Goodmorning hive gardeners, nature enthusiasts, eaters of food, lovers of permaculture and fellow humans..
Today i want to share with you a small breakdown of our recent work in one of the swales on our property here in Natural Bridge on the east coast of Australia.
The main focus of this post is to dive right in, explain a few ways of working with the land AND of course share inspiration and some photos.
For those of you who dont know what a swale is check out this image from Living permaculture
In short, a permaculture swale is a technique that captures water in the landscape for passive irrigation and for slowing runoff thereby increasing the ability for your land to grow fruit trees, gardens, cover crops and in general greatly increase the fertility and productivity of your soil
Lets start with some before photos - the swale has been left alone for some time and is crowded with plants that we dont want there... however they are great for now because they create a sort of "placenta" for native trees and food... we will chop them down but never remove the roots as we constantly use them for returning all of the goods to the ground, nitrogen boosting, carbon locking etc... everything has its place in the system!!
the first step in our system is to spread a bunch of cover crop...
Rupert Faust, the founder of the Grounded Permaculture Action Party spreading a mixture of brassica, native shrubs and legumes
The view from the top of the swale... lots of biomass to chop through!
Next we begin the big hit... chopping down all of the existing plants, brushcutting and pruning our chosen trees, returning their branches to the ground and opening up the swale for the new plants we will dig in.
now that the first part is done we begin to mark it out... we choose lines based on the type of plant and begin to lay them out, four of us will make easy work of this!
Everything is nicely laid out
time to plant
among the plants selected we have......
cassava, canna, cocoyam, mulberry, citrus, banana, avocado, plum
AND a bunch of natives... wattle, eucalyptus, macaranga
and along the way we will be spreading various seeds such as pumpkin, brassica and nitrogen fixing legumes
So many goodies from another swale on the property! lets do this...
Me tucking in a Eucalyptus... get those roots deep yo!
Along with being delicious the Banana, canna and cocoyam will be a vital chop n drop over the next two years... they are all super juicy and when chopped up will bring so much water and nitrogen back to the ground as well as create cover for the other plants
reintroducing the natives should always be a priority as over time they will host a number of local flora and fauna!
Here is the final shot, all done! it doesnt look like much yet... but now its time to wait... within 6 months the entire thing will change and i really look forward to sharing the outcome with you all.
Stay dirty fam!!
and thanks for the follow 😉
Great work! i remember watching Geoff Lawton's greening the desert videos years ago and was amazed at the power of the swale!
Yeah its definitely a system worth using in many circumstances! Here in natural bridge we get plenty of rain most the year round so it is less necessary for water usage however still works really well for lots of other reasons!!!
That's a very nice thing to do as nowadays not many are planting now trees or plants. I would love to participate in one of those initiatives one day.
I think its very important! Most of my food comes from on our property so I don't often leave home or go to the supermarket
This is a great work I remember when I followed my grandma to farm.
Thank you for sharing this amazing post on HIVE!
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Wow, such wonderful work, dear @witherbloom !! I am so glad to come across your great profile here on Hive, and to know another permaculture enthusiast! All good things on your brilliant activities bringing out the best in Nature. :-D
Blessings from south Italy!
Thankyou Clare, i would love to see what you are up to over there in Italy!!! I see you are also an artist 🎨 I look forward to knowing more
Your post has been chosen by @ligayagardener for the next addition of 'The Garden Shed', a collection of archived posts by @gardenhive that feature useful gardening advice, DIY tips, homesteading tips and inspiring gardens.