Thread

Have you thought about growing trees? Zai farming or something, dig a hole, fill with manure, add tree seeds.

In the few years that I have lived here I have planted around 100 (bare root) trees of various types. I've tried from seed as well but the real problem is that I don't have a well yet and I get around 14 inches of rain a year. It's a high desert. And this all used to be cropland and I'm trying to restore it back to prarie grass. Which also isn't working.

This is an awesome video, I like the method because it’s simple, dig holes. Have the water seep into the ground, raise water table on the land. Might be of help: https://youtu.be/-8nqnOcoLqE?feature=shared

I've seen this before and I do plan on trying something similar in the future. I don't have a tractor either or I would have dug some swales at this point. I dug a very small pond at the base of the natural swale on my property but it's only filled up twice in 6 years. I just keep trying stuff. I'm not allowed to utilize the aluvial water and the water table out there is around 380 feet so wells are quite expensive.

How’s the soil? Able to dig by hand?

Maybe a nice pit of biochar and manure could get a tree going.

To a point. Since it was a cropland when I got it there is a hardpan about a foot and a half down. I typically dig holes starting with a gas powered auger and once I hit hardpand I fill the hole with water and come back the next day. It takes 4-5 days to get a 3 ft hole. Good thing I'm not in a hurry.

Crazy! Yeah you need a big excavator for a day :).