wind breaks slow the wind, they don't block it.
Just found a video of another project where they're preserving the juniper trees I'd really recommend a watch, video is called " total transformation: bringing life back to damaged land, barren quarry to abundant
Exactly! We still have more earthworks to do! Also fine tuning the current works. But we've done these around the property more so, the Zuni Bowl.✌🏾 ua-cam.com/video/xu24YACKjtg/v-deo.html
Have you started a Johnson and Sue aerobic compost? it might be a good idea to help the dirt come alive and grow a lot more grasses with this great system you have set up ✌️
do you plan to put wood logs near your capture points? shadow could help plants and as it decomposes it will give it nutrients. might speed up top soil creation
You are doing some fabulous work. I am tremendously interested since I have similar land, at least in appearance, in Northern Utah. I am equally frustrated that you are not saying where you are. I desperately want to know where your property is so I can compare and get an idea as to what to do to improve my land. God bless you and please say something about your location.
Are there any desert critters that help with this water retention strategies? Beavers are amazing at this in wetter areas, but is there a critter you could input (locally) to help out?
You know what just struck me. I've been watching these videos and it all sounds systematic and well thought out, but at the end of the day it's just videos filming a bunch of puddles. That realization was hilarious to me, in the moment. But it's because it takes a long time (multiple seasons) to turn a few puddles into a big payoff.
Are you trying to get the water to stay long enough on your land to be absorbed into the ground and replenish or create an aquifer? Or is the idea to get as much surface water to stay for surface plants to utilize while it is there?
Can you look at bigger catchments at the top edge of your property to capture water flowing from neighbors property? That depends on their property management as well as general topography, but it would increase the ground water across your property before water even starts engaging your own catchment and distribution systems.
Ever since I began doing the great work, gods work, I have been blessed with rain when the forecasters said there would be none. Blessings and miracles are part of Life, doing the great work attracts what it needs because the universe is here for us. Keep up the great work, Mother Earth will thank you for it.
If you plan to garden, I have some advice. This comes from trying to grow things in FL, in sandy soil. My mom fertilized in a spot outside the kitchen window trying to get anything to grow. Nothing worked. It was hot, and the soil was too sandy to hold moisture, and it was also too sandy to hold nutrients. She mulched, she did drip irrigation, everything. 😢It was the sad sad garden of death. Decades of mulching never even dented the draining of the nutrients, nor improved the sand pit into soil. So, we’d had horses out back when we were young. Decades later, my sister and her hubbie built a house in the pasture, where the barn had been. They dug out a pond to create the house pad to the required elevation. Fl has a layer of hard pan. It’s compacted dirt over more sand. (I have a theory that a big long drought caused it, based upon what happened in my own yard when he had a severe drought…it formed a new layer of hardpan much thinner than the old and very thick layer.) As they dug the pond, we were all suddenly overwhelmed by the scent of ammonia. Years of horse, cow, and goat pee had sunk through the sand and was sitting on top of the hardpan. The difference with my mom’s kitchen window area, was it did not have hardpan! It had been removed when the house was built. In the pasture, though, this layer of hardpan was five feet down…too deep for a garden or anything more than grasses, except for trees that would root deeply. So… If you don’t create your own catchment in your garden area, the plants won’t do well because the deeper soil lacks absorption material. Even if you dig deep and put in five feet of bio waste material, the water will run out and take nutrients with it. You need to create a barrier to hold water and nutrients in your growing area. Create a shallow pool, three feet deep. Buy a truck load of clay and line the pool, but don’t go higher up the walls with the clay than six inches. You want to hold water, but not drown the plants. Backfill with bio waste. It’s a worth a trip to go pick up a U-Haul full of leaf bags. Leaves are so nutrient rich! Get dead wood, too. Pick up another truckload of manure. Buy a few pounds of worms and put them in. Layer the leaves, sticks, manure, and your sand. The manure and leaves will feed the worms. If you want to, buy a truckload of topsoil, but I would just keep adding biomatter for a couple of years. It doesn’t matter if it goes anaerobic at the bottom. The worms eat bacteria and it’s food for them. Mulch the top with softwood. Apple wood, or other fruit trees. The same things you’d use to smoke food with. Surround the hole with rocks. The water and some nutrients will seep into the surrounding area, but not very far. So plant veggies in the hole and herbs that do well in semi arid climates around the perimeter, like oregano, rosemary, etc. Circle the herb area with succulents like purslane and aloe. Add posts so you can put up shade cloth. If you don’t want to do that, I suggest burying large containers with drainage holes two inches up from the bottom, rather than a hole in the bottom. I had good results with a kiddie pool, but I really don’t like plastic. I was really poor, though, and it was just twelve bucks. It was easier to manage than small pots, and did significantly better than my attempts at an in-ground garden, or even a raised bed. Hopes my lifetime of garden woes helps you! 😂
Thanks for the ideas. The garden has been very successful for our first year 😊 we did a lot of gardening in MT and learned a ton that has translated very well to AZ. Here is a video on our first garden beds. ua-cam.com/video/1QOIFiznwBU/v-deo.htmlsi=ZyZ435QdekxlfS7U
I'd be figuring out a way to long-term store the water that makes it to the larger basins so that I could build an irrigation pipeline with sprinkler systems attached to keep the land watered during droughts
@@GrowTreeOrganics Can't wait to see how you approach this solution. A sprinkler system will require power, and I'm sure you'll want to ensure that your land stays irrigated even if the power goes out. I'm thinking some kind of solar system would be the best approach. Could potentially even use the fact that water likes to flow at high rates on your property to build some kind of water-powered turbine to help offset the cost of running pumps and such. Thoughts?
