How to use swales to prevent waterlogging.
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- Опубліковано 29 гру 2022
- In this video I explain how we use swales to prevent waterlogged soils on the croft, even during heavy weather events.
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Nicely explained.
On a side note.... People on youtube seem to have forgotten just how much work one guy and a spade can do.
Thanks! It's true, I've dug some significant earthworks, working steadily.
Especially if you are man-beast or you have one on hand!
Permaculture is about design, not fashion. People that lose track of that, or just miss it, are missing the whole of permaculture. You utilize the elements to optimize design for the site as best you can. That's always going to involve some compromises because there will be conflicts, but good design minimizes the effects of compromises made. I've seen cases where people put in swales declaring that this made their project "permaculture" while having no apparent clue what swales are for. You don't have to include an herb spiral, either ;) To swale or not to swale is a site by site decision. Same as most design choices.
We’ve talked a lot about swales, but this led me understand them in a way I’d not quite grasped before. Thank you!
Thanks!
It really is a brilliant system! Thank you for sharing this.
Thank you!
Great video ! Thank you so much.
Thanks!
I'm learning a lot! Thank you.
When I hear people complain about swales, it's such a simple fixable issue it makes me think of those infomercials where people are struggling to open cartons of milk... Only to rip the thing in half and spill it all... "THERE'S GOTTA BE A BETTER WAY!!!!"
Without naming names, I was watching a UA-cam video recently with someone properly having a go at swales and portraying them as this silver bullet-esque go-to for permaculture designers regardless of their suitability for a given site. It's a shame because he framed things in this combative way when the real world examples he cited were perfectly salient points of situations where the permaculture designer and the practitioners were often not the same people and certain type one errors were made largely due to a lack of due diligence. I couldn't help thinking: they're just techniques; they're a tool that might be the right tool for the job, but it's not a prescriptive thing, it's diagnostic and that's permaculture's strength... Anyway..! I'm glad that technique is working for your purposes on this site 🤗
Swales are just one of the tools in the permaculture "tool box". Like any tool, it isn't appropriate for every situation.
i'd like to see the video.
Very interesting. I've really only heard the negatives about swales in Scotland (UK, really), so it's good to understand their application. I'm glad it works for you, and when I finally do something of my own, I'll be keen to try a few swales.
Well I've learned something new and very interesting today. Cheers brother for your videos and a happy, healthy new year to you.
Thanks!
Thanks for the education
All new information for me; I had no clue, lol
Thanks!
I'd be thinking that you'd not be able to drive heavy machinery through a site that is waterlogged (at least not without ripping it up), so I question why people complain you can't drive through a swale. Still a swale is a tool for management, use it correctly for good results and incorrectly for bad results. Unrelated note but I truly do love shelterbelts and wish more were implemented in agriculture in general as well as permaculture, protect thy soils.
Thanks!
Thanks so much for this just viewed a very water logged site today with sloping gradient, it was confusing as it was sloping but has only ever been used for grazing sheep so guessing the ground abs become compacted and never broken and there is zero chance of water soaking into the ground to improve its abs omits to sustain fruit and nut trees. Do you have contact details? Would be delighted to have you as a contact - thanks so much again for the vid 👍🏻
Hi, glad you enjoyed it! Our contact details should be on the 'about' section of our channel.
Very helpful, but now I'm torn :o lol I want to establish a permaculture orchard (intermixed with shrubs and nitrogenfixers) and read that north-south fasing rows is best (for sun-exposure), but curved rows would make it more fun (and natural-looking) - not sure if I "need" swales here in Eastern Norway (at least this summer was pretty wet - after a drought that is lol). Do you have a video about your thoughts of spacing between swales (besides being able to access - I saw another video where you ended a swale early because the distance to the next swale decreased too much vs what you wanted for accessability)
The way I think about swale spacing is in relation to the height of the trees going in. In my system, most of them are coppice species so spacing isn't much of an issue. If I was growing trees to full height I'd be spacing them much wider apart. Another consideration is what you want to do between the swales. So, if you're growing crops I'd go with multiples of the width of any machinery you would be using. If grazing animals, I'd go with spacing that's a multiple of the width of a grazing cell.
@@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture Thank you for the reply. Our field is only 4 acres so our machinery will be a wheel-barrow, maybe a lawn-mower or an ATV (or not). Haven't really thought much about the area between my rows, was just thinking boring grass (or maybe vegetables) - will consider this more (I am going to have some chickens and have seen someone having a chicken tractor between their rows of fruit-trees, although I was thinking of more "stationary poultry")
@@saethman You could think of a hub and spoke system too, with the chicken hut being in a permanent place and lots of small paddocks radiating out from it, so you can rotate the chickens.
@@CairnOfDunnCroftPermacultureYes, that did cross my mind :) However, native birds are struggling with the bird flu this year in my area, so it is recommended (might have been mandatory for a short time) to keep your poultry "safe" from the wild birds (i.e their droppings) :( If the flu is resolved next year then I would have to reconsider the hub-system :)