Yellow Hills Ranch
In the tradition of New Mexico co-ops, our cooperative will remain mostly agriculture with a sustainable residential area
clustered on the north end of the property. People wanting to join our small-scale agricultural cooperative can purchase land sites
with flexible financing terms including options to trade agricultural work for ownership.
1,375 acres of edible forest gardens supporting a new way of living highlight our land development design. You can join our community and help build the dream.
Based on a proven know-how for replicating woodland ecosystems using edible fruit trees, nut trees and various perennial herbs and vegetables, our layered plant creations will be formed around hiking trails, Ranch roads, buildings, businesses and borders, beautifying the land and enriching the community's stock of edible plants. Appropriately 1,375 acres will be devoted to forest garden development.
Robert Hart is often credited with pioneering this concept more than 30 years ago but forest garden principles can also be found in Native American Indian practices and diverse other cultures worldwide. Mimicking the functions of a forest ecosystem while growing food, fuel, fiber, fodder and pharmaceuticals on the Ranch, we seek to support people wanting to take the forest garden practice to other world regions.
Demonstrating a natural harmony between conservation and food production, a forest garden is typically grown in seven layers starting with an initial layer of tall trees. A second layer of shorter dwarf shade trees is followed by a third scrub layer often filled with wild berries. Then comes a herbaceous fourth cover that can consist of beets and herbs followed by a 5th layer of root vegetables. The 6th layer might include strawberries and other protective ground cover. The forest garden is finished with a final vertical layer of climbers and creepers. You can observe this distinct layered process in many natural forests. Our forest gardens will mimic nature with perennial apples, vegetables, berries and herbs that mostly look after themselves.
Forest Garden
Land development on the Ranch follows the proud tradition of New Mexico coops. The forest garden system ties into that cooperative principle with a land use design that nourishes and supports the whole community. Gardens will be created, harvested and maintained by home owners who live on the Ranch as well as local area residents. Residents of the Ranch can choose to be active forest gardeners or not. Passive forest gardeners who live on the property still enjoy the benefits of their surrounding rich agricultural production. Passive gardeners might include a retired couple or a family living in a city with a second home on the Ranch.
Whatever their circumstance, every owner can enjoy the privacy provided by the enchanting buffers and beauty of their nearby forest garden without a requirement to work it. The Ranch, however, reserves the right to maintain the cooperative forest gardens, harvest the plants and trees and provide the occasional maintenance requirements of any garden growing on the property. Forest gardens are fully dedicated to the agricultural cooperative concept. Each resident has an exclusive right to use a portion of the forest garden area themselves. They also have incentives to become active forest gardeners.
Residents can get involved in year-round gardening in organic greenhouses or participate in the revenues of animal breeding programs, raising goats for their cheese or other ventures that add to the productive capacity of the land. The agricultural cooperative is owned by the Ranch but its residents have the exclusive right of use that goes with each property deed. These rights are permanently recorded with every parcel subject to an agreement regarding its appropriate use to ensure the agricultural cooperative.
Sustainability is a baseline for each residential home. Minimizing every structure's ecological footprint from the first stage of construction through its entire lifetime of operation until the home is deconstructed or salvaged, Yellow Hills Ranch seeks to minimize its negative impact on the environment. Our home designs with their cooperative area access are available in five models:
Wildflower: Providing work trades for land, 82 Units (25% of the homes) are in the "affordable' range with 100 acres of homes
between 1,000 to 1,500 square feet (1.25 acres with the cooperative land.)
Paintbrush: 98 parcels are priced to appeal to people with moderate resources. Paintbrush parcels are about 2 acres including the
cooperative land.
Aspen: 94 building parcels offering one acre building sites cost more but include an additional 5 acres (6 acres total.) Offering more space,
the Aspen design has the feel of a mini-ranch or small farm.
Big Horn: 21 parcels include two acre home sites with 10 acres of cooperative land for 12 acres total. Big Horn parcels allow for a larger
building site with each ranch typically bordering a vast open range.
Grande Vista: 30 parcels include 5 acre building sites with
15 to 20 additional acres of cooperative land. These larger properties border
the open cooperative rangeland for a grand vista experience.
Land Use Proposal
Our best estimate of the way the Ranch development will break down is as follows:
1. Land for Managed Grazing Program: 2,963 acres
2. Cooperative Land : 1,282 acres
3. Agriculture Zone for Greenhouses: 93 acres
4. Residential Land : 405 acres
5.
EcoTourism Land :
Five 25 acres plots (part of
cooperative land or open rangeland)
Total 4,743 acres