Gravity Irrigation will be utilized in most cases, but pumps aren't bad either. We can always get multiple pumps for backup as well. But definitely solar powered!✌🏾
Hey, I just had a thought. If we only have 3% drinkable water on earth, wouldn't bringing water retention back to the desert take up alot of water resources? Desert greenification like the Sahara. Is there enough water to go around?
The 3% is what's usable, or minimal processes for contaminants and such. Because of money we don't do more desalination of ocean water, but bringing more green to the globe would help facilitate more ocean water evaporation, which in turn could increase our fresh water supply overall. There's plenty of water to go around if we would utilize our technology correctly. ✌🏾
A second thought to consider: Gold is prevalent in Arizona. With your swales and bowls, you are creating collection areas. Might help with financing if you can pan for gold after each monsoon season. Even a few dollars would be helpful. There are wet sluices and dry ones you could use for all that dirt your moving around.
Have a boar or pig wallow in the largest ponds, a week + in each so seals better. Fence while they are there, mulch near edge, shade partially so evaporating less fast.
Have you considered trimming some of your trees? Branches from the lower part can be used for compost for example, leaving canopy on top to provide shade. That way you will not lose too much water from the soil, it can be available for grass.
Just do the half-moon pits currently used in the African Green Wall project. Just make sure to accurately map out the area on how the water flows when it rains. You can clearly see it in the sediments a couple of days after the rain using drone or just use google earth.
We'll be Doing more of those don't worry. The single answer of half moon structures doesn't necessarily apply here or anywhere. They are apart of the tool belt of earthworks!✌🏾
Hey Man love the project and vids, at 13:57 the area looks very wet spread over a big area, could you U shape dame that area so a large area soaks evenly? Have to say I was suspicious about the zuni bowls, I mean all that work, but you can see the effect with the water, and the use to control erosion, very good man, this will be un recognisable in 4 years!
I need to do a whole new video on the rotational grazing we're doing with our goats and chickens. I've mentioned it in the previous videos only sparsely, but I'll work on a new one here soon! Thanks!✌🏾
I think it's nice to see an old retired pirate taking care of his land.
Rrrrrr, thank ya!✌🏾😅
😂
Pirates never retire
@biomechanique6874 Lol "one last score"
@@biomechanique6874 exactly! ✌🏾
My two takeaways - the healthy grasses growing just downstream of the pockets you have created by picking a rock. That surprises me. There are grasses that survive in the area. Those grasses will spread out and form natural barriers to erosion as their roots dive deep. They just need a little more water to grow into the erosion proof mats of green.
The organic matter that collects in the basins. That's your future topsoil - almost as good as gold. Prior to your structures - that black gold slid right off your land.
The magic is happening.
Stick to your priorities and keep at it. Get your house dried in so you have a place to live this winter.
The process of picking rocks, building structures and fine tuning them is a lifelong commitment. I suspect it will take 30 years to be mostly satisfied with the placement and workings of enough structures to cover your entire property. You're making great progress! 😊👍
Definitely a lifelong project we've taken on! So much growth to come though! Now house build to come. Thanks as always for stopping in!✌🏾
What if someone comes on your property and messes all your rocks up 😡💢
If you get reliable ponds, you might find you have ducks, maybe migratory geese.
I'd be careful growing all that grass! Those rocks will play cob with the lawnmower! You'll be sorry!!!🤣🌧️ Have a little more on me.🌧️👍
@TimothyTerrell-o2o well the goats are the lawnmowers and they said they like the rock! Trims their hooves as well!😅✌🏾
A consideration for your future monsoon-ish activities, get your raincoat on, and the rake out while it's raining. A little landscaping while the water is flowing gives one an amazing perspective on how to help it flow better or worse, as your needs be.
Love what you're doing, best with all. Hello, from southern Colorado. It's raining here as I type this. 😊❤🌧
Definitely thank you! I'll consider that, but that is a metal rake in a storm!🤔😅✌🏾
@@GrowTreeOrganics That's why this Tucson water harvester looks forward to winter rainfall. It tends to come without thunderstorms.
Another benefit to a rain wander with light hoe in hand is being able to check water flow while its happening and use the force of flowing water to correct/alter/repair and mark what needs doing for later work. It is amazing how easy it is to redirect drainage with a shallow gouge line when it is raining. The water does a lot of the work for you - and a quick scoop over an eroding edge to reinforce it save alot of time later.
@bookwyrms.2658 most definitely! Although have to be careful carrying around a metal rake or shovel during the storms... my umbrella is carbon fiber not metal as well. But I do agree with what you're saying but that's what the videos are for, I can look back and see exactly what happened and where! ✌🏾
That's what we do. Really helps to see the natural flow and resistance and makes it easier to build on it after
You are making a lot of progress; I think you will be surprised at the positive effects in a few years. I think you found the type of property that can really be effective to improve the land by slowing the water down and soaking a large territory. It will also benefit others living on the perimeters, in the long run. I also hope you can move your buildings forward and make them more livable than a tent-that must roar during downpours. Of course, it takes a long period of sacrifice on your part. Most people would not be able to do it. Congratulations.
Thank you we're definitely moving forward. I think we'll start seeing some positive results next year!✌🏾
Third thought to consider: Studies have been done on reforestation efforts where organic waste (orange peels, coffee grounds) was laid down on the soil in a 1-3 foot layer. Turns out it really pays off in two years. Consider networking with your local town for gathering used coffee grounds (and other waste). I point out coffee grounds specifically because, when dried and compressed into bricks with saw dust waste, they make fire logs that burn hotter than most common wood. If there are any organic vegetable processing plants close, they will be happy to deliver truck loads to you rather than pay dump fees.
Most definitely. We have been creating compost from some of the stores around. ✌🏾
@@GrowTreeOrganicsseptic tank services is a source of organic of matter.
@@estebancorral5151that's no good it potions the ground and creek water and ground water. ..
