Oddbean

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

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 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.

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 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

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 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.

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 How’s the soil? Able to dig by hand?

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 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.

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

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