The Walden Effect: Homesteading Year 5. Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Tablones

Tablones are Guatemalan terraces.Much of Central America is mountainous, so it's no surprise to find a broad range of terraces throughout the area.  Tablones are a type of Guatemalan terrace created on steep slopes.  Farmers simply hoe soil downhill, using gravity to ease the work and creating step-like terraces about two feet wide.

Hoe down part of the terrace above to form two inches of loose soil on the terrace below.Every year, tablones are re-formed by hoeing a bit of soil from the terrace above onto the terrace below.  Crop stubble is left in place and ends up being buried under the new dirt where it will decompose quickly.  Farmers can easily plant their seeds in the loose soil, then hoe down a bit more dirt to cover it.  The result combines the best of no-till and till techniques --- the majority of the soil isn't moved, so erosion is minimized.  But the soil is loosened, which makes it easy to plant and keep down weeds. 


This post is part of our Central American Permaculture lunchtime series.  Read all of the entries:





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comment 1

Haha, wouldn't it be a hoot to see terraces on the mountainsides of appalachia?

Doesn't the soil from the top just eventually all get scraped down to the bottom?

Comment by Everett Sizemore — late Wednesday afternoon, November 18th, 2009
comment 2

Actually, I see terraced hillsides around here all the time...but they're created when too many cows are grazed on too steep hillsides and the dirt erodes down into the cows' footpaths. :-)

I think that you're right that the dirt eventually ends up on the bottom of the hillside. But I'll bet it takes a long time --- probably centuries. Maybe it's slow enough that new dirt is formed at the same rate? Interesting question...

Comment by anna — Wednesday evening, November 18th, 2009
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