A couple weeks ago, Sophie helped me mark a spot for our swales. Friday I dug the little one, and yesterday I dug the two big ones.
I started around 9 saturday morning after a badass mushroom and cheese omlette for breakfast. Melissa got me a bunch of mushrooms at the store. Maybe they'll help me plug into the blockchain.
The bottom swale was the second one I dug. Nowhere near as many roots as I expected, as it starts pretty close to that oak tree in the south project.
My first step was to upset the ground along the marked contour line. Then I used my garden rake to rake out as much grass and weeds from the softened soil as I could.
Next was to remove that softened bit and put the soil downhill of the swale. Then keep digging til I reached my desired depth and width.
The top swale has a small ditch and berm to help feed it. I'll make other inputs as I notice them, but this was a big source of runoff in one of our recent torrential rains. Water came from the neighbor's property, across the easement, and under our fence here and it flooded the chickens and a lot of our property. With the swales, I hope to harness that and enable it to be beneficial.
The next step will be to make the overflow places by making holes in the berms so that water doesn't overflow the swales and wash out the berms. I think I'll put the overflow points where the swales come closest together. That'll be a project for this week.
So there they are! Our three swales. What a big project. They'll be the foundation of our food forest moving forward. Things are lining up, and my imagination is really seeing the potential here. For now, we're going to plant the rows with our lettuce, kale, spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower. In the spring we'll plant strawberries and other perennials there, along with fruit trees.
Until then, I need a whole lot of wood chips, so if y'all could pray for that with me, I'd appreciate it. I'm really starting to wonder if we'll ever get any, so I'm about to go to companies instead of just calling them. If I can't get any, I'll have to go pick some up when I get a truck in December.
It won't hurt anything to not put chips in there, the swales will work just fine, but I'd really like them in there to promote fungal growth, to feed the worms, and to insulate the area from evaporation. They'll also help designate a walkway right next to the berm that we'll be growing on, which will be really convenient.
Combined with the chickens progress, I feel like we accomplished a lot on our #dfood journey this weekend. It feels good to finally make another big chunk of progress.
We're resting today, as yesterday was busy and the weather has blown in some kind of killer attack ninja allergens. I hope y'all's weekend went well and that you got a lot done with time to rest.
Thanks for reading, and for all the encouragement along the way! It's felt and appreciated.
Stay relevant
Nate
