What are permacuture swale trenches?

March 16, 2021

If one of the real problems in the world is the erosion of topsoil due to excessive mechanical tilling, monocrop industrial farming, overgrazing and an overabundance of chemical fertilizers, some people think that simply allowing nature to do what it wants to do is the answer to soil fertility. And of course soil fertility is the future of our food security on the planet. The word for the destruction of our soil is called desertification. Desertification is when the living organisms in the soil no longer have a habitat and no longer provide the nutrients that plants need naturally.

One of the simplest ways to preserve the life of our land is by making sure that the groundwater is kept at a high level. When the topsoil begins to erode, it generally gets washed away when water flows down from the mountains at the end of the winter. To prevent excessive runoff, one method of enriching the groundwater is the digging of trenches that allow runoff water to pool. By doing this, groundwater tends to stay in one place and seeps into the surrounding land.

What is a Permaculture Swale: Irrigate the Easy Way Irrigation for gardens and farms has always been a complicated subject. That’s because the possible solutions are as varied as the conditions on each property. In permaculture design, we seek to solve problems in the landscape by working with nature and using techniques that are appropriate for the site. For many gardeners and farmers, catching rainwater in the landscape can be a low-maintenance way to irrigate and improve soil quality at the same time. Read more…

Once the ground water begins to pool, trees and cover crop are added to the downslope berm to hold the dam in place and also to promote growth in the soil. They say that one handful of fertile soil might have as many microorganisms living in it as people who have ever lived on the planet. And it is exactly this abundance of microorganisms that give soil it’s fertility.

One would think that this technique would be practiced globally but it’s not. If there is any reason for groundwater collection not being the norm it is for the same reason that guns do not require licenses in the United States and people are not allowed any sort of life that allows thoughtfulness. There is simply more money to be made in the chemical business and industrial farming equipment to do anything naturally. If a company can make money doing something antagonistic to nature, this is not a problem as long as there are profits.

SWALES? OR NOT TO SWALE? Each of those eight methods of rainwater harvesting works, you just have to find which will work best for your purposes and your land. In this Blog post, I’m going in-depth into Swales. I am going to take you knee deep in the trenches of swales. I will go over: Types of swales; How to build a swale. When other methods may be better designed for your site than a swale. Read more…

I’ve been following the idea of permaculture planting for a while now and it seems that water harvesting has been a salvation in India and the Middle East and in Africa where droughts exacerbated by global warming and rising temperatures begin to cause great problems in communities. If there is no opportunity for people to grow food, this sets entire populations into migration causing endless problems, political instability and of course limitless hardship.

There might not be a more important theme for our future than food security. And local food security would be at the heart of that thought. Transportation of goods again might be relevant economically and be wonderful for the gas and oil business but none of this is good for our habitat or our lands. Literally, the economic world is almost demanding that people starve so as to be able to sell their products instead of local produce.

And this is just ridiculous.

SWALES A swale is a long, shallow dug-out trench, running level along the contour of a slope, with an adjacent berm on the downhill side. The “berm” is a soft mound made of loosely piled, non-compacted soil which acts as a retaining wall. On contour means following the progressive decrease in the height of the land at regular, level intervals, which mark the boundary, outline, or shape of the land. Read more…

Local food sources are fresher, seasonal, have lower transportation costs which means it has less of a carbon footprint then long distance transportation and it does more for local economies by allowing Farmers to do their job. Literally, it is the natural way of life and has been for hundreds of years and it is being stopped for the sake of corporate profits without regard to the eventual cost on local populations. Add to this the problems of global warming and you have a recipe for massive catastrophe on a global level.

How to Build a Swale on Contour Successfully Swales are amongst my favorite permaculture projects. Though they can be laborious, especially for a shovel and pick fellow like me, they show results quickly and look amazing, texturing the landscape with both purpose and beauty. They are easy to explain: Everyone understands the concept of plants needing water. Swales are also perfect for those of us wanting to build no-dig garden beds, as digging the (swale) paths provides the necessary topsoil. Read more…

I realize that making an essay about digging a ditch deep enough to catch groundwater runoff as it heads down a hill seems like a simple enough occupation. But the effect of naturally preserving the groundwater table and therefore stopping the erosion of topsoil might be the key to staving off massive catastrophe.

22 Water Conservation Techniques Nature, our great teacher, manages water by catching rainwater, slowing it down and using plants & soil to absorb water into the landscape. These techniques are influenced by nature and used on my 1.5 acre site in the Bellinger Valley, NSW. Read more…

There’s only one future in the world. That’s the world where we are not hungry and we are not torturing each other from corporate and political greed. It’s also the one where we learn to work in harmony with nature rather than working against it because it makes us more money.