GREENING THE DESERT w/ RAINWATER? Off-Grid Family Builds Permaculture Berm & Swale, Plants Trees 

Hey Im doing the same thing in Texas on 14 acres right on the Mexican border. I used Google Earth to figure out where to put my trenches and bowls. From Google Earth, there are dried up waterways all over my property so I just have to catch enough rain to replenish my water sources. I actually wrote a guide that I am going to publish soom.

For folks who can't hire backhoes: Learn the flow of rain in your yard, your land, and with a shovel carve out a small 3 or 4 ft quarter-moon-shape beside a tree, to catch that precious water. You'll see a growth difference with the very next rain. Remember that permaculture can always be achieved without spending any money whatsoever. Good luck to all---

Eucalyptus trees will burn like candles in a bush fire. If you want a fire prevent and a microclima change then use a lot of oaks. The wood and the leaves will not catch fire for a long time and if the heat increases they will drop little waterdrops (when they are adult).

I'm obviously writing this several months after you've posted this video so bear with me. You're installing contiguous swales and there's nothing wrong with that at all. But where there may be an obstacle in the way such as much needed access or other desirable feature/s in the landscape, there's a viable alternative. Think of a dotted line. There are gaps between each section of the line. So for the purposes of permaculture based design you determine the contour as usual but decide on the (length) of the swale/berm dash in your dotted line - (say 6, 10,15,20, 30 feet e.g.) & then dig. Then leave the appropriate gap between it & the next swale/berm dash in your dotted line before digging the next swale/berm dash. Rinse & repeat across that particular contour. THEN as you move downwards you do the same EXCEPT that this time, you start the NEW swale/berm dash line by digging IN-BETWEEN the gap of the one above then rinse and repeat until you get to the bottom of your watershed. The advantage of using this approach is that it simultaneously allows for easy access of machinery, vehicles and livestock & doesn't require any unnecessary expenditure on culverts & maintenance thereof. You also stand to catch the same amount of water without unintentionally creating a point/s where gully erosion can occur in the gaps of the dotted line were they to be symmetrically aligned on the horizontal and perpendicular planes. It can be a useful hack to (slightly) overlap the ends of each swale/berm dash line with the one above by say about a foot at either end when digging each successive contour as you move down the slope; again, for the purposes of not accidentally creating a point of gully erosion. Any silt that does wash down the slope will be caught by the swale/berm in the gap between the one above it. I've seen the dotted line swale & berm dash approach used to great effect in Rajasthan, India, which turned clapped out land into highly productive land. There's several RU-vid videos detailing this. I'd also use an organic mulch topped by a gravel or rock/pebble mulch around the base of your new trees so that when they do get rain or irrigation, that moisture will stay put. The organic mulch will, gradually rot down, holding moisture & building soil as it does so, and the (impermeability) of the rock or pebble mulch on top of that will stop most of the evaporation. Rock mulch will also stop the organic mulch from blowing away in the desert winds & stop cats or other animals from digging around the rootballs of the trees.

Solar panels and drip irrigation are used extensively here, in Israel. In the old Arab houses, almost every one has a built-in underground cistern for storing rainwater that drains off from the rooftops during the rainy season. Good luck in your project!

You guys are awesome, I live in Cape Town, South Africa in a suburban home. I dug a swale by spade method and planted 1 white mulberry tree next to it. In another spot I put in some Asparagus. When my lemon tree (from seed) gets a bit bigger it is going in too as well as a Fig. My property is small, but eventually my food forest will take off.

The Earth can heal herself via 'natural processes' if we give her a bit of help... Beautiful. Made me smile :) Thank you for sharing. Enjoy!

