Permaculture Swales - How to Build 

Thanks very much, Brenda. Good luck.

Great tip

Use a mold board plow.

"ONLY 30inches" smh that should be more than enough

30 inches is still relatively little compared to a lot of places where farming is done. He was accurate in his word usage.

It’s really the length of the drought periods that make more of a difference than the quantity of rain.

We get 240mm

We are sitting at less than 3 inches this year.

Thanks, Sophia

Cheers

My plan is to retire and never have to set foot of my homestead ever again … living off my own produce.

@@LuckyFigFarm may your dreams come true 👍 💚👍

@@peggyhelblingsgardenwhatyo7920 thanks, Peggy. And they generally do

Thanks very much for watching and commenting. There’s a lot of joy in a bush block. I enjoy having my approx acre of forested area away from the home.

Thank you, Juan. Appreciate that.

Thanks! We want to retain all the rain we can in these areas. We’re about a month away from the start of the winter rain here. Last winter was terribly dry. The swales never filled once.

Everything is a long work in progress

Thanks for taking the time. Cheers. So excited about these bees!

Cheers. Thank you.

You’re welcome 8-)

Following video. Cheers

I plan to. Thanks.

Cheers

Chittering, Western Australia

I’ll get there

Yes, 100 years of farm machinery and livestock trampling it.

Last winter was the first one the swales never filled up at all. Such little rain. But the benefit is if we have a massive summer storm they will fill and keep a lot of the rain on the property.

Yeah, I don’t recommend the shovel technique!

@@LuckyFigFarm I have a sandy fast draining mountain soil. Do you know if swales would still be useful without adding clay or geotextile? I was thinking of putting a bunch of rotting wood and brush in them to break down.

@@Rymorin4 Sorry for the delay. My notifications didn't pick this up. ... It depends on the purpose of the swale. However, it sounds like you have the perfect soil (sand) for what swales are generally for - for catching water and draining it away fast into your ground. This is for people with the issue of having too much rain and not wanting to use the captured water. Adding organic matter onto the swales - like wood, branches, sticks, leaves and mulch to break down over the long term - is always the best additive for the health of soil. It will improve moisture retention and the important life systems in the top soil. So if you want to catch the water and redirect it into vegetation growing on top of the swale, making the soil organic is the way to go. I believe people generally have to improve the soil in order to increase the drainage because of clay soils.

Hello. The idea behind swales is the captured rain water is meant to soak into the ground. The water is being directed to where we want it in the ground / garden as opposed to running off the property. Holding water in a pond or lake would be another principle. Good luck.

@@LuckyFigFarmmany thanks I know the video is about swale and not pond but in my farm I have created farm pond connected to swale it gets filled up 2-3 times during monsoon but all the water percolates down whereas I was thinking to have surface water in those ponds for ducks so needed some advice to stop percolation.

@@rajeshrawal1681 ideally a pond or dam would be dug into a clay soil as that is the least draining soil. Depending on how large it is perhaps the pond could be lined with a heavy plastic sheet. I’m sure there’s ideas elsewhere on the internet. Cheers

@@LuckyFigFarm thank you I like your videos and will take inspiration from you as I convert my farm to permaculture natural farm

@@rajeshrawal1681 thanks. You’re welcome.

I’m picturing you could have 1 x swale on the high side of a veggie/garden bed. The swales need to be able to catch water running into it and also be level so the water spreads evenly over the swale and stays in the swale.

Thanks!

I really appreciate your comment and I’m glad it helped.

Cheers for watching

We’re all colonisers at some point. Who is Mungo Man related to btw? Not aboriginal Australians. Mankind in all cases screw things up in many ways. Indigenous Australians are part of mankind.

Fortunately, there are many options for how we restore the land.

Ironically rivers look just like swales

Macchu picchu isn’t natural either, but genius agriculture.

Agriculture isn't natural.

Cool James. Noone asked you lol