““If the entire world sought to make itself worthy of happiness rather than make itself happy, then the entire world would be happy.”
― Criss Jami, Venus in Arms
Connection, acceptance, patience, laughter, frustration, joy, overwhelming feelings of joy. These are just some of the feelings that may rush through your body during your first on-the-field permaculture earthworks experience. Week 6 of my Permaculture Design Certificate, we spent the weekend with a client looking to create an alpaca permaculture farm. We got the chance to learn about and practice with various tools to mark contour lines, practice a real client interview, and build a swale. Finally! A chance to build a real swale!
Permaculture Earthworks
-Week 6-
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Did you miss the other weeks?
1-Ethics, 2-Patterns, 3-Microclimates, 4-Trees, 4b-Soil 5a-Humid Cool-Cold 5b-Drylands
Manipulation of Earth to Reduce Energy Needs
The manipulation of the Earth can harness energies and forces. We can use them to our advantage and the advantage of surrounding ecosystems.
Thermal Banks: a bank of earth used to store heat collected in the summer for use in winter to heat buildings.
Gravity Feed: A system making use of gravity to maintain the flow of material such as water for irrigation.
Micro-Hydro: hydroelectric power produced by using the natural flow of water.
You can diversify the landscapes around you by…
- Creation of micro-climates
- Distribution of soil
- Moisture generation
- Moisture accumulation
- Inducing/avoiding frost
Planning for a Permaculture Earthworks Design
- Pegging and Surveying: Choose a site with maximum water retention for least amount of work. Mark a long route for the swale, and clearly mark the emergency spillway location.
- Testing the Soil: Check the soil in many places as soil can change quickly from spot to spot.
- Managing the Top Soil: Keep the topsoil in an accessible and marked area to ensure minimal loss.
- Replanting: Plant cover crops as quickly as possible to beat the weeds. Add seedlings and medium-sized plants to begin stabilization of berm.
Swales
A popular rainwater harvesting and soil conservation strategy. Swales are used to slowing and spread out water across a landscape. Ditches are dug along contour lines, with the excess soil piled on the downhill side to create the “berm.”
Swales on contour are dug to help infiltrate and spread out water across a landscape. This can help restore groundwater stocks and stop erosion. You can find contour lines by using tools such as;
- A-Frame
- Water Level
- Dumpy Level/Transit Level
- Laser Level
Dams
Here are a few types of dams mentioned:
- Saddle Dam
- Turkey Nest Dam
- Contour Dam
- Ridge Point Dam
- Valley/Keypoint Dam
Building a dam can be a key element in water retention on a landscape. Water that would normally just run-off after a rainfall is a potential for energy-harvesting, irrigation, aquaculture, and more.
Here is an interesting article showing the process and steps of building a dam.
When building a dam, it is very important to do lots of research and in many cases, it is advised to take an advanced earthworks course. If you are building a very large dam you most likely need to hire a professional.
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Hey Emilie, I was just researching some permaculture earthworks details for a project and found this post! I dont know if i was just so busy when you told me but I dont remember hearing about this! your awesome!
An additional not because so many people think swales are only for Increasing land soakage and infiltration. Swales can be also designed to prevent flooding and guide excess water off the site into storage ponds and dams.
We are facing huge flooding this year in quebec and no one realises that swales and dams are about water management and not just increasing infiltration! Keep up the good work and send us some of your posts on the P3 PDC student page, and the P3 page.
Let us know if you ever need anything
Cheers
Graham! Thanks so much for commenting! Any information from you is a huge bonus, so I’m happy you could add to the post. I hope to take more classes in the future and grab more of your knowledge.
I will definitely keep in touch.
I send my best wishes!
There’s a river in my back yard, and I was wondering if I could have a dam built. It makes sense that I would need to get a professional to handle this for me! I can see how using the right kind of equipment for this kind of thing would be vital.
Hi Braden! I suggest you go on the Permies thread and ask!
https://permies.com/
There you can create a new thread and permaculturists from all over the world will give you advice and help on the subject. Or trying searching to see if someone else has asked the same question. It’s a great resource. 🙂 Good luck!
Thanks for explaining how you can lessen the amount of work you need to do by choosing a site with maximum water retention. My brother said he wants to hire an earthworks service. I’ll tell him to look for a place with a lot of water retention and then have them do it if he can’t find anything.
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I need to have an area excavated, but I’m not sure how to go about it. It makes sense that I would want to get a professional to help me out with this. They would be able to ensure that the soil is sturdy enough to make excavating it possible.