@ learn to spell poisons. The only poisoning that occurs is in your diabolical hallucinations. I never once advocated the use of untreated sewage on the Dustups. The game plan is to put all the sewage in a biodigester this would: reduce pathogens, create methane gas for fuel, and also, organic fertilizer. The treatment period would be be forty days or until the digestate reaches a pH of 7.1 or higher. You can not say that the Dustups can not use organic fertilizer obtain by this methodology.
@@estebancorral5151also a source of diseases
This is so great. And the best part is it will raise your water table significantly over time. Well done
Appreciate you noticing! It’s a slow process but definitely going in the right direction!✌🏾
This is so awesome!!! I can’t tell you how much I love this. Land reclamation is where it’s at. I can tell you from what I have seen, this plus cover crops is where it’s at!!!
Thanks, appreciate the support! We'll be planting more soon!🙏🏾✌🏾
Wow , what you have now is what Shaun Overton (sp?) is trying to achieve in his extremely dry acreage in Texas .
I love what you guardians of nature are doing ! Great job , props !😊
Thank you very much!✌🏾
He seems to get much more rain than Shaun though. I think it will take Shaun several years, if not decades, to get real growth anywhere that isn't watered. Though that's also kind of why I first got interested in Shauns project. Hoping to be wrong. 😅
Shaun has more money than drive to actually do the work, as his property is just a youtube money making exercise, in the time he has owned the first piece of land he bought he has done zero on it, that couldnt have been done in a week, growing Prickly Pear was crazy especially then its good for nothing.
@@jamesmatheson5115 prickly pear is edible by humans, provides habitat for some critters, provides for a lot of insects, and more.
@jamesmatheson5115 - isn't that the point! It's a learning process, and he is changing as he goes. His failures aren't failures if the change is part of the process. The issue is that he doesn't seem to have a whole lot of outside learning. I may be wrong, but, at least the viewers are helping with the process. Look at the stuff he had to remove as it was not allowed by the state.
Also, that place is not going to be an easy task at all. It may take him 5 years of mistakes, and another 20-50 years to get it correctly established. His process and mistakes are why he get the views though. Those of us that want to do what he is doing are using his process to make sure we don't make those mistakes when we start our own.
This approach has not only restored grasslands but also enhanced the fertility of agricultural land and improved the ecological health of degraded areas. It's a great example of how innovative water management techniques can make a significant impact on the environment.
Exactly! 💯✌🏾
Hi from Lightning Ridge NSW Australia 👋 this is fascinating. Very doable on my outback, arid block, which I'm starting to "landscape ". Capturing the water we do get is my priority, especially in the planning stage.
What's Growin on! Thank you and good luck on your landscape project! Cheers✌🏾
I love this! The US Embassies in the Sahel countries in Africa have been supporting a similar initiative to block the Sahara from spreading into the greener side of Africa. It’s Reilly amazing to realize how simple it is for man to effectively alter the ecology of such a large area, so quickly. Well done!
I've watched some of the projects they're doing over there, really cool and useful ideas for here! Thank you very much!✌🏾
I watch those videos too. It’s kind of encouraging that these project are relatively cheap and low tech and very effective. It’s mostly elbow grease. Hopefully the success in Sahal will begate more projects.
@ClarkBK67 it definitely will!✌🏾
Wow! I cant wait to see where this goes ^^ Love from South Africa!
Appreciate that!✌🏾
It’s great to be able to combine purposes like digging up rocks where you want catchment.
Easy multi tasking!✌🏾
As the moisture content of the ground increases, so too will your rainfall.
Moisture attracts moisture. Water is wonderfully hydrophilic!
Exactly 💯 ✌🏾
Water is life. Great ending as usual. Looking forward to next installment. 🐺
Thank you!✌🏾
It's not uncommon for us to get 2-3 inches in a single day. Can we share some with you?
Good seeing you doing water conservation.I know that you need it .
We here have the problem of how to get rid of it.
Not enough verses too much. No win both ways.⛈️☀️
That rock house is going to be epic….
I'm super excited to work on it more!✌🏾
@@GrowTreeOrganicsThat can’t be a a Walipini because too much of its vertical dimension is expose to the atmosphere.
@estebancorral5151 well we're not completely finished with this project. Everything looks too exposed, but that won't be for long!😅✌🏾
Those bigger bassins seem to make a difference, it's awsome looking at the progress! Keep it up! You guys are amazing.
They definitely will make a difference! Appreciate the support!✌🏾
Im jonesing so bad to dig my swale, im 600 miles from my land. thanks for the temporary fix man. Its all looking great.
Glad I can give ya a fix!😅✌🏾
Dandelion and mullein are great for having long and deep taproot which is good for breaking up hard ground and adding vegetation.
Great progress
Most definitely! We'll get more into planting later into winter!✌🏾
Grasses grow among the rocks because the seeds are less likely to be washed away or eaten.
Definitely a big factor in the equation!✌🏾
Great work Sir! I have been watching a few channels that are doing this and yours looks the best so far.
Thank you really appreciate it!✌🏾
Well done! Az is a hard place to change the landscape. That said as a Boy Scout the water catchment dams I made 50 years ago are now green and robust.