Those trees grew so much from the planting and when you ended the video. They will look incredible when they are fully grown,adding so much to the environment as well as the ecology. We seem to over look not only do they produce oxygen but they give cover for wildlife and many of the insects that are also important in feeding the birds and other creatures too. This is very hard work for you and your family . But when you wake up on a morning,or sit on a night time outside your home , you must count yourself very lucky. It’s a dream many would love ,but can not accomplish . Many years ago when I was fitter I would have loved to do this . But it’s beyond me now. And I have had lots of adventures too in my days ..Keep up the great work Love n Light to you and your family 🥰

Looked like some of those trees already knew where to go. I love how you showed the trees at the end with the names of the people. Normally it’s these faceless contractors tearing them down without even asking what species lives there, your content is simply refreshing🙏🏻

Also, I’m posting a comment again to hopefully boost the analytics so Nine Nine can get a BRUDDER!!! And if you’re also a fan and are reading this, share this channel with your friends and get them to 100k followers!! 👏🏻❤️😁

Nice to meet you. I am Japanese. My name is Jota Inui. I was a teacher for 27 years, but I had a stroke and had to quit my beloved job. And now, I am creating woodwork art works using world heritage Yakusugi and sacred trees. I have a variety of disabilities due to cerebral infarction. The right face has pain from being cut with multiple kitchen knives. And the left lower leg was left with a disability that was burned by the gas burner. Except when I'm sleeping, I'm living in a living hell of intense pain. In the living hell of that pain, I am creating fishing charms and woodwork art works using the world heritage Yakusugi and sacred trees. I watched a RU-vid video of a wonderful couple and was deeply moved. This is because you and your husband are facing a very difficult task. And because they are always working hard to make their dreams come true. Your dreams are amazing. When I look at your work, I think you two are creating works of art in nature. Seeing this wonderful couple working so hard made me feel so excited and made me think that I must work even harder. Even though I am disabled, I can learn a lot from the way couples live. You guys are such wonderful human beings. I have the utmost respect for this wonderful couple. And I am given the power to survive by a wonderful couple. Sincerely thank. thank you very much. I sincerely hope that he will continue to play an active role in the future.

This has got to be the most informative RU-vid about the permaculture berm and swale process. Helps soooo much to SEE project. Can't thank you enough.

If you reading this make sure you have subscribed, these folks are incredible and their kids are fabulous too. Have a great day

Fig trees? Food! Plant food!

Amazing watching people engineer puddles and low spots, here we pay people to get rid of puddle and low spots. Life never stops amazing.

I don't believe this video was an hour and 40 minutes long. I bought some 20-minute videos of similar DIY work that seemed much longer. So by that I mean kudos to your cinematography, photography, music and humor are done well enough it's to the level of a movie. I look forward to seeing more on your projects. As I'm very interested in rehydrating the desert soils naturally

If you have a open source of water, like a pond, dyke, etc. it is important to protect the surface of water from direct sunlight. Plant trees with large canopy around the rimm/edges. The larger the body of shadow from the tree is the better. This also applies to grass and bushes. They will thrive best in the filtered sunlight coming through a tree.

Oh! When you take a plant out of a pot you need to rough up the roots because the roots will keep growing in a ball unless you redirect. This is a problem because the trees will live till the first or second drought then they will die. The roots need to spread.

For seven years I work for a nonprofit in Florida and we could have never ever accomplished what we accomplished without a massive army of volunteers. You should have people signing in or just keeping track of the number of people that were there in the hours that they worked an overtime that’ll be something you’ll be able to share and you will be amazed at how many man hours volunteers of accomplished for you

You killed me guys , it’s 3:00am here and can’t stop watching your video and I don’t know if I can work today , but I enjoy every minute of it , you got a new subscriber 👍❤️all the way from the land down under 🇦🇺.

I'm so glad you put this project all together in one video, it makes perfect sense and wow, what a success. I think Nine has an amazing life, he's so bouncy and happy.

This is such a great video! You cover it all, share the reality of the process and include fun videos of Nine-Nine and his bouncy self enjoying the puddles. I can't get over the beauty of the green grass. I really didn't realize the desert does get green part of the year. Thanks again for teaching such wonderful principles and demonstrating the results of hard work.

