In June of 2020, I found a ten acre parcel of land in an area just beginning to boom with new growth. Later that year, I closed the deal, aware that I had some challenges ahead, but no idea how big those challenges would actually be. For one thing, I had faith that the old home would be restored by the time we moved in. Nope! You can read more about how we remodeled the old doublewide home on another page. This page will show you our race to save the heart of the farm itself… the SOIL!

We’re in a high desert region, meaning freezing cold winters with piles of snow and blistering hot summers with little to no rain.

The soil was relatively level, hard red clay in the front half of the property, but the back half consists of massive layers of rock topped with boulders on a slope flowing away from the house.
A barren ravine cuts the property in half, carved into the earth by decades of severe erosion.
To make matters worse, a massive wildfire ripped through the property a few years back, burning away most of the scraggly junipers and sagebrush which had struggled to hold the soil together.
The area is also prone to high winds and destructive microbursts, due to a lack of sturdy trees and shrubs. It’s not uncommon for sheds and small buildings to be ripped right off their foundations.

I knew that my first priority was to stop further erosion and save what little soil might remain. Tree and plant roots were my ideal goal, because their roots can hold the earth together while their leaves and branches reduce the velocity of falling rain and helps disperse some of the wind. They would also offer shade to encourage a greater diversity of new plants and help the soil retain some moisture. But trees take years to mature and my budget is extremely limited, so I hit the internet looking for fast growing high desert survivors which were also deer resistant (because wildlife is rampant out here and I knew they were going to be a problem).
After hours of research, I had a good idea of what might work, but I was also left reeling at the prices. I really wanted at least a dozen Colorado blue spruce to start, because they have deep, widespread roots to withstand windstorms. They are long lived, adapt well to clay soil, have moderate drought tolerance, and can survive our bitter cold winters. They’d also go far to break up the wind with their evergreen branches (which deer didn’t find tasty). They checked all the boxes, but a single three foot tall sapling would set me back $120! How could I possibly afford a dozen? Much less all the other trees and shrubs I would need?
More research was necessary.
I kept a journal of all my research and pictures of other people’s work to help me, but it was soon over a hundred pages long and not a single tree yet graced Willowbark’s landscape. I’d fallen into a “writer’s trap” and put everything I wanted to do on paper instead of getting out there and doing it. One of the pitfalls of my career choice. LOL! Okay, time to buckle down and DO what I’d been writing about!

To get me started, I ordered 25 2ft tall bareroot red maples ($1.90 each) and 25 1ft tall bareroot butterfly bushes ($2.16 each) from coldstreamfarm.net to get some roots in the ground for about $100 total. I planted them in areas I wanted to protect from further erosion, like the edges of the ravine and for windbreaks around the house. We dug each hole deep and backfilled with a mix of compost and native clay, then added straw and bark mulch on top to hold in the moisture. We took extra care to avoid disturbing any native grass surrounding the trees because we need their roots too!

I also ordered about 50lbs of groundcover which included: creeping thyme, white mustard, mighty mustard pacific gold, crimson clover, white clover, sweet clover, field peas, alfalfa, and select wildflowers. I couldn’t afford to hire a drill seeder and I wouldn’t want heavy machinery tearing up the land anyway, so I called in family from Arizona, Idaho, and Utah to all pitch in and help me plant the seed BY HAND! Most of these seeds required a planting depth of no more than 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep, so I had one team broadcasting seed while the second team came behind them with compost to cover the seed. We bent down and spread out the dead tops and leaves of the native grasses over the mulch to help everything stay relatively in place through the next windstorm.

One benefit of clay soil is that it is rich in nutrients. The small clay particles provide multiple surfaces where nutrients can ‘stick’. It also holds water well, especially with a layer of compost on top to shelter it from the sun, so my newly planted trees, shrubs, and ground cover could survive a day or two without a good soak. We gave everything a good soak from the well, then let Mother Nature do her thing. We timed it perfectly, in mid-May, when nightly sprinkles of rain were still expected for the next week and days were partially overcast to keep the soil from completely drying out in between.

$300 and hours of work later, our trees are starting to put out leaves and tiny sprouts from the ground covers are already giving everything a soft green glow! But we’re not done yet, there’s still a lot to do to change the microclimate at Willowbark. We need a lot more trees and plants if we’re going to green the desert and the budget won’t allow us to spend a fortune on the project. The important thing right now is to keep the momentum going. For that reason, I’ve been collecting volunteer saplings from neighbors and family that have mature trees. Elms, aspens, willows, and a variety of other trees or shrubs which frequently send out runners or seedlings. I dig them up before they get mowed over or chopped out and replant them in pots until I can move them out to Willowbark.
I’ve also used air rooting to make clones of trees that I really liked but couldn’t find volunteers from. The goal is to plant as much as I can with each visit to the property. Maybe, just maybe, a percentage of them will survive the greedy wildlife out there and start contributing to the new microclimate I wish to build. Once they’re large enough, they’ll be safe, and their future seedlings or runners will take over the job I’m currently doing.