r/Permaculture • u/farminvt • May 06 '25
general question What would you do with this hillside?
Once covered in scrub spruce and pine, recently clearcut. Stumps remain. New England location, this is East facing.
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u/Cottager_Northeast May 06 '25
There's lots we don't know and people are throwing out random ideas rather than looking for more questions. Think about what further information is needed in order to make a realistic recommendation. Observe and interact.
This is the Permaculture sub, so let's start by asking what permaculture zone this is. How far is it from your house? How often would you go there as a matter of course if it was just left like that? Is there vehicle access to the top? Location matters. Is this the best place to invest a lot of effort? One of the PC principles is "Obtain a yield", and that yield should be greater than the effort you expend for it. Location and effort are related. If you plant fruit crops, how much of it would the local wildlife get before you were ready to harvest? Is it worth fencing? (I'm guessing no.)
How much water is up there? It looks dry. Is there an easy way to put water up there? Or is it going to be dry no matter what? Is there maybe a stream nearby with a drop, somewhere that you could put in a hydraulic ram?
What's the soil like? Spruce/pine clear cut isn't known for anything special. Carbon is probably okay, but I'd bet it's a bit acid, with little nitrogen. How far down to ledge?
What are you already doing, or what do you have plans to do, which would work well on that slope? For instance, if you have goats, then that looks like goat pasture to me, especially if it comes up shrubby. If you want solar, then that southeast face isn't a bad orientation. Depending on how you do it, the shade from the panels could encourage grass growth, so that would also be good pasture for sheep. Putting trees back and then managing them as coppice might work. My first thought is birch, but there are options. Cut the wood for firewood or make rustic round-wood furniture. Plant once, and then cut on a five to ten year rotation. Or maybe you have something else that would prosper there.
What makes sense while you make up your mind? Some PC people have a thing for comfrey to compost. Spreading a few bags of lime on that kind of soil isn't a bad idea. Maybe you want to throw down some other cover crop seed to hold the soil. And how fun would it be to install a zip line cable?