Farm
In British Columbia, many farms are working along the edges of the forest.
We live in a small cabin at the edge of a forest overlooking about 7 acres of meadow.
The east side of the meadow is an aspen grove.
The other 3 sides are an interior Douglas Fir climax forest
with spruce, pine, birch, Douglas maple and juniper.
If we don't "work" the meadow, it will all eventually convert back to forest.
We started in 2018 by fencing 1 acre and dividing this acre into 4 quarters.
Along all fence-lines and at each quarter division we laid partially rotten conifer and deciduous logs. We hired a mini-excavator to fix the water line to the cabin and when it was not digging the water line, we were digging swales and burying the logs (carbon) to make swales/huglebeds all along the perimeter of the acre and all along each 1/4 division of the acre. See photos below.
A Permaculture principle is do things that perform many functions or solve many issues. Swales/hugelbeds in this way do just that! The initial effort to do these installations perform so many passive functions afterwards for decades.
The swales around the perimeter of the acre not only provide nutrient and moisture retention for whatever perennials and annuals are growing along the swales, they also store carbon which we are now learning is critical to help mitigate climate change. If that isn't enough, they also act as a "speed bump" and a livestock/wildlife deterrent.
That's 4 major important passive functions!
We love passive functions as they require no power or marketplace materials (read plastic or ticky tacky as William Bonsall likes to say) in order to function.
Passive function #1
The swale as a nutrient and moisture battery.
The most direct benefit for what we are doing (growing food sustainably) is the passive ability for buried carbon to function as a nutrient and moisture battery.
We now know that most plants cannot absorb any nutrients from the soil unless there are micorhyzal fungi in the soil. We no know there are no micorhyzal fungi in the soil unless there is food there for them to survive. The only living organism that has evolved to break down cellulose and lignin in trees is micorhyzal fungi. Bury trees in the soil and you have ensured the presence of this fundamental life giving organism.
We also now know that fungi in the soil makes upwards of 80-90% of the soils ability to hold on to moisture and not let it run screaming down the mountain in torrents of devastating erosion. This buried carbon, over time, will act like a giant sponge and passively provide moisture to whatever food and medicine plants we have growing in and along the swale. This eventually creates what is known as a 'water lense' and this pratice has even shown to raise the water tables in the ground and neighbouring wells over time. During the hot arid temperatures of August and September this fungal matrix is critical unless we want to go into high tech irrigation systems. It also feels very comforting that we can miss some irrigation days, even go away for a while and know our plants are not in any risk of dying.
Passive function #2
The swale as a carbon sink.
Storing carbon is key, key, key.
The more we look into it the more it looks like it's one of our best ways to offset excessive carbon going into the atmosphere. When i first started my forestry practice i had to set fire to some pretty massive slash piles. It did not sit well with me imagining this going on all around the world every day of every year; not to mention the industrial/factory carbon and all the other nasty emissions involved that continue to lower the air quality in those parts of the world and then abroad.
Now imagine if we couple this agricultural potential with the carbon we can store in the forests of the world.
Passive function #3
The swale as a "speed bump".
I learned this when we built a forest garden in Midway in the early 2000s.
Much like here in the Thompson river watershed it's very hot and dry in the summer.
Just south and west of us are the towns of Lytton and Lillooet that boast the hottest temperatures in Canada regularly.
In Midway after i built my swales around the fence perimeter i noticed that when the hot drying winds of August and September arrived, they no longer blew across the top of our gardens evaporating the mulch and top soil. When the wind hit the swale it deflected into the upper atmosphere and this created a more beneficial microclimate for our gardens. Once the perimeter plants got established in the perimeter swales, this microclimate was further enhanced. All along the south fence line swale in our acre garden here at Blue Earth i have planted several types of basket willows and a whole bunch of essential oil trees that will eventually form a wind break for the rest of the gardens.
Here are some good side profile looks at the swale as a "speed bump".
Or should i say "wind bump".
Passive function #4
The swale as a livestock/wildlife deterrent.
This was something unexpected.
I knew we had range cattle from the ranch down the valley to deal with.
Our fences around the entire property are down in many places and at the moment we can't afford to repair them.
I also don't mind the cattle helping me keep the meadow "mowed" and less of a fire hazard. The free manure also is a bonus.
We also have deer visiting us on occasion.
