Swale Project: The Plan

I’ve experimented with small swales in the garden. My first was about five years ago (blog post here), but it was small and so had small effect. Then I started digging hugelkultur swale beds in the garden, since raised beds dried out too quickly (blog post here). Now, thanks to permaculture video lectures by Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton, we’ve begun to understand how to incorporate swales into an overall homestead design. The goal is to keep our soil hydrated. This is a challenge because we typically have long, hot dry spells each summer. We collect rainwater for irrigation, but now understand that the best way to collect and store water is in the soil. 

One thing Bill and Geoff stressed is that permaculture focuses on design, rather than techniques. Specifically, permaculture is about energy design: identifying, collecting, retaining, and using energy as many times as possible, for as long as possible. Water is a key energy source. Without it, everything dies. Our design is our plan to collect and store as much water as we can before it flows off the property. Swales are a key element to accomplish this. (See my notes, here.)

Since swales are built on contour, we used a topographical map to visualize a rough idea of where we should start. The topo map is pretty general, and shows our highest elevation at the top of the property, where the house, gardens, and outbuildings are. A series of descending ridges takes us to the bottom of the property, where it’s densely wooded. This arrangement is actually opposite of an ideal permaculture property, where the house, gardens, and outbuildings are closer to the property’s lower contours and can take advantage of water collected at higher elevations. But it is what it is, and that’s our challenge.