I love love love when these vids include a husband & wife team, better yet the whole fam ~ 🥰 You 2 are so adorbs! Yeah, kinda like a french drain... it's all good :)

Also I wouldn't be afraid to plant any trees tightly. You can always prune them into whatever you want. And the closer the roots are together to shade the ground with whatever understory you have planted, the better the water retention in the swales...

Can I just say you guy are too beautiful for RU-vid, God bless you all. 💯❤

Excellent video, guys. Your process is clearly explained. I always enjoy seeing Nine-Nine run, jump and play. I love how you guys love him so much, and I can't wait until your hit one million subscribers so Nine-Nine can get a sibling.

You guys would probably benefit a LOT from either moving your solar array to, or else adding one, above your trailer. It gets HOT in AZ, as you are already well aware. Unless that's something you're holding off until after a permanent house is built in which case never mind me.

Berm and swale!!! Come on rain, help the TSH family, help the land🌎💝🐾💙💕💖💜😻🐐🐥

Hey guys, I am from India, and today watching your vdo I felt like I should have been there with you doing all that stuff. I wish I had a piece of land like that and do the same what you did. But dreams don't come true as easy here then they come true in USA. Well best of luck for your dream project. 🎉🌵🎄🌲🌳🌴🌸🌼🌻💐🌺

Hi I’m from a sunny island in the Caribbean, I now live in Florida - I remember while living in the rural area of the island I used cactus 🌵 around the property to keep out neighbors farm animals that sometimes roaming around. We did put up fence and alongside cactus which over time was the perfect fencing it kept everything out. It’s just so beautiful out there lots of work, l can see, nevertheless, gorgeous & peaceful.

Tree branch cutting and rooting powder and starting plant pots from empty food containers and anything recycled that holds dirt

So I had an idea. Install coverts parallel to swell. Cap the far end. Let the courts pushing some nylon strap to wick the water. 20 years it'll be filled with tree roots.

I always loved the monsoon season in Arizona. Using berms and swales are the best way to capture rain water in arid climates.

With all that hard work, you guys must be in the best shape of your lives. Congratulations for all the earth friendly considerations that you do.

Nature is healing since when people with natural they are happy people

Hi, Congratulations on this video of burm/sweals! I'm brazilian and I'm fascinated by your family's sharing your friendly energy, working in Arizona arid climate and prevailing so many odds! Allow me to mention another example.I witnessed an Amazon family doing hard work with so much dignity and smarts, also so impressive. The elder woman wanted to build a straw basket.She took a canoe, went into the Amazonriver inlet,she knew where to cut tru the jungle barefoot and climbed trees to get a special root fiber.Imagined she did all by sherself and her grand daughter was filming. Imagined walking barefoot and missing all potential obstacles in a junle environment! It was hard work indeed .Amazon River almost dried on December 2023. People there need to learn to escavate to hold the water.Also they plant mainly fruit trees to have a crop with local plants. In the Amazon they protect their skin against the tropical sun with aloea vera.Please take note of the intense sun in Arizona. I love to see your presentation with your husband and your family and friends interconnected with your Village town and people. You are so lucky having access to so many technologies and knowing how to use it in such a thoughtful way. Show me you are taking good care of yoursef as well! God Bless

Thanks for regreening the desert hopefully it will all become green one day.

YES! Thank you! This is it! Clear and easy to follow! 🤩😆 Everyone inclined like me needs to repeat this everywhere. We can all be neighbors and have festivals again!

Beautiful video. Our creator paints us a majestic picture every morning and night.

Suggestion: around the base of all your new trees and shrubs. Put rocks, angled into the trunks so when it rains the water drips to the center of your plant. I’ve been doing this for years. Lots of success in keeping trees alive.

Nice project. Eucalyptus trees may be resistant, but are they the right choice? They drink a lot of water, and their oil impoverishes the soil surrounding them. Underground drip-irrigation (a pipe run into the ground) would reduce your water usage (less evaporation) and force plant roots to extend deeper (they'll seek moister where it is, the plants will be stronger and eventually the roots will go deep enough to require less irrigation). Good luck!