When i lay down the carbon/logs on the inside of the acre fence, i dug the swale/ditch on the outside of the fence. This did two things. One, it created a 2' low or moat around the acre. Two it raised the earth on the inside of the fence by 2' as well. I watched the cows try to browse the fence line and they don't like walking down into a ditch for one, and secondly they don't look too confident trying to eat anything above their bodies in the swale through the fence. The deer also don't like the jump. There is still the bear, but 2 out of 3 pests taken care of is pretty darn good. The first year before the swale was complete, a cow did get in and i got there just in time to see her enjoying my last cabbage. If that isn't motivation i don't know what is.
Here you can see the first fenced acre.
The red lines show the swales that divide the acre into quarters.
Swales 2, 3, and 4 respectively.
Swales 1 and 5 are along the western and eastern fence-lines.
The swale along the fence is not yet finished in front of where i am standing.
Along the fence to the left you can see one of our pea crops doing very well on top of the swale.
One thing to keep in mind is when you bury so much carbon you create, at first, a nitrogen sink as well as a carbon sink. The carbon ties up the nitrogen in the soil to initiate the decomposition process. To help balance this it is good to plant as many legume/nitrogen fixing plants as possible both perennial and annual.
This is a closer look at the 3rd quarter between swales 3 and 4.
We are using our Stihl professional battery lawnmower.
We are very impressed with it. The same batteries go in my chainsaw which i use for log and timber joinery and to thin the forest. Very impressed with this chainsaw as well.
I also have a scythe that i am also using when i have the time of leisure.
We use the grass/hay as mulch in the first two quarters where we are growing our food crops.
We are considering growing grain in this quarter next year.
Swale 3 is hard to tell with all the sweet clover thriving in the photo.
Swale 3 is planted with about 30 crab apple trees which we will graft on apple and pear scions possibly this coming spring.
Swale 4 is also drowning in a very happy family of sweet clover.
Hiding happily in the understory is a long row of asparagus which was leftover from our main plantation is the first quarter.
Much to our surprise it actually has done better in the top of the swale than the others in regular bed plantings.
This coming spring will be year 3 and we will start to see what kind of harvest we can expect from such experiments.
In the front 15' of swale 4 is a row of all the fruit pits and seeds i don't swallow over the summer.
Mostly peaches, nectarines, cherries and apricots.
They have now popped up and are going into years 2 and 3 and i will plant them out in the food forest along the edges of the forest swales we are creating each winter.
(See 'The Forest' link above)
In the front of the photo along the north fence-line you can see fava beans and sunflowers growing happily in the fence-line swale.
Just behind (to the right of the step ladder) growing along the swale is a plum tree a few years old.
This is a closer look at the 4th quarter between swales 4 and 5.
Swale 4, on the right, is the asparagus experiment i mentioned above.
This past spring i turned 50 and my mother gifted us with 50 tree saplings of our choice.
Most got planted along the south and east fence-line swales.
The remainder were planted along the side of swale 4 we are looking at in this photo.
Thank you mom!
In 50 years it will be thank you grandmother!
They are hazelnut, mountain ash, blueberry, linden, alder, apple and a few others i can't remember at the moment.
This is the downhill side of the swale which means in the spring when the spiring rains collect in the uphill "ditch" of swale 4, and when the snow melts into swale 4, this moisture migrates downhill into the 'water lense' below the swale.
The expanding matrix of fungus growing from this swale creates this lense and holds massive amounts of moisture.
This part of the acre is closest to the aspen grove (to the left) and lowest on the grade.
This last spring was very wet and for the most part of spring and summer it was almost under water. Very lush and fertile growth happens here!
There is lots of alfalfa and clover growing in the grasses and we get many mows of mulch for the above quarter gardens.
Our current plan is to plant a berry patch with other moisture loving perennial food and medicine crops.
We haven't decided yet if we are going to be chamber maids for animals just yet as Helen and Scott Nearing so eloquently and convincingly argue their point (and now Will Bonsall).
The battery lawnmower has partially liberated us from the petroleum paradigm shift we are now burdened with as a global community.
It is amazing how it provides mulch, which also greatly reduces "weed" seed, and creates a place where children and their friends can play games of capture the flag with water balloons.
I'm not so sure about water balloons but we all have to pick and choose our battles with the minions. :)
Above and below photos is me taking a photo to the south and then to the north of swale 4 while the kinder play a birthday game.
They could completely disappear and hide in the flowering sweet clover that took up residence in swale 4 this year.
We hope the asparagus approved.
"Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple." Bill Mollison
