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.