Appreciate the support! I'm looking forward to the Green and robust!😅✌🏾
Man Ive learned so much about desert rainwater harvesting from watching your channel. I live Long Beach CA but my family used to go out camping in Mojave on the regular and theres something about the desert I love. Im planning to do something similar and make an off grid cabin with a lot of rainwater collection using something like a 20x20 metal car cover and expand from there. But aside from drinking water which would be potable water ive learned so much from your channel about natural features to direct the water. I was even thinking like a small moat around the property that directs the water to some type of lined sump and you could pump the water to wherever your storage is. I think one of the best ideas for water storage ive seen is on Frugal Off Grids channel where you use heavy duty tarps like 40x40 or even 40x60 20 mil thick to create underground cisterns. Those tarps are cheap, like 350 bucks and you could even double up if you were concerned about tears. Then you make framing and a manhole to cover it all. Its way cheaper to store thousands of gallons than the traditional buck a gallon for above ground storage. It requires a lot of digging, but thats nothing if you have access to machinery like that tractor or a mini excavator. Also being that the tarps are underground and not exposed to UV radiation, they should last damn near forever in that state, but thats also why you put a tarp over the cistern like an umbrella to protect that lower lining. Subbed and like your content is great man!👍
That's awesome! Glad the channel could be helpful on your venture! Appreciate your support!✌🏾
Earthworks you say. :) Water is the one ingredient to make everything else with what you have. Dig those storage areas DEEP and wide. You have infinite clay. Looks like a great project.
Thanks, we're trying to make the most of this water!✌🏾
How much average rainfall does the area get normally a year? Do your trees look healthier? Good job on the water collection.
About 14 inches on average, but I've noticed way more grass going to seed and new grass growing since we started!✌🏾
I found this channel a few weeks ago, really nice to see all the water works. You are getting quite reasonable amounts of rain to harvest.
My question: I've see a lot of earth works, but not a lot of content about what kind of plants you are trying to grow. the ecology of things.
Do you have videos about your plans, do you plant pioneer species, or (fast) growing mulch plants that are suited for your area? What kind of produce do you intend to grow? Love to see more about that, keep it up!
Appreciate you joining the journey. I haven't talked much about planting, but winter time is when we'll be doing lots of planting and I'll talk about that!✌🏾
Great work, well done making the land better and greater. This water catching reminds me of what is being done in some parts of Africa where they dig a series of half circles (I think they call it half moons). With many half moons near each other creates a very vast are where water is retained.
Keep up the great work!
Thanks appreciate the support! We have the half moon structures... I just call them basins! We've got plenty more to build though!✌🏾
@@GrowTreeOrganics You're welcome mate, such a good thing you're doing. Ah that's awesome about the basins, same thing but different name for it. Keep it up, with time you will grow an oasis. Your project to make a desert into a forest reminds me of a similar project by Shaun Overton called Dustups.
@lukaszbebnowski7633 I watch Shaun! Interesting approaches we all take to achieve similar results. Thanks for your support, still plenty more to do here!✌🏾
@@GrowTreeOrganics That's awesome to hear you watch Shaun. You're right about the approaches for similar results. One day when your done, you'll sit back and admire the results :)
Exactly, the retirement!💚✌🏾
Thank you so much for all of this. I have a small parcel and no earth moving equipment or budget for the same. You showed me how small things can make a huge difference. First Zuni bowls and microswales went up on my land this weekend :)
"Inch by inch anythings a cinch" -Les Brown!😁✌🏾
Very cool! I've done a few small-scale remediation projects in soil comprised of ~70% rock. The best method I've found to retain water is dig 4 feet deep, drop in logs at least 12 inches in diameter and cover with screened soil. It really helps to screen as fine as practical - 3/8 inch minimum, 1/4 inch is better and 3/16 inch is best. Before back filling, I mix with as much organic matter as I can muster, plus something to improve drainage. Certified organic rice hulls are very cost effective when bought in bulk. (Avoid cheap-o rice hulls - they're likely to be loaded with nasty chemicals, especially if they're coming from Indonesia.) 1/4 inch or finer pumice is better. If I intend to grow vegetables, I mix 2 parts rice hulls with 1 part 1/8 inch pumice by volume.
That's a great technique! We'll have to try that out in an area and experiment! Thanks for that!✌🏾
Awesome to see this! You are living the life there!
Thank you very much!✌🏾
I guess this is to answer people insisting they know better than Brandon does what plants to allow to grow. Me, I am thinking about biochar. In the Amazon, for _terra preta,_ they also mix in fragments of broken pottery. They say the biochar and pottery mustn't be chopped too fine, I imagine so it won't be rinsed down and out of reach of roots.
My wife just told me about "hügelkultur" mounds, a substitute for raised garden beds that I had not heard of: you dig a wide, shallow trench, lay logs at the bottom, smaller branches on those, then twigs and scrub, with compost throughout, and the soil you excavated on top, and grow your garden there. They retain water better than the native soil, and can be long and straight, or weave around drunkenly.
Yea Nekas garden I built earlier this year is a form of huglekulture! Her garden did pretty good for the first year! ✌🏾
@@GrowTreeOrganics it gets better as time goes on and the wood rots into a sponge that feeds plants and holds water.
Well done planting tree’s whose shades only the future can fully enjoy.
Appreciate the support!✌🏾
A catapiller D8 with a single leg ripper pulling through on contour would create mini swales & berms across the whole 10 acres in a couple of days...Seed or plant them before the rains, any grass growth would create cover & cool the land down, any rocks lifted would also make for good shelter...
Writing from the very wet UK today...
Appreciate it!✌🏾
Hey Brandon I love your channel. Getting ready to start a similar project in Zambia. May I ask how you created that water flow plan that you flashed in the beginning of the video?
Thank you. I started with the satellite image put the image through a program to give me the contour elevation lines. Lots of study of the land before I even saw the property for myself, which I'd advise seeing a property first, but I had already drew out a plan because of the goals we had and such and now being here it's just making slight adjustments to the plan to accommodate to what couldn't be seen on the map. ✌🏾
What is the clay content of your soil, you may be able to sift out enough clay to line your larger basin's thus holding the water even longer, like a large "oya", water pot
Very low clay content. More clay in some spots but mostly sand and silt. Some basins will be lined in one way or another while others are meant to simply soak.
What she said!😅✌🏾
I’m Im excited to see the results for all these waterworks that you do!!
