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 large commercial and
residential landscape installations, Four Hills Designs
works with many of Flagstaff's landscape installers.
The San Francisco Volcanic
Field from Mt. Sitgreaves northward drains through the
Preserve via Cataract Creek.