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November 24, 2014

Prickly Pear Swales

We cut almost a hundred prickly pear pads over the summer and now have them planted along the contours of the property.

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We eventually want to terraces our whole property, to eliminate run-off and encourage plant growth. The pigs did some of the work us, in the areas that they pastured, but it would be too many man-hours to do the rest by hand.

So Abe has started to plant the retaining walls that will form the swales. He planted out prickly pear pads along the contours. These mainly act as markers for the contours, but will also add to the biological wall that will one day form. Plus, they’re an excellent food for us and the animals. He also planted a bunch of acorns along these lines. We plan to add other plants over time, ones that need no extra help or water from us and that can create food.

It’ll take a while to prove this method or even be able to see it, but we have high hopes.

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Gardening