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I’ve gone to a lot of effort to try to improve the quality of the soils, from fungal spores to adding compost and worms, even home brewing some lactobacteria to aid legumes in nitrogen fixation.

I’d hate to undo all that effort by killing all the microbial life with chlorine. For the larger spaces in my yard I have no choice but to use the sprinkler or a sprayer and hope the misting effect will let chlorine evaporate, but what about using the hose directly on large grow bags? I’ve been using a buckets that I’ve let sit out for the chlorine to evaporate, but I have so many grow bags now that I don’t have enough buckets to get to everything in the same watering session. I’m in California so counting on the rain is not an option.

I am looking into buying a property with the intent to plant an orchard. However the place that fits most of my wants, has termites being treated off the back corner of the house. I know that young fruit trees would be at risk for these pests. Does anyone have advice? Would it be better to skip this property? Or are regular termite treatments effective enough to not worry about this issue?

Edit: property in Northern California.

So after completing the composting toilet build, I’ve been running out of time with the borrowed excavator so straight into swales it is.

Forgot to take a a starting photo, but this hill is where the orchard will be and at the bottom will be vege Gardens.

First photo is all the small trees cut and moved to the side, see pile of small trees in photo 5. These will be placed into the Swale when finished to break down over time.

Once I have dug all 2-3 swales (not sure if I’ll do 3 yet) I’ll then get into shaping the mound better getting nice smooth slopes and seeding With nitrogen fixing legumes.