Understand Swales In LESS THAN 3 MINUTES

A permaculture swale on contour is a water management feature used in permaculture and sustainable agriculture practices. It is a trench or channel dug on the contour line of a landscape to capture and slow down water runoff. By placing the swale along the contour, it helps to prevent erosion, retain water, and distribute it evenly across the landscape.
The swale acts as a temporary reservoir, allowing water to infiltrate the soil, replenish groundwater, and provide moisture to plants in the surrounding area. This helps in improving soil fertility, conserving water, and supporting the growth of diverse plant species.
The design of a permaculture swale takes into account the natural contours of the land to maximize its efficiency in capturing and utilizing water. It is an essential element in permaculture design, promoting sustainability, and resilience in agricultural systems while minimizing the need for external inputs like irrigation
#PermacultureSwales #ContourSwales #WaterManagement #SustainableAgriculture #SoilConservation #RegenerativeFarming #EcoFriendlyFarming #WaterCapture #PermacultureDesign #SustainableLandscaping #NaturalContour #WaterRetention #PermacultureGardening #SustainableFarming #PermacultureTechniques #SustainableLiving #EnvironmentalConservation #WaterInfiltration #PermacultureTips #LandRestoration #PermacultureProjects #smallscalefarming #homesteading #homestead
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[@terryjohnson6392]

Great information to plan in your garden.

[@sarahkirbach5040]

I just wanted to stop by and say…your channel is by far one of the most informative & concise & understandable related to all of these interesting farming topics and techniques. Thank you so much for sharing - hoping to utilize some of these in the near future.

[@tannerfarmstead]

Thanks so much I really appreciate it!!! Very encouraging to hear!!

[@sarahkirbach5040]

@@tannerfarmstead you’re welcome!

[@beckytanner2345]

Excellent explanation. I had no clue what a swale was!

[@340wbymag]

It is wonderful to see these ancient practices being rediscovered and put to use around the world. North America was once home to millions of beavers. They could be found in almost every watershed, and about ten percent of the continent was wetlands. We must take their place now. We have the knowledge and ability to transform arid lands and to restore groundwaters. We can transform our agricultural practices and become more productive. People around the world are finally catching onto this, and they are making the world a better, greener place!

[@hermanhale9258]

Somehow I watched videos about swales for years and never realized "on the contour" means you don't want them to drain. Even though I dug ditches across my yard to catch and hold water, and they do, I just thought of it as a way to break up the water and not have a big mud puddle in the middle of the yard during the winter. I dug them on the sides of my garden beds, and hoped they would help keep the garden moist during the summer, but once it gets over 90 degrees everything dries up.

[@raincoast9010]

Your garden looks really nice.

[@tannerfarmstead]

Thank you!

[@LoveFoundation33]

Is covering large patches of uncultivated land with black plastic sheeting a new permaculture technique? I hadn't seen that one before.

[@tannerfarmstead]

lol silage tarps are incredibly useful regardless of your opinion towards them

[@LoveFoundation33]

@@tannerfarmstead Nice to see you so passionate about what you do in the garden. I just watched your video on soil health and interested to see you using silage tarps to decompose the remnants of a cover crop. Just with all the expose that microplastics getting at the moment that stuff degrades quickly under the sun and sheds into the soil. Thanks for providing food for thought lol.

[@robertm5969]

I'm digging a Swale next to my house foundation. Should I use pond liner or landscape fabric under the stones?

[@tannerfarmstead]

I’d be very careful doing it near the foundation of your home. The point of the swale tho is to absorb and hold water in the soil so I wouldn’t use fabric or a pond liner

[@robertm5969]

@tannerfarmstead thanks for your reply. In my case it's being used as a drainage canal, kind of like a French drain but above ground. The swale is sloped to carry water away from the house. So the idea is water will flow towards the front of the house, reach the swale and flow towards the side of the house, where it will dump in a ditch about 10' from the side of the house. I figure pond liner would most effectively carry water away, as it should prevent water from seeping through towards the basement. But wasn't sure if it would also prevent evaporation from soil below it.

[@BryceAdorno-q6n]

Beatty Forges

[@FourthWayRanch]

They're great for breeding mosquitoes

[@seanrobert2227]

yes but manageable with livestock eating them😂

[@undefinednull5749]

Can someone explain because it's confusing. How is this supposed to keep water for longer when ditches are used to lower the water level below the ground - this is how swamps etc are converted into farmland (which is a crime against Nature).

[@tracy419]

This is intended to keep the water in place long enough to soak in more, instead of simply following the surface level of the ground and washing down hill and away from your property. That's why the ditch (awake) is level, and has an endpoint at either end within your property, instead of taking it away and off your property. Not sure if I made that more complicated or not😄

[@undefinednull5749]

@@tracy419 I think what you're trying to say is that Swales only make sense in areas of land where land is not horizontally level, because Swales are meant to capture water instead of letting it flow away towards lower grounds?

[@tracy419]

@@undefinednull5749 @undefinednull5749 pretty much. And you will usually plant trees, bushes, grass, etc to hold the downhill side of the swale in place so the soil doesn't wash away. These are often used in re-greening desert areas that used to be green and lush, but because of cutting down trees for farming, or due to over grazing, the soils just wash away with the water and everything dies. They will cut swales into the area and plant them to hold the soil in place, and as the water table starts to return, fill in the rest of the area. If you are interested, look up Andrew Millison's KZbin channel. He teaches permaculture at OSU in Oregon and has a series going to places like India where they are bringing water back to draught affected areas. Really cool stuff.

[@tracy419]

@@undefinednull5749 ugh, my comment keeps getting deleted. That's basically right. Look up Andrew Millison to see these methods being used to re-green places in India.

[@GerhardBothaWFF]

If you dig a ditch in a swamp, you drain water from the saturated ground into the ditch in order to evaporate it. A swale captures rainwater and acts like a leaky pond. Water filters slowly from the swale into the dry subsoil. Two completely different scenarios

[@LuisCherry-m4l]

Lang Islands