I love your videos! If I was younger I would join you!!! We worked together to build a home ourselves with our kids years old. Our now grown children STILL stalk about that time as being the best memories of their childhood. I'm so proud of you guys how you are doing with your family! Keep up the good work. I love it that you are sharing your journey with all of us. I love when you pop up on my feed!!!! Enjoy your day....you sure made mine!!

The natural agriculture is the savation of the soil

I think what you are developing is a family of well-rounded adaptable people, who will get by no matter what comes their way. Well done

That burm and swale looks FANTASTIC.

I'm soooooo happy that you guys record and share so much of your lives! You're smart and entertaining!! Thank you for all you do!

Unrolling the tubing is easy, stick a shovel Handle thru the roll, fasten the shovel Handel to the wheel barrel handles. Now you need only pull the end of the tubing, allowing it to unreel. 👍🏻

I've been through the desert on a horse with no name, It felt good to be out of the rain, In the desert, you can remember your name, 'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain

Wooowww!!! Suuper cool!!! The landscape, the music, the doggies, the whole family and the community was involved, the likeability of you as a couple, great idea to send a photo for the sponsors of the trees, also very precious information etc... another lovely video!!! Congrats for the attitude and for the commitment. Many thanks for sharing and kind regards from Ireland!!! : )

Love what you are doing. A community working together is a great unifier. It beautiful. Reminds me of the way people came together to help neighbors in the past for barn raising.

your dog: do you want to jump in the water? no? WELL I DO!! YEAH!

Thanks ya'll, it was fun spending this hr with ya. Perhaps we'll bump again. Be well!

I love that you actually delivered and installed those trees. They now truly have the best chance at survival. That was really cool, so was viewing the whole project.

Love that giant doodle dog!Amazing video with lots of great info!So glad to see your family is still thriving and all your hard work/efforts are paying off!Thanks so much for taking us on your journey! Much love and many blessings!

i love what you do and I also adore your choice of music. I also love your dog and cats. Seeing animals is the best part for me but I also enjoy the rest. You guys are a lovely family.

Love all the detail, not hiding the mistakes, and just the whole vibe, yall are amazing.

i like it when people come together and do this stuff for the globe

I love what you're doing! We live in central AZ, the Verde Valley and I hope to use some of your ideas on my much smaller property. Water is a critical problem in Arizona, and I love the idea of setting things up to allow the water to move into the groundwater instead of running off to the river, taking all the topsoil with it. Thanks for the beautiful photography as well!

I really enjoyed the format of this video! Just enough detail but were still able to capture everything start to finish!

9 9 no replacing him😢! What a personality!❤❤❤

totally looking forward to a full tree update in 1 or 2 years. great project!

I’VE JUST BEGAN BINGE WATCHING, SUBSCRIBED, & WANTED TO TELL YOU ARE THE FIRST ONES WHO MAKE LAUGH ON ALL THE HOMESTEADER CHANNELS. I THINK ITS BECAUSE THE MAN - JAX WHO YOU SSID DOES LOTS OF THE FILMING - DOES A GREAT JOB!!! I LOVE THAT DINOSAUR COSTUME JUST RANDOMLY POPPING INTO A SCENE!!! ASHLEY AND JONATHAN YOU ARE THE CUTEST COUPLE AND YOUR SMILES AND LAUGHTER ARE CONTAGIOUS!!! GREAT JOB AND HEY A FELLOW TENNESSEE RESIDENT. I LIVE IN UPPER EAST TN CORNER IN KINGSPORT!!! YOU ARE MAKING ME PROUD!!

Run your irrigation line all the way to the other end without puncturing the line. Feed the water from the far end irrigating the back corner first

Awesome video! The chickens had a party sampling the grass seed and I fell in love with Nine. He has so much personality and just loves life. With him around you can't ever be depressed. He just makes you want to smile. You all worked so hard and got a great result. In this day and age it was wonderful to see the whole community show up to help. It renewed my faith in humanity. You are so blessed!

