blockhill - forest garden experience & education
North Canterbury
Climate change predicts a wetter future with more extreme rainfall events for much of New Zealand.
Trapping water in the landscape is a valuable technique for buffering rainfall to later irrigate downhill crops and trees.
August 13, 2012
Audio from a 27 minute presentation that I gave to Canterbury Organics AGM 2014 at the Lincoln BHU. This was only my second time delivering this information. Sorry about the low audio quality
July 13, 2014
A short timelapse video that shows some of the basic construction techniques for swales as well as a tour of the finished swales filled with rain.
April 24, 2014
Freshly created swale
Details
It's never too late to add another swale, it's just a matter of squeezing it in amongst the existing plantings, fences and other obstacles.
The swales not only do a fantastic job of capturing and infiltrating surface runoff during rainy times but also break up the land in interesting and attractive ways.
Date
December 03, 2014
Yurtopian swales
I provide some basic guidance and marked out a short length of swale for Deschia and Daniel. This will infiltrate excess water from their yurt roof into the nearby garden.
May 10, 2013
The top swale
Finally, after discovering and experimenting with swales for some time, I have rerouted the rainwater from the house roof to a newly created TOP SWALE. The new excavations run in a fairly straight line through the orchard and overflow into the recently reconfigured garden swales.
January 18, 2013
New garden swale
I still got the swale itch and couldn't stop myself creating a new excavation along the top edge of the garden as a second stage catchment for roof run off. This version has a layer of cardboard that spent a week on the floor under the chook perches.
May 07, 2013
The way of the swale
A swale is a permaculture technique designed to improve water catchment and retention on slopes. Applicable to varying scales, a swale is basically a ditch or terrace created along a contour line with the removed soil piled on the downhill side. As rainwater drains down the slope above is is caught and absorbed by the swale. Plantings made along the swale will have access to additional moisture for extended period.
My first attempt at a small swale follows the contour line on a northwest facing slope below an existing track. Because of the small size I was able to dig this by hand over 2 periods, using an A-frame level. Over the course of the next few months we will be scattering the kitchen scraps along the length for the chooks to work over, adding their manure and nutrients from the kitchen. Finally it will be planted up in a variety of different plants from ground covers, bulbs and shrubs to fruit and firewood trees.
June 12, 2011
Building water catchment swales with a tractor
For those with a tractor, plough and simple drag blade, making large scale swales does not necessarily require employing contractors with heavy earth moving equipment. For the cost of the fuel and your time you can quickly add these simple water harvesting and infiltration systems to your land.
Always room for more swales
A brief spell of rainy weather revealed a few swale 'deficiencies' and so I got to work rectifying the situation. This latest effort really fills out the young food forest area nicely. Over the next year or so these will be amended slightly and planted up with edible plants and support species.
July 02, 2013
Raised woody swale / hugelkultur construction
Details
We used the opportunity of having a small excavator on site recently to construct 5 wood filed raised growing mounds on contour.
This technique is often called hugelkultur and exploits the ability of rotten wood to absorb and hold amazing quantities of water which is later made available to plants growing nearby.
The end result was 5 mounds about 7 meters long and half a meter high, each packed with a full trailer load of rotten willow logs and a wheel barrow of pig manure.
An assortment of fruit trees and berry shrubs has been planted along side in various locations to capitalise on the moisture, slow release of minerals and micro-climate effects of wind, shelter, sun and shade.
Date
July 25, 2014
Details
We have a number of swales out where the pigs live but this one is their current favourite. Nothing better for the pig than a mud bath on a hot sunny day. It seems that the action of the pigs hooves (feet) and their rolling in the mud actually help seal the swale so it holds water better.
Date
October 31, 2013
Garden swales
Reconfiguring the garden after some inspiration from Geoff Lawton permaculture DVD.
By laying out the garden beds along the contour we get easy access with improved water infiltration and retention. The width allows for easy reaching to the centre from either side. In the rare instances when we want to irrigate it is simply a matter of flooding the path for a while.
July 31, 2015
The swale situation
Things have gotten a little out of hand. Since I discovered the swale concept a little over a year ago I have been unable to stop modifying and shaping the water cycle on the property.
Water now takes a very long time to leave the landscape and all sorts of interesting little garden features and microclimates have resulted.
October 11, 2013
The first serious winter storm hit with a snowy wet blast and dumped over 75mm in 24 hours. This is exactly the kind of situation the extensive network of swales was built to handle. During the day I made numerous excursions out into the cold to assess and marvel at how the water was collected, channelled and redirected, distributed and absorbed.
June 20, 2013
This article aims to give you an introductory overview to laying out and creating infiltration swales. The information is based on experience gained during the design and construction of over 40 swales.
Water is the essence of life and as such we need to be thinking about how to make best use of what we have. The most important work we do is to implement solutions for capturing, storing, diverting and infiltrating rainwater and runoff. This helps build soil, nourish crops, prevent erosion, minimise drought and reduce or eliminate irrigation needs.
Learn about the art of land shaping for natural rainfall catchment, a practical guide to water harvesting and management.
Make the most of the water available, direct surplus water away from wet areas towards dry areas.
Use swales and terraces to halt the flow of water and nutrient off the land and allow it infiltrate and hydrate the soil.
August 21, 2014
There is a theory that burying rotting logs can improve the water retention and that plants growing above can tap into that water trapped in the rotting 'sponge' of wood.
Since we had the digger on site I figured we should give it a go - stay tuned for results on this
October 12, 2011
Water wise land shaping and rain harvesting strategies
- Tour the numerous terraces, swales and water other catchment systems and learn how they intercept, redirect and retain water in the landscape
- Witness how swales and raised beds can be deployed in a food forest setting and how they benefit chickens, ducks and pigs
- Discuss and demonstrate various tools and techniques
- Rainwater harvesting, tanks, piping and pumps
- Utilising grey water and run-off with trees and gardens
2 hours
$80.00