Me as well!✌🏾
So all in all rainwater harvesting is pretty simple. Work out where your contour lines are using an A-frame and then collect the rocks scattered around and pile 'em up on contour (all damn hard work of course) and slow down that water flow :) And dig out water basins for slow seepage. Looks like this is exactly what you are doing (seems very similar to Dustups in Western Texas). Out of interest, what will you be using your land for? Grazing for ruminants? Fruit and veg?
A- frame and a laser level as well really helps. But we'll be establishing a good forest, gardens, and just rejuvenating the land back to at least what it was and hopefully more! We are grazing goats and chickens on rotation as well!✌🏾
i'm just a humble geologist, your techniques shown here have a lot of merit. if i was on this job, i would do a perk test to more focus attention on water retention
Very sandy soil down about 15 inches then we have rock shelves I think of basalt with small fractures so water can get down, but we also have a caliche layer. Takes about 1 min for 1 gallon of water to penetrate!✌🏾 what are thoughts?
@@GrowTreeOrganics Well my friend, that's great news for when you put in your drainfield, not so good for growing apple trees... We could talk about soil amendment and natural water retention until the sun comes up but i think that keeping your forest growing during the stressful summer months should be the priority, to nurture topsoil, it needs an assload of water, yeah, my thoughts are soil amendment and F tons of water, like a 10 thousand gallon underground tank.
@@dirttdude we'll definitely be making more water storage for sure. ✌🏾
Learning little bits by watching you but .... in much less arid yet sandy soils, putting some cardboard down in the dirt adds to water retention and soil biome diversity. Would that work at all on your property?
We are doing that actually, I'll probably have to make a video showing how we make 0 waste here!✌🏾
Nice to see that he’s sing reclamation techniques used millennia ago 😊
Thank you!✌🏾
Nice to see you guys regreening the desert.I just love it. Personally I’d focus on ground water and improving permeability of the surface. As ground water will not evaporate that easily.
Thanks for the tips! Still a work in progress. We're finishing the greenhouse then we're back to earthworks and such!✌🏾
Hell yeah man. Im excited to see the build progress on your home.
You and me both!✌🏾😅
Maybe invest in sand bags that you can move around so you can make changes easier and hold water on a larger scale faster with less work.
Definitely an idea to try out. Thanks!✌🏾
They would break down from the sun way too fast . We have used a few over the years and they are just not quite feasible with this intense sun.
Hello and greetings from Germany😀 Great work! Start regenerate the earth, perhaps by planting elefantgras or sedum or sudangras. It will stabilize the ground and build up mulch. CU🖖🖖
Guten Tag!✌🏾Danke we will be planting more in the winter here!✌🏾
So many rocks and no boulders what a relief! Like the deeper areas with the bulldozer...
Luckily nothing too huge yet!✌🏾
I would pick up as much brush and branches and put the inside the berms to absorb water and have mycelium proliferate….
Most definitely we'll get to that soon!✌🏾
@ I always wanted to do an experiment whereas you take a dead log drill a longitudinal hole through the log then cap it at both ends after filling it with water. This water will work its way through both side of the log and retain water faster or so I speculate. Bury it and hopefully in a deserted area mycelium can make its way to plants roots and speed up growth…
Love it!!! Nice work!
Appreciate the support!✌🏾
The native grasses there have deep roots that will allow water to penetrate the soil better, so collect and spread their seeds whenever you are able. I love what you are doing, so please keep the videos coming!
Definitely, I have been spreading any grass that had seed on the property. I'll be getting way more seed fir spreading and planting soon!✌🏾
This is just EXCELLENT!!
Right!?😅✌🏾
Just holding water is not enough, I saw a video explaining what was done in an dry area of Africa. They encouraged tribes to bring in livestock for grazing and within just a few years, it had turned green like farmland with grass and lush trees and brush.
So I have seen the places in Africa, India, and other places doing similar, but also different earthworks, per their area, community, goals, etc. You'll have to check my older videos, we do have goats and chickens being rotated on the land to help fertilize and such!👍🏾✌🏾
Hi I live about 45 minutes away from you in ashfork I am working on my land and definitely appreciate some of the things you are doing I will adding some stuff to my plans
That's awesome, glad you found some value to apply!✌🏾
You, my friend, have god's own plenty of rocks and a friend with an excavator. The future looks bright!
Thank you very much!✌🏾
Bentonite clay spread in your holding positions help hold the water. It expands to fill in cracks and makes a better seal in you earthen works.
Nice it definitely does!✌🏾
@@GrowTreeOrganics I just didn't know if you knew. Have a great weekend
😮Been watching for a while. I'm amazed how it all comes together, can't wait to see what's to come... I like your pine tree😅
Appreciate your support! Thanks for being apart of the journey! We have many hidden pine trees here!✌🏾
Amazing project. New subscriber and loving the content. One thing I will point out for you. All the juniper trees on the property are sucking your land dry. They are prolific water drinkers and even small junipers drink a ton of water. You should start thinning them out and planting dynamic accumulating deciduous trees. These will pull nutrients from deep down in the soil and bring them to the surface. They also are not as water dependent as the juniper is.
Thank you very much! Appreciate the support!🙏🏾 definitely much more progress to be made and shown!✌🏾
We have a different view of the junipers. They play a pivotal role in the existing ecosystem here. Shade, bio mass, as well as under and around them is where much of our vegetation grows. Also, pine trees, fruit trees and most other trees actually suck up way more water than the junipers.
Amazing how much work gets done with equipment…back in the Zoony video time I was possibly near as progressed in catchments but especially in the last month this is flown way past Franch Venus.
Machines make a huge difference!✌🏾💚
All.monsoon seasons are different chances are good that you'll get bigger rains from year to year here in northern new mex we've had 2" at my place in the last 2 weeks it's been great keep up the work your doing great
Definitely could and can change year to year for sure. I look forward to it! Thanks for your support. ✌🏾
Weird idea, but could you drive porous woods into the ground to act as water batteries or wood ollas?
