Swale Project: Making a Start
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. |
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.
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.
This shot was taken January 2nd, after 1.75 inches of rain. |
Taken two weeks after the one above. Can you tell there’s progress? |
Source: https://www.5acresandadream.com/2022/01/swale-project-making-start.html
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