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Swale Project: Making a Start

Friday, January 21, 2022 0:01

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One of our winter projects is planning and starting to dig swales. Earlier this month I shared with you my permaculture swale notes and showed you our preliminary swale plan. We decided the first swale should be the one above the garden, because keeping garden soil from drying out a top priority. Dan started by mowing it, and then we used our transit level to find and mark the contour.

Starting at the fence in the background, the
contour gently curves toward the rainwater tank.

People usually use heavy equipment to form swales, but this is a relatively short distance (about 40 feet) so we can dig it by hand. It will be a slower go that way, but we don’t really have equipment for swale digging!

After the swale was marked, Dan used the tractor’s
scraper blade to scrape away grasses and weeds.

To loosen the soil, he then made a few passes with his subsoiler.

Then we got out the shovels and started digging.

Progress is very much weather dependent, and autumn was a great time to start. Not too hot, and the soil had enough moisture to make digging fairly easy. The goal is to finish before the spring rains. We’ve been pacing ourselves, planning to spread out the digging over several months.

December was mild and mostly dry. We made fair progress, setting aside some of the topsoil for another project (more on that later). It finally rained mid-month, and we were very curious about what was going on in the swale!

How the partially dug swale looked after about a third of an inch of rain.

It was exciting to see it filling with water! It also gave us an idea of how level our swale bottom is. We’re pretty much eyeballing it at this point, with the plan to make corrections after the length of the swale is dug.

We’re digging into the clay subsoil, which is sticky and heavy after rain. That slowed digging, but we managed more progress before it rained again when January arrived.

This shot was taken January 2nd, after 1.75 inches of rain.

The above photo was taken on the second day of a three-day rain event. We got a total of three inches, and were pleased that the swale held it well, with no blow-outs. It took about two days for all that water to absorb into the ground, which is as it should be. Then digging slowed, because the soil was slow to dry out and sticky. But I was able to make a little more progress before it snowed.

Taken two weeks after the one above. Can you tell there’s progress?

The snow has been slow to melt and left the ground sticky, so that’s as far as we’ve gotten at the moment. Digging will resume after the ground dries out a bit again. Once planting weather arrives, I’ll plant the berm with perennial herbs and flowers.

Swale Project: Making a Start © January 2022

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Source: https://www.5acresandadream.com/2022/01/swale-project-making-start.html

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