Yea, definitely a good idea!✌🏾
Absolutely love your project. Keep up the great work. But I do have a question. Why are you not planting anything that will create ground cover that is suitable for your soil type? You have spread straw in places which is good. Whatever plants you use now for ground cover may not be the ground cover that you want to end up with, but with the volume of rain you have been getting many plants/shrubs will be able to grow and start to protect and improve the soil. Even if you are planning earth works for many sections of your property, Im sure not all areas are going to require extensive digging. The process will take many years, but the sooner you start to improve the soil, the sooner you will start to see real change. I come back to a point I made before is that all farmers know that ground cover is vital to prevent erosion. And with the recent research showing that light by itself (even without heat) causes evaporation, ground cover has become even more important especially in areas where there are extended periods of time with little rainfall. The ground under vegetation has been shown to retain more moisture than ground without vegetation even in extreme drought conditions.
Thank you, the short answer is that we're waiting for winter to plant!✌🏾
It really looks great if you manage to get some logs i suggest putting them on top of the big pits sideways and you can put some branches on top of that to prove shade to water most of the water heats with the sun since it gets direct hit
i think LA did some similar thing with plastic balls in a dam to get rid of direct hit from the sun
I've seen the black plastic balls in LA they did at that lake! We'll be Doing a lot of tree maintenance here!✌🏾
Not sure who you are but I like what you're doing. That and I'm jealous of the dreads. Best of luck and keep us posted.
Much appreciated! More to come!✌🏾
As an architect/interior designer I find eco-design, even in landscaping really interesting. It doesn't look as if your house is finished yet, but I'm curious what systems such as passive design, sustainable materials, and water collection/water conservation you might use. Hopefully you'll do some vids on these things in the future. Guess I'll have to subscribe to find out!
You can also look back at previous videos too! And future ones!✌🏾 appreciate you joining the journey!
Those Junipers use over 4000 gallons of water each when mature. If you want any kind of water you will need to replace them. I have 65 axres in Northern Arizona between winslow and Holbrook. Also for the clay soil you need dormant calcium for that soil compactoon.
That's pretty minimal compared to let's say a pine that can uptake 7-10,000 gallons of water or say fruit trees that can uptake up to 40,000 gallons. As you can see in the video there is more growing where there is more trees and less growth with less trees on the other edge of the property. Everything is in a similar contour, so it's not a matter of North slope and South slope, which I have evidence of the abundance of trees and grass on our northeast corner of the property which is an actual southern slope. We also have a true northern slope, but if I show the two slopes on video, you'd never know the difference. There are many variables beside the trees being the problem. ✌🏾
@@GrowTreeOrganics The trees do take up water, true, but also provide subtle shade which keeps humidity at ground level. Another option , similarly being tried with success in Scotland would be to fell the jumpers ( not killing them but just laying over the taller ones . This will create long ground level dense shaded areas amongst which native plants will grow. Basic hedgerows.
@@GrowTreeOrganics I was wondering how much water a tree actually helps to keep in the ground by providing shadow and collecting dew during cold times? I remember seeing pretty high temperature differences of surface temperatures lets say on barren ground like a path and adjoing grassland next to it. Also tree tend to attract rain, new research shows by releasing molecules into the air which attract water to condensate, therefor we have rain forests even in areas with usually little rain.
@jenskoppka1870 the trees are so important. I think it's at least a 10% reduction in evaporation with a few inches of mulch, then add the trees shade. You're right on all fronts!👍🏾✌🏾
@@GrowTreeOrganics Thanks :) Glad to see that you had a good amount of rain and success in retaining a lot. Your trees and plants will be happy. Good work. All the best.
Your neighbor brought a "backhoe" over. My dad used to use one when he worked for the County Road Dept.
My neighbor bought his!😁✌🏾
The map is very helpful.
Is the map of your property available online? I love your project but struggle at times to understand how individual changes correlate to your Master Plan.
Super glad it was! I don't have anything posted, I do wanna keep my privacy to an extent. If you need help though you can email me. I do Permaculture Consulting, so I can help put together a design or plot map. ✌🏾
@@GrowTreeOrganics ty for the effort 👌
@@GrowTreeOrganics Thanks! I find your content super interesting. I took a screenshot of your map from my IPad and that seems to be a good interim step. Perhaps a contour map of the property might also be useful to help us novices better understand the placement of berms and bowls?
Most definitely a good idea I could do! Thanks!✌🏾
Dude, new to your channel but I’m loving it.
Appreciate it! Welcome aboard the journey!✌🏾
All that water is looking great and it will sure have an effect. But nature is a bit slow in that aspect. I guess that the logs are going to be used for a log cabin. Thanks for the update🙂👍
We can help nature speed up a bit!😅 you'll find out about the logs soon!✌🏾
@@GrowTreeOrganics Yeah, but what I meant to say is that any sort of growth needs the natural seasonal cycle of hours of sunlight and temperature and all that sort of stuff before it really takes of. In that sense there is never an instant result. There are even many species that need freezing temperatures called stratification before the seeds can germinate at all. And the micro organisms like the extra moisture too, but it takes some time before their presence starts to contribute in a significant manner. In other words, there is always a bit of a delay, sort of speak. All the water that you are collecting now in the soil will be very good for the next season. 👍
You actually have quite a bit of plant material on your property, so I would suggest that you begin trimming trees, bushes, and grasses, and adding the trimmings to the soil to provide a food source for soil bacteria. Everything begins with healthy soil.
Pruning will increase the density of leaves (think hedges) which will increase shade for water retention and increase stem flow off the plants and increase wind breaks reducing water loss from drying winds. Good winter work when plants are dormant. But don't hedge them - wind breaks slow the wind, they don't block it.
