Permaculture Swale #2 - finished bed

bepreparedchannel.com

This is the completed swale #2 in my back yard. This swale was lined with wood, then layered with composted horse manure, leaf litter, peat moss, and organic compost. It looks fine, but it is pretty losely packed down inside of this bed due to the air space/gaps from the thick layer of branches and wood that are on the bottom of this swale. I have some concerns that once this material settles that I may have issues with exposed wood coming up through the bed. So I guess time will tell just how well the wood I placed in the bed will work. It might have worked better if I had broken it down into smaller pieces and laid it in there in a tighter pattern, or I might find that I would have been better to just mulch it. We will find out soon enough. The first swale we made settled pretty quickly so I expect we will see soon enough if there are any issues.

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• permaculture
• raised bed
• swale
• prepper
• survivalist
• homestead
• rainwater
• greywater

[robertvb99]

That is a hugelkultur bed.

A swale is an open level ditch on contour to catch and hold water.

If you dig a ditch between the two beds then it might be called a combo hugelkultur bed and swale. Digging the ditch would give you more soil to put on top of the hugelkultur bed

[InvincibleRain]

I started a small one and just packed leaves down where all the air spaces were and stomped them in until they couldn't be packed in. I collected the neighbors leaves in the fall so i had an abundance of leaves to use. Unfortunately i am using my very small front yard for this living in city limits so have to use what i can. I need to find straw that hasn't had pesticides sprayed on it to cover it. Haven't had a real winter in ohio this year so it's been nice to get things done .

[BentBuddha]

I just watched a very interesting video about wood chip mulching. backtoedenfilm (dot) co m

[koviack]

this isn't a swale