Incredible Family, Incredible Community, Incredible Video. Thanks for Sharing with Everyone.

Your supposed to uncoil the whole main line & let it sit in the sun,I had to get some metal stakes to keep the mainline straight, I went to home depot and found a bag of ASTRO turf stakes , I got 100 for under $10.00, they were longer & thicker than the ones in the drip irrigation section @ home depot , I even can fertilize through my drip system, I just use a faucet timer and it all works perfect, and such a time saver, if you get a hard freeze ,drain your main lines before the freeze, you can make a dedicated fitting to attach to an air compressor to the main line and blow out the residual water way faster than gravity, I hope this helps,oh don't forget to check and clean screens, and despite your best efforts emitters will clog, so when you walk your lines ,throw a few new emitters in your pocket and bring a pair of pliers to remove the bad emitter or use a goof plug when you replace the bad emitter and put a new hole and emitter in your line. Again I hope this helps, these are a few things I've run into.

Thank you so much for sharing your videos with us. My grandson and I are in the process of setting up a Nature Discovery Center and Land Conservancy in the Desert area of southern California. We learned much from you that we will use on our projects.

I’m gonna say thank you to your community as well. Thank you community for coming out and helping these folks who work so hard every single day them and their children and their dog. You are definitely blessed and also the guy that’s helping you measure all this I forgot his name but he is absolutely a blessing as well at anybody I don’t know about or have forgotten about blessings to all of you

I really enjoy watching Nine Nine romping and running in the puddles and waiting for you guys to play with him. Also, I’ve noticed that he’s the same color as the dirt. How old is he? He’s still got a lot of puppy in him it looks like.

Ein Tag ohne Tiny Shine Home ist ein verlorener Tag. Danke für die vielen Stunden an Unterhaltung, Wissensvermittlung, eure Freude am Leben und zu guter letzt NineNine.

The bouncy dog footage is simply the best. Nine needs his own Instagram feed and I'd start my day with some of that joy!

If you did happen to dig a little pond and line it with clay you could retain some of that moisture for later, too! But the swale draining quickly isn't bad if it's refilling the underground aquifier.

Love watching your journey.. BTW... also love your music choices 🎶 And BEST pup ever!

Look up Peter Andrews from Australia. A true conservation Master! Slow the water down.

This is a beautiful example of having more recourses than patience. It should be a great learning experience

I have never seen a happier dog - I love that :-) and I love how simply you explain things and how your kids always help. Top parenting!

The Arizona Cypress are very easy to propagate from cuttings. Just cut some of the ends off stick them in dirt and keep them moist. Takes about 6 months to a year.

Inspiring to show how everyone can be a land steward. Try making some plastic cones for around bottom of trees. It will collect morning dew and then it runs down to base of tree and creates shade.

we need a "One Year After"!

Just found you guys...yay! And can I tell you what impressed me almost more than all the hard work? The beautifully hand-crafted thank you cards! For some reason the effort and thought behind it really struck a chord; the world needs more people like you. Thanks for sharing! ♡

Guys, we had THE BEST lightening show up here last night!! This is the best summer monsoon season we’ve had in a long time, and we’ve been loving it! 😁👏🏻❤️

Your videos are lovely and informative. Thanks for posting them. I also just wanted to say thank you for crediting the music in your videos so clearly. Really awesome of you.

I'm impressed with how much you did in three years. It doesn't even look like desert a landscape.

Thanks for the recap, there were some things I hadn’t seen in the previous videos, and I really enjoyed it. On the part of the swale that is not working, You are correct that it’s not a problem, but it is a missed opportunity. So maybe that can be bumped up to the top of the priority list since the rainy season only comes once a year.

I have learned so much from you guys. Thank you.

1:37:20 Mother nature is so absolutely pleased with what you've done for her she thought she'd reward you with rain!

This just popped up on my tube and I so enjoyed watching NineNine having such a wonderful doggie good time.