We do and we'll be taking advantage of that!✌🏾
Most definitely!✌🏾
Very impactful episo🎉de so much to look forward to😅
Just found a video of another project where they're preserving the juniper trees I'd really recommend a watch, video is called " total transformation: bringing life back to damaged land, barren quarry to abundant
Kudos btw for not jumping to conclusions with your juniper, trusting our eyes we can see the there is green beneath thier canopy just no mulch👍
Most definitely!✌🏾
I think I've actually seen that. There's plenty of evidence to show the trees are way more beneficial than destructive!✌🏾
Exactly and thanks for your support!✌🏾
I'm curious to see if the strata below you eventually fills to a level that it finds somewhere to surface, and form an intermittent stream.
We'll see!✌🏾😅
Thanks for showing the maps.
My pleasure!✌🏾
One Day, One Step at a time. I love seeing the earthworks retaining as much water as possible. Are you planning to do African Smiles and Zai pits?
Exactly! We still have more earthworks to do! Also fine tuning the current works. But we've done these around the property more so, the Zuni Bowl.✌🏾
ua-cam.com/video/xu24YACKjtg/v-deo.html
Just subbed to you from the South Australian outback/desert. Nice vid.
Thanks, welcome aboard!✌🏾
Have you started a Johnson and Sue aerobic compost? it might be a good idea to help the dirt come alive and grow a lot more grasses with this great system you have set up ✌️
Haven't made one yet, but we'll be adding compost to the area nonetheless. ✌🏾
do you plan to put wood logs near your capture points? shadow could help plants and as it decomposes it will give it nutrients. might speed up top soil creation
You'll find out!😉✌🏾
You are doing some fabulous work. I am tremendously interested since I have similar land, at least in appearance, in Northern Utah. I am equally frustrated that you are not saying where you are. I desperately want to know where your property is so I can compare and get an idea as to what to do to improve my land. God bless you and please say something about your location.
Thank you appreciate it! If you watch my newest video on Deserts and the older rainwater videos I show our area and the map of our place!✌🏾
this is very inspiring thanks for the information and content
No problem, thank you!✌🏾
Are there any desert critters that help with this water retention strategies? Beavers are amazing at this in wetter areas, but is there a critter you could input (locally) to help out?
Only the mice that dig holes to create space in the soil!😅 otherwise we gotta be the wildlife that helps with water retention. ✌🏾
You know what just struck me. I've been watching these videos and it all sounds systematic and well thought out, but at the end of the day it's just videos filming a bunch of puddles. That realization was hilarious to me, in the moment. But it's because it takes a long time (multiple seasons) to turn a few puddles into a big payoff.
😅thank you a very comical observation!✌🏾
Slowly water and silt will accumulate and bring wetland herbs and grasses that will stabilized the earth mounds and rock mounds he made
Methodical, thoughtful, subtle, intelligent planning and work!
Rome was not built in a day
While the ground's wet, if you could cut a few trenches to guide the water into the holes dug it would fill much faster. Just a thought...
The placement of the swales and Zuni bowls are in spots where the water is naturally led to them. Thanks for your thoughts!✌🏾
Are you trying to get the water to stay long enough on your land to be absorbed into the ground and replenish or create an aquifer? Or is the idea to get as much surface water to stay for surface plants to utilize while it is there?
Well both actually!😅✌🏾
Can you look at bigger catchments at the top edge of your property to capture water flowing from neighbors property? That depends on their property management as well as general topography, but it would increase the ground water across your property before water even starts engaging your own catchment and distribution systems.
Where I've been filming is the upper part of our property, so it is why we're doing most of the work in this area up here. ✌🏾
Ever since I began doing the great work, gods work, I have been blessed with rain when the forecasters said there would be none. Blessings and miracles are part of Life, doing the great work attracts what it needs because the universe is here for us. Keep up the great work, Mother Earth will thank you for it.
Pardon for the correction, but that's big G God .😊
PS: do you have a channel as well ? I'm following as much of this content as possible .
Thank you for the support!✌🏾
Amen 🙏🏻
God's work 😂😂
What is wrong with you?
You just decide that your work is God's work? Crazy....
Have you considered using big dugouts to retain more water? This is a method commonly used on the Canadian prairies.
There's a place and time for those kinds of works. But appreciate that!✌🏾
Nice to see you out while it’s raining. Are you planning to do some harvesting at the top of your property?
That's the plan! More to come!✌🏾
If you plan to garden, I have some advice. This comes from trying to grow things in FL, in sandy soil. My mom fertilized in a spot outside the kitchen window trying to get anything to grow. Nothing worked. It was hot, and the soil was too sandy to hold moisture, and it was also too sandy to hold nutrients. She mulched, she did drip irrigation, everything. 😢It was the sad sad garden of death. Decades of mulching never even dented the draining of the nutrients, nor improved the sand pit into soil.
So, we’d had horses out back when we were young. Decades later, my sister and her hubbie built a house in the pasture, where the barn had been. They dug out a pond to create the house pad to the required elevation. Fl has a layer of hard pan. It’s compacted dirt over more sand. (I have a theory that a big long drought caused it, based upon what happened in my own yard when he had a severe drought…it formed a new layer of hardpan much thinner than the old and very thick layer.)
As they dug the pond, we were all suddenly overwhelmed by the scent of ammonia. Years of horse, cow, and goat pee had sunk through the sand and was sitting on top of the hardpan. The difference with my mom’s kitchen window area, was it did not have hardpan! It had been removed when the house was built. In the pasture, though, this layer of hardpan was five feet down…too deep for a garden or anything more than grasses, except for trees that would root deeply.
So…
If you don’t create your own catchment in your garden area, the plants won’t do well because the deeper soil lacks absorption material. Even if you dig deep and put in five feet of bio waste material, the water will run out and take nutrients with it.
