HOW TO BUILD SWALES - and harvest water

How to build a swale is one of the most important things I have learnt while developing my food forest and studying PERMACULTURE with Geoff Lawton.

A swale is a method of harvesting water, and they work whereever you live in the world.

This is the first video of a three part series on swales. With thanks to Geoff Lawton, this first video is the "INFO" part of this series, and is pulled from Geoff's Online Permaculture Design Course (find via my website).

The second and third video in this series are here:

Enjoy and learn
Weedy

You can also help grow my channel and receive something back yourself by visiting The Weedy Garden Website via the links below:

#harvestingwater #waterharvesting #selfsufficientliving #selfsufficient #permaculture #organicgardening #organic #howtogarden #growingyourownfood #sustainableliving #offthegrid #growfood #gardening #gardeningtips #sustainability #vegetablegarden #swales #organicfarming #gardening #foodsecurity

[deebraah]

A year ago my missus and I were living in the city in a townhouse trying to think of an escape, watching your videos every night, today we built our greenhouse and planted our first spring veggies on our acre block (barefoot) 😂 and built our bathtub wormfarm, with our rescue magpies . just thought I'd come back and say thanks for the motivation! We're home ❤️

[damien]

Your video editor deserves a raise dude

[Beecozz]

I just purchased 5 acres of gently sloping raw land. I think we will put in a swale! TY so much!

[kigenzaaimepatrick]

I was listen to something on YouTube while driving, then this video popped up next, I had to park to actually watch it.

Thank you for all the masterpieces.

[roccofiori]

very nuanced and important distinction: a swale is dead flat, ie parallel to contour. a ditch is not on contour, it has gradient along it's length. a swale holds water on the land, a ditch drains water from the land. be like geoff and build proper swales. ;)

[etiennelouw]

I am digging a small swale in my suburban garden to catch water from my gutters and I have planted 3 trees to help. In the back yard I am digging a 2nd swale to do the same, but I use bio soap in my washing machine that will discharge into the swale as well. Getting into this is very important as over here in Cape Town, South Africa we almost ran out of water 2 years ago.

[wade]

Not sure why I clicked the video, but can't stop watching.

[flash_flood_area]

Thank you! My son has been encouraging me to create swales in my low desert yard, and this gives me greater understanding of where to start, and why.

[originallizzah]

Thanks so much for this! After the last two scorching hot dry years, our local soil went from rich to almost baked-clay consistency in many areas. The trees are all getting sick, as well. I have several trees on my property I adore (under tons of stress from changes in yearly precipitation and temps, and showing this stress) and the concerns about revitalizing the soil and creating proper drainage, moisture levels and nutrient has become my main 'at home project'. It's been breaking my heart to watch the number of trees being removed in my area due to drought induced weakness to disease/fungus. I think we lost about half of the large trees on my block last summer, or the neighbors just gave up and had them removed. Education like this is so helpful and I really appreciate it! Now I have some new ideas and a better understanding of how to reinvigorate the soil and protect our trees from the extreme lack of rainwater in recent years. You are awesome!

[kmw]

There are some videos on YT about swales near Tucson, Arizona, USA ... one by Geoff. :) The cool thing is they were built a long time ago under FDR and were never maintained, but they are still giving life to that desert area.

[onagoodday]

This is exactly the info I needed for my new block of land. Thank you so much

[veganfiji]

Each time I see your videos, I just want to jump into them, its beautiful

[ddddddd]

The day I saw your first video, I knew you will be going this route.. it's your calling..permaculture is the way ahead.. wish you more power in your journey.

[JustineDodd]

I love Geoff's lessons... I've been absorbing them for a few years now, and I find him so easy to understand. You are also very easy to spend time learning from in your Weedy Garden, so thank you for the inspiration! I'm just starting to plan out my second fruit forest in 3 years - I did the same thing just a few years ago, carving out channels and swales in the landscape and planting about 40 tropical fruit and nut trees, many were quite rare and unusual. Everything was ticking along nicely in the garden, then, one November day in 2019, things got rather hot... only a few trees survived. I moved. Now I am planning a totally different temperate fruit forest, preparing the land, digging swales by hand, planting cover-crops, potting fruit trees in preparation... This video was an excellent refresher for me ~ it sparked all sorts of ideas and I learned so much. Cheers

[MyClarissa]

Your lessons are so much needed. You ARE changing the world through education . Your lesson are amazing! So many questions finally answered !

[wakeupsheepleNWOREAL]

I could listen to this man all day long, not get tired of his voice or lesson. Great info! Thank you for sharing kind sirs!

[grahammanning]

That was brilliant. It was good of Geoff to let you use his video. Really shows the value of swales in re-establishing trees back into an environment. He really knows his stuff!

[vtrandal]

Fantastic. Here’s what I’ve learned at 8:00 minutes into the video. A swale is a landscape feature that creates ponding along a slope or grade, and thus directs water into the ground for the purpose of growing trees.

[toddshook]

I have been hearing about swales and decided to look more into it. Found lots of info but listening to Geoff was great.
Thanks for sharing.

[beansprout]

Thanks I loved your lesson on swales and how impotant they are to help the earth and provide perfect systems for trees and plants to flourish. I live near a swampy area but gets very dry in winter so we dig 8 foot deep hole and bang a sand spear in .
And use a small pump to water every thing ...i can smell the nutrient water and the plants are fed to perfection .
🤣👏🤣❣