And now we have swales!
A couple weeks ago, Sophie helped me mark a spot for our swales. Friday I dug the little one, and yesterday I dug the two big ones.
I started around 9 saturday morning after a badass mushroom and cheese omlette for breakfast. Melissa got me a bunch of mushrooms at the store. Maybe they'll help me plug into the blockchain.
The bottom swale was the second one I dug. Nowhere near as many roots as I expected, as it starts pretty close to that oak tree in the south project.
My first step was to upset the ground along the marked contour line. Then I used my garden rake to rake out as much grass and weeds from the softened soil as I could.
Next was to remove that softened bit and put the soil downhill of the swale. Then keep digging til I reached my desired depth and width.
The top swale has a small ditch and berm to help feed it. I'll make other inputs as I notice them, but this was a big source of runoff in one of our recent torrential rains. Water came from the neighbor's property, across the easement, and under our fence here and it flooded the chickens and a lot of our property. With the swales, I hope to harness that and enable it to be beneficial.
The next step will be to make the overflow places by making holes in the berms so that water doesn't overflow the swales and wash out the berms. I think I'll put the overflow points where the swales come closest together. That'll be a project for this week.
So there they are! Our three swales. What a big project. They'll be the foundation of our food forest moving forward. Things are lining up, and my imagination is really seeing the potential here. For now, we're going to plant the rows with our lettuce, kale, spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower. In the spring we'll plant strawberries and other perennials there, along with fruit trees.
Until then, I need a whole lot of wood chips, so if y'all could pray for that with me, I'd appreciate it. I'm really starting to wonder if we'll ever get any, so I'm about to go to companies instead of just calling them. If I can't get any, I'll have to go pick some up when I get a truck in December.
It won't hurt anything to not put chips in there, the swales will work just fine, but I'd really like them in there to promote fungal growth, to feed the worms, and to insulate the area from evaporation. They'll also help designate a walkway right next to the berm that we'll be growing on, which will be really convenient.
Combined with the chickens progress, I feel like we accomplished a lot on our #dfood journey this weekend. It feels good to finally make another big chunk of progress.
We're resting today, as yesterday was busy and the weather has blown in some kind of killer attack ninja allergens. I hope y'all's weekend went well and that you got a lot done with time to rest.
Thanks for reading, and for all the encouragement along the way! It's felt and appreciated.
Stay relevant
Nate
Whew! that was a lot of effort. But after the flooding, you had to do something, and this is a most promising way to utilize large amounts of water.
I tried to make a picture in my mind of the forest but it was too hard. Once there's green on the piles, I expect it will be easier.
Fruit trees everywhere!
I'm going to map it out and draw up a plan here soon so that I can organize my thoughts. This week we'll be planting I imagine. Hope I've got enough seeds for 170 square feet of new beds...
Few people think of runoff management and passive irrigation when they think of landscaping. If it isn't already taken care of, make sure the slope leads water away from your foundation too.
They don't think of runoff because water is the state's job. They build the lakes, they build the dams, they build the roads with the ditches that feed the lakes. They deliver the water through the magic pipes, and they send us the bill. They even let us get in the lakes sometimes, those kind masters of ours.
Bro, the more I learn about permaculture, the more I see the control of the state everywhere. The more I practice permaculture, the more I wrench that control from them.
YAY for food forests. That's a lot of work. Well done @nateonsteemit. Wish our ground was so soft. We have to get through shale and rock to plant. I'm really impressed with how ingenious and enthusiastic you are about your homesteading projects
Ooh, permaculture can fix all that rock!!!
Jack Spirko of The Survival Podcast lives about an hour south of me. His property had three inches of soil before it turned to a solid Rock slab over the span of his entire property. Now he has feet of soil in just a few years.
Geoff Lawton is working on a project called Greening the Desert where he's helping people in Jordan start their own food forests on solid rock. He says their chickens are producing a cubic meter of soul a week, and it's being used to constantly grow and expand into an oasis in the Jordanian desert.
It was a lot of work, but the enthusiasm of supporting life is propelling me forward. If little old Nate can do this on his little half acre, anyone can. These things are big and revolutionary and they can change the world. I believe they can even fix most socioeconomic problems around the globe, but I'm a radical idealist, so...
Nice job @nateonsteemit!
Thanks! It was a lot of work, but I think it'll pay off hugely.
Walking the walk. Mightily inspiring and wind in my sails to do exactly that once I know where I want to settle.
Best of luck to you and your awesome project!!
Thanks so much, I'm glad I could inspire you!