You need to create a barrier to hold water and nutrients in your growing area. Create a shallow pool, three feet deep. Buy a truck load of clay and line the pool, but don’t go higher up the walls with the clay than six inches. You want to hold water, but not drown the plants. Backfill with bio waste. It’s a worth a trip to go pick up a U-Haul full of leaf bags. Leaves are so nutrient rich! Get dead wood, too. Pick up another truckload of manure. Buy a few pounds of worms and put them in. Layer the leaves, sticks, manure, and your sand. The manure and leaves will feed the worms. If you want to, buy a truckload of topsoil, but I would just keep adding biomatter for a couple of years. It doesn’t matter if it goes anaerobic at the bottom. The worms eat bacteria and it’s food for them. Mulch the top with softwood. Apple wood, or other fruit trees. The same things you’d use to smoke food with.
Surround the hole with rocks.
The water and some nutrients will seep into the surrounding area, but not very far. So plant veggies in the hole and herbs that do well in semi arid climates around the perimeter, like oregano, rosemary, etc. Circle the herb area with succulents like purslane and aloe.
Add posts so you can put up shade cloth.
If you don’t want to do that, I suggest burying large containers with drainage holes two inches up from the bottom, rather than a hole in the bottom. I had good results with a kiddie pool, but I really don’t like plastic. I was really poor, though, and it was just twelve bucks. It was easier to manage than small pots, and did significantly better than my attempts at an in-ground garden, or even a raised bed.
Hopes my lifetime of garden woes helps you! 😂
Thanks for sharing your experience. That's some great advice I'll definitely consider!✌🏾
Thanks for the ideas. The garden has been very successful for our first year 😊 we did a lot of gardening in MT and learned a ton that has translated very well to AZ. Here is a video on our first garden beds.
ua-cam.com/video/1QOIFiznwBU/v-deo.htmlsi=ZyZ435QdekxlfS7U
I always thought the monsoon season there was in the winter. Have to re-think that all now. 😊
We actually did get more rain last winter than through monsoon!? We'll keep tabs as the years go on!✌🏾
I'd be figuring out a way to long-term store the water that makes it to the larger basins so that I could build an irrigation pipeline with sprinkler systems attached to keep the land watered during droughts
Most definitely! Thanks!✌🏾
@@GrowTreeOrganics Can't wait to see how you approach this solution. A sprinkler system will require power, and I'm sure you'll want to ensure that your land stays irrigated even if the power goes out. I'm thinking some kind of solar system would be the best approach.
Could potentially even use the fact that water likes to flow at high rates on your property to build some kind of water-powered turbine to help offset the cost of running pumps and such.
Thoughts?
Gravity Irrigation will be utilized in most cases, but pumps aren't bad either. We can always get multiple pumps for backup as well. But definitely solar powered!✌🏾
Hey, I just had a thought. If we only have 3% drinkable water on earth, wouldn't bringing water retention back to the desert take up alot of water resources? Desert greenification like the Sahara. Is there enough water to go around?
The 3% is what's usable, or minimal processes for contaminants and such. Because of money we don't do more desalination of ocean water, but bringing more green to the globe would help facilitate more ocean water evaporation, which in turn could increase our fresh water supply overall. There's plenty of water to go around if we would utilize our technology correctly. ✌🏾
A second thought to consider: Gold is prevalent in Arizona. With your swales and bowls, you are creating collection areas. Might help with financing if you can pan for gold after each monsoon season. Even a few dollars would be helpful.
There are wet sluices and dry ones you could use for all that dirt your moving around.
Good point! Thank you!✌🏾
Have a boar or pig wallow in the largest ponds, a week + in each so seals better. Fence while they are there, mulch near edge, shade partially so evaporating less fast.
Right on! Thanks!✌🏾
Have you considered trimming some of your trees? Branches from the lower part can be used for compost for example, leaving canopy on top to provide shade. That way you will not lose too much water from the soil, it can be available for grass.
That's the plan! Exactly!✌🏾
Very interesting, thank you for sharing.
Glad you enjoyed it✌🏾
Just do the half-moon pits currently used in the African Green Wall project.
Just make sure to accurately map out the area on how the water flows when it rains. You can clearly see it in the sediments a couple of days after the rain using drone or just use google earth.
We'll be Doing more of those don't worry. The single answer of half moon structures doesn't necessarily apply here or anywhere. They are apart of the tool belt of earthworks!✌🏾
HIGH FIVE!!! Well done!!
🖐🏾😅✌🏾
Hey Man love the project and vids, at 13:57 the area looks very wet spread over a big area, could you U shape dame that area so a large area soaks evenly? Have to say I was suspicious about the zuni bowls, I mean all that work, but you can see the effect with the water, and the use to control erosion, very good man, this will be un recognisable in 4 years!
The areas I show when the rain started they do what you're describing. Appreciate your support!✌🏾
Have you considered trying the Allen Savory method, using hooved animals to improve the soil quality?
I need to do a whole new video on the rotational grazing we're doing with our goats and chickens. I've mentioned it in the previous videos only sparsely, but I'll work on a new one here soon! Thanks!✌🏾
You should fly a drone over taking pictures so you can capture the different flows…
Soon, very soon!😅✌🏾
Would love to turn time forward to see the results of all your work🙃 although i’m sure its going to be amazing ❤
The results will be coming in quicker than you think!😅✌🏾
@ pretty sure they will aswell 🙂probably already are in small scale
Surely it would be worth buying a used cheap digger and dumper❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Just wait till next video!✌🏾
I love what you are doing here. So curious what led you to do this? Is this your job or do you have a 9-5?
Appreciate it! This started in 2016 when we made the off grid move! UA-cam has become my job now!😅✌🏾