blockhill - forest garden experience & education

North Canterbury

Yurtopian swales

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
  yurt  swale  garden  teach 
New garden swale

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
  Swale  garden 
Garden swales

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
  swale  garden  2012  2015