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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Looking for good examples of the use of berms and swales & definition of each

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  • From: Tommy Tolson <healinghawk@earthlink.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Looking for good examples of the use of berms and swales & definition of each
  • Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 15:25:10 -0500

In the summer, a sharp pickaxe wouldn't penetrate the surface of the adobe soil we had on the Santa Rosa Plain in California. We laid out swales on level and built berms with the adobe that came out of the swales. We kept the berms mulched with straw then sheetmulched them when they needed more than that (bare spots sprouted prodigious weeds in a hurry). The berms were watered with timed drip lines. We grew strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, fruit trees, olives, and vegetables on the berms. Our kitchen garden was a raised bed mandala garden filled with bought dirt because it was less energy expenditure than moving adobe, which is incredibly heavy. Everything grew fantastic on the berms, as long as the mulch stayed on and the water lines worked. We had more singing frogs than I'd heard before, as long as the swales were filled with rainwater. Birds came to our place to find water in the dry season and to eat the grass seed from the seedheads of pasture we didn't mow. It was like bird heaven. We had a very small "pest" infestation. That was a sweet place. My partner didn't like it, though.

Tommy Tolson
Austin, TX




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