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Gallo del Cielo said:
It's a somewhat of a joke, but somewhat based on permaculture stuff. Instead of having raised beds with square-foot gardening, mine is sunken (to collect rain run-off) and cubic-meter just to be a smart-aleck. In truth, I dug out the ground to a depth between 3'-4' (one meter) and re-filled it with a mixture of some of the native soil and tons of compost. The compost is constantly shrinking in volume as it decomposes so the garden is always slightly lower than the surrounding grade. In sum, the cubic-meter reflects the importance of the volume and quality of soil as opposed to the surface area that you're gardening. Plus, it just sounded funny to me one day.

edited because I'm answering a Mikey question. You know, I think you might be the first person to ask me that.
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Click to expand...

Well that's a pretty brilliant idea. Do you have any issues with it filling up with water and stagnating/rotting when it rains?

(I've been wondering for months now what it was...
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)
 
The name is my idea, but the idea of that style of gardening is not. It's pretty central to a lot of permaculture thought for gardening in arid climates. Desert native people, including some of those in AZ, have been doing it for hundreds of years. Surprisingly, it never floods. I don't ever step in the garden (unless I'm turning the soil) so there is little soil compaction and it acts like a giant sponge. The water seems to percolate down through the organic material and spreads out under the ground. I actually did things that should make flooding worse too. I took most of the soil that I dug out of the garden and changed the grade on my property. Originally, the grade was highest at the back of the property and lowest at the street. Water just flowed right off in every storm, down the street and lost forever. Now most of the rain that hits the house and yard flows back to a central point in the yard (on the west side) or directly into the garden (east side). In bad storms, the western, natural side of the yard will flood until it flows over into the east side and down into the garden. It makes it so I don't have to water hardly at all in the winter and little during monsoons.
 
Gallo del Cielo said:
The name is my idea, but the idea of that style of gardening is not. It's pretty central to a lot of permaculture thought for gardening in arid climates. Desert native people, including some of those in AZ, have been doing it for hundreds of years. Surprisingly, it never floods. I don't ever step in the garden (unless I'm turning the soil) so there is little soil compaction and it acts like a giant sponge. The water seems to percolate down through the organic material and spreads out under the ground. I actually did things that should make flooding worse too. I took most of the soil that I dug out of the garden and changed the grade on my property. Originally, the grade was highest at the back of the property and lowest at the street. Water just flowed right off in every storm, down the street and lost forever. Now most of the rain that hits the house and yard flows back to a central point in the yard (on the west side) or directly into the garden (east side). In bad storms, the western, natural side of the yard will flood until it flows over into the east side and down into the garden. It makes it so I don't have to water hardly at all in the winter and little during monsoons.
Click to expand...
Very cool. We have a wash that runs through the house (well actually around the house
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) from north to south. It actually comes in from both ends of the north side and runs around both east and west side of the house & I always wished I could capture some of it for gardening purposes....
 

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