😊 This is wonderful that things are working out the way you need it to and I can also see if it doesn't you will learn how to fix it. I am so proud of you guys and smile every time I see your video alert pop up. Looks like Nine is very happy as well. God Bless! ❤🧡💛💙

I really enjoyed watching this and you did a very good job you and all the help you had is very nice of those people to help you so I will keep watching and you keep up the good work God bless

One thing we need to do is move water from the ocean back inland to places we need it and if we can do that while generating clean energy we have a chance to mitigate climate change and still have a prosperous future. It is really, really hard but it is not impossible. The biggest idea I am trying to express is tunneling aqueducts from the coast, in this case the west coast of the USA inland to feed combination geothermal power and sea water desalination plants. The idea seems to be so big that no one has considered it possible but I believe it is not only possible but it is necessary. For over a century the fossil water contained in aquifers has been pumped out to feed agriculture, industry and municipal water needs. The natural water cycle cant refill fossil water deposits that were filled 10,000 years ago when the glaciers melted after the last ice age. Without refilling these aquifers there is not much of a future for the region of the United states. As a result ground levels in some areas of the San Joaquin Valley have subsided by more than 30 feet. Similar fossil water depletion is happening in other regions all around the world. TBM and tunneling technology has matured and further developments in the industry are poised to speed up the tunneling process and it's these tunnels that are the only way to move large volumes of water from the ocean inland. The water is moved inland to areas where it can be desalinated in geothermal plants producing clean water and power. In many cases the water will recharge surface reservoirs where it will be used first to make more hydro power before being released into rivers and canal systems. It's very important however to not stop tunneling at these first stops but to continue several legs until the water has traveled from the ocean under mountain ranges to interior states. Along the way water will flow down grade through tunnels and rise in geothermal loops to fill mountain top pumped hydro batteries several times before eventually recharging several major aquifers. What I am proposing is essentially reversing the flow of the Colorado River Compact. Bringing water from the coast of California first to mountaintop reservoirs then to the deserts of Nevada and Arizona and on to Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. This big idea looks past any individual city or states problems and looks at the whole and by using first principles identifies the actual problem and only solution. Thank you for your time, I would like the opportunity to explain in further detail and answer any questions.

I’m in Santa Cruz county, Az on the west border of Cochise County. Just found your channel, love it! What a great community group you have. With my drip line for trees, I find the rabbits will chew the main line to get a drink, so I added an emitter over a pan, in a couple places, to make a place for them to drink and they quit chewing into it. Also the deer and javelina love mulberry leaves and berries😔 I’ve bought lots of plants from Parkland in Douglas. Love those people!

You two are very motivational, and I would like to see what your plantings look like in five years. I am wondering if this method of containing and diverting water would assist those impacted by flooding in Pakistan. Subscribed from the UK x

Wonderful team work. Great job 👏 👍 👌

Be aware that heat and cold will make your drip line move back and forth. and therefor shift the dripper away from your trees. I planted 1000 olives on a dry farm in Australia, and found I had to stake it or bury it. Cheers.

Love your channel. I salute you folks and your lifestyle. As a fellow Arizonian who loves the beauty of our state and permaculture, I am fixing to build an off grid hobbit hole buried shipping container home and rainwater ranch. Thanks for setting a cool example.

You guys did a great job in the video. Great job explaining each step. Greening desert land has been a dream for me for years. Maybe someday. Wishing you all the best out there!

Depending on the type of eucalyptus maybe plant them somewhere else away from food producing trees. Some/most eucalyptus trees are really thirsty and also there’s something that suppresses root growth of most other plants. Loving your work!!

You need to really take a look at all the edible native plants around y'all. Yould be amazed how much is edible. And completely useful on a daily basis.

This is a beautiful project I hope it thrives for thousands of years to come!! Thank you for your work, I hope I live long enough with as many resources to do this also on a few / hundred acres!! 😃🙏🏼🥳✅

Your corner of the high desert is looking so pretty! Just lovely 🙂