Cataract Creek on Sept. 28, 2004. Tropical
storm Javier dropped 3.6" of rain overnight.
Four Hills Preserve
An experiment in high-desert land management.
Four Hills Preserve is 72 acres located at 5800 ft.
elevation on Cataract Canyon. Its habitats include a bend
in Cataract Creek, ancient Juniper and Pine woodlands, the
lower half of a deep, seasonal wash, and swaths of
short-grass prairie. A modern log cabin, satellite
internet, raincatch facilities and abundant solar energy make life at Four Hills
comfortable and economical.
This site records my experiences in gardening, offgrid
living, land-reclamation and plant identificaton. It will
also report my discoveries of the climate, wildlife and archeological
history of the Cataract Canyon watershed.
Gravity-fed irrigation schematic. Uphill tanks
hold winter rains and drain to garden beds.
Four Hills Designs
A Garden Design Company.
The mission is to create self-sustaining, xeric gardens
for my clients. A xeric landscape-plan utilizes surface
run-off, swales and snow-drift patterns to put Northern
Arizona's transient moisture to work. We use
nurse-stones and rock-mulches to nurture medleys of
native plants with little demand for artificial
irrigation.
Rim-country will support a host of colorful, interesting plants for use where elk,
deer and rodents are a problem. For commercial and
residential landscape installations, Four Hills Designs
works with Flagstaff's Agassiz Landscape Group.
The Southwestern quadrant of
the San Francisco Volcanic Field drains through the
Preserve.