I have seen zillion videos to understand swales and their functions and how to build one properly. This is the only one that explains it. Thanks for making it simple to understand.
One of the best video. I am an urban guy and having watched so many video's this one helped me understand what exactly the swale does. Keep posting video's like this thank you
GY Solutions Thanks, I was going to try and get it all into one but was to much info so had to brake it up. Part two will have the stuff you were asking about.
this has been The BEST SWALE EXPLANATION VIDEO ON YOUT TUBE!! seriously. ive seen close to 100 and nobe have explained and demonstrated just how they work and how to create one. we have slopey hill land we want to garden. and keeping water on slope just doesnt happen....unless you build a level ditch on contour. thank you so much for this great information.
Me gustó mucho su video he visto varios o muchos Videos y estoy tratando de hacer lo mismo pero nadie lo explica bien usted explicó hasta con peras y manzanas con agua con los árboles y como la verdad que me encantó tiene un nuevo suscriptor👍👍👍😃
WOW! I had just "gotten" an understanding of swales after watching a dozen videos. AND I even started creating my own swales on contour. After watching your explanation I realized exactly what I need to do to water my swales from top to bottom as I am putting swales around a hill. Previous, I had intended to water each swale (I have six right now) individually. But thanks to your vid, I can water the top one and let the water trickle all the way to the bottom and I'll watch it to see where the swales will need reinforcement. BEST VIDEO EVER!! Thanks a million.
Good explanation. I like that you said to make the bottom of the ditch level and to make the top sill level and to grow the trees behind the sill. I want to recommend this to the counties in California where we have so many fires. When we have the rains, we can catch the water this way to make the soil more moist and maybe more resistent to catching fire!
This is the best explanation of swales I have seen. I am just starting my permaculture journey and this is very valuable information. I am also in the high desert of New Mexico and water is my biggest challenge. Thanks so much!
Brilliant! thanks for the straightforward simple explanation and demonstration. Have looked around a lot of sites but they're not so clear and easy to understand. Need to know how to achieve the on-contour bit - maybe it's in your part 2 video.
From one adam to another, that was the best video on swales!!!!!! Thank you, would be really cool to visit your place and learn from you......do you do educational weekends?
Thanks I am glad it was helpful, I have not done any full weekends, but have had people stop if they are in the area. Thanks for watching and commenting, I should be able to get more videos out soon.
For a small scale garden system, should I have space between swales? Or can I do ditch, berm, ditch, berm without the natural ground in between? I'm thinking like 4 swales only like 6 feet long for planting veggies (maybe with some perennials like lavender mixed in). I have only found 1 example of "veggie swales" on the internet that are even close to what I'm wanting to do. Most examples of swales I see are for trees and larger scale. I'm glad you mentioned scaling down, I'm just not sure how to do it correctly. My area gets a lot of rain, so I'm planning to put in a rain garden at the base of the slope and my proposed veggie area would overflow into that.
I have a place in Swan Valley, your soil looks like mine. Thank you for explaining perma-culture in a way a hobby farmer can understand. We are at about 5500 ft. elevation. Can you suggest a place that would have fruit trees that will grow in our area and soil on the down hill side of our swales?
Excellent, very clear explanation. I would think though that your soil would absorb close to 100% of the rain anyways, in which case your swales are just lazily built irrigation channels (left the dirt piled up). Jokes aside, is it dusty and hydrophobic soil there, or do you get heavy rains when the ground is chalk dry? You can't put swales on a that steep a slope, so what's causing the runoff?
Water will flow along any slope, you just need to be careful you don't put sales on too steep of a slope, I think they say 30° or something, which is quite steep anyway
