Swale advice needed
I'm working on creating a community forest garden at a school in Dartford.
The site, ~2,200m2, is a mound, gently sloping down in all directions, more steeply to the south and west. I haven't calculated the exact gradient of the slope.
I would say the soil is sandy loam, with chalky subsoil.
There is no water source on the site. There are plans for some rainwater harvesting, and given the summer we've just had, water capture and storage is of primary concern.
I have begun to plot out some swales using an A-frame, and so far have mapped out one swale of 40m along the south-facing side, and the plan would be to have more all the way around the mound.
We dug some trial swales by hand and concluded it would be too hard work for the volunteer group which is still being established.
Now, the question is whether the swales would provide enough benefit in terms of water storage in the land to warrant hiring a digger, or whether they should be abandoned altogether.
Any advice anyone has to offer would be greatly appreciated.
First attempt at marking out the swales before the foxes got to the flags and progress was postponed for other reasons. The current swale is planned approximately along the outer line shown in the photo, which is facing west.
Aerial view of the site.
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Rakesh B Wed 28 Dec 2022 10:19AM
How deep and wide are you making the swales? Having done this many times by hand, I know a group of 10 people could do this in one or two days at the depth and width I would start with. You are on the top of a hill so there is not much run off, only what is directly coming from the small patch of land (if you give me the measurements, I can do the calculations for you). My guess is 1 or 2 spades wide and deep is good enough. At the park in Ilford where we now have a community forest garden, they planted 200 trees and shrubs the year before I got involved and every one died. So when we started the forest garden in the same park the first thing I did was to dig some swales (a few short videos here on how we dug the swales in this playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzAA3pgn4WYCiBoqkt8Of5igwjA5GenIy). Given the lack of rain during the summer, and the fact we have no access to water at this site, everyone was impressed that all the saplings survived. So I would 100% say it is worth it.
Rakesh B · Wed 28 Dec 2022 10:22AM
I am working with 1 school and a home ed network next year to make forest gardens. If you want to collaborate in any way. I am also starting 3 new community forest gardens in East London. Will be running several courses to facilitate them.