How to harvest water with a ditch?

What is a Swale? Knowing what a swale is and how to create one is the foundation of permaculture and indigenous farming. Which is Harvesting water in the ground to improve the water table for viability, vitality and the future.

Swale / swāl / – A Water harvesting ditch, usually on contour, designed to slow down water run-off and store it in the ground. 

Swales are just one of the many terms you will learn if you decide to engage in permaculture practices like we do. And Once you acquire a piece of land, it becomes up to you as the owner/ steward to it to implement earth-care techniques that will not only be aesthetically pleasing qualities but also enhance the properties ability to provide to all of it inhabitnats, new and old. 

Being Permaculturists. The first thing we did was walk our  land, observe basic obvious qualities and found our permaculture zones 1- 5.  (We will do another blog post on Permaculture Zones but a quick basic overview: Zone 1 & 2 you visit everyday, and zone 1 is where your home is located. Zone 3 & 4 requires/ monthly or quarterly attention, & your Zone 5 – Keep Nature Wild)

During our first walks we were taking note of the Key Land Qualities like sun exposure, wind direction,  water run-off, current wildlife present (plants included) along with road access, current and planned infrastructure. But before we even built our first structure it was more important to do our first permaculture project that will help rejuvenate the land overtime by increasing the water table, fixing nitrogen and providing new perennial food for its inhabitants. 

4 Boomstead Swales

5 years ago in September we dug our first swale on our land and it is still growing today. Looking back at these pictures I am reminded of the possibilities a swale can bring to the prairie..  A month later we dug our second swale about 50 ft away from the first and then a year later when we were building the tiny house a mini swale/graywater catchment system was created that is home to the aspen trees. And the fourth swale was dug that gets the most water action because it is attached to our overflow pond which fills up every year from the rain and snowfall. 

There really is no way to measure what these swales are doing or what we have done to rejuvenate the landscape. But if you look with your eyes there are buffalo berry bushes, choke cherry and nat king cherry trees, Milkweed, Plum tree, Penstemons, Honey locusts, Catnip and catmint, even our first aspens all still growing. Overall these bermed up water-catching ditches on contour and then filled with wood chips and inoculated with mycorrhizae, cow pea and other nitrogen fixing plants every year are the living lifelines that will continue to increase the landscapes ability to produce overtime.

 In the past 5 years we have had a couple deers nibble off the tops of some trees and a pat-rack or two chewed up a few trunks. However, as permaculturists we took note and added metal chicken wire fencing around the trees during early development which discouraged the pests and we also used these plastic tubing around the base of each trees that created a little green house effect while also keeping the deer away. 

Overall, a swale can be just one of that many permaculture earthworks that can be implemented into your land’s overall design that will evolve overtime while increasing the water table, and enhancing the land’s production capabilities as well. 

@thetracimitchell