Distribution & Cycles
Water is everywhere! Starting with our Being composed of 60% water and our brains made up of some 70%!
Our earth's majority (75%) is made up of water. Of that 75% of earth's water, about 3% is freshwater and further, about 68% of that is locked up in glaciers and ice caps!! That leaves us with a miniscule amount of water necessary for continuation of
life. It is our job as occupiers and inter-actors and actresses to
responsibly manage ourselves and our limits with consumption. We are about promoting a healthy
vibrant earth and employing
ourselves and our labor to preserve this balance and generate a healthy state
of
well-being. There are many ways one can work with water to preserve and
effectively and efficiently use this sacred resource.
Where is water locked away?? It is in our atmosphere, in our ground, in our leaves, trees, plants, animals. It is all over and we Need it to Live.
Water drives life!
With this arrival of this very welcoming rain, I'd like to explore some techniques in working with, guiding, and storing water. Whether it is used to water the garden, flush your toilets, shower in, drink, etc., there are many benefits to holding water on your property and ways in which to do so.
Contain
Capturing water before it exits your landscape is the game and cisterns, swales ponds, and keylines are the names to sustain this game. While I say capture I really mean store or more effectively use before we lose it. Though water will eventually return why not be sure to have your supply?
Let us start by diving into tanks and cisterns! Cisterns have
Roots dating back to ancient Israel and probably further. People of this time dug and carved channels or holes into solid rock capable of storing water to ensure a steady supply during the hot summer months. These are comparable to modern day reservoirs (although we build them bigger the idea is the same). Cisterns in modern times are made of cast concrete or other materials capable of sealing in water.
Tanks are another option, are readily available, and can arrive in many different forms. They can be utilized on an individual basis or linked together to increase storage capacity. Commonly used containers are 55 gallon barrels. This site (
http://www.plastic-mart.com) maintains an incredible supply of different storage options.Though be certain to ensure the types of plastics and the leaching properties. Some frown upon plastics for this reason but consider their use and relief during emergency situations. These tanks can be plumbed into the house and utilized for many purposes. If one is so inclined they can build and incorporate an Aquaponics system into their storage! This is another topic in and of itself that we will revisit at a later time.
Swale Construction
Moving onto swales! Swales are earthen creations (sometimes man-made other times naturally occurring) that when incorporated into a sloping landscape have great potential for slowing and sinking water flow. This is ideal during drought times when our plants and trees are in jeopardy of suffering from little water. In addition, we can utilize this technique to mitigate erosion issues that can occur on slopes. To create a swale, one digs horizontally and on contour across a slope, forming an even line across the hill. Swales can be built up using sheet mulching techniques and then planted into after some time or topped with several inches of soil and directly planted into. Once they are formed one can introduce woodchips or straw on the walking paths above the banks. Swales have a great number of benefits and have been used extensively by Native Americans as one of their many tools in growing and responsible land management.
Now Keylines!
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| Yeomans Work!! |
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| Subsoiling allows for deeper root penetration and subsequently increased organic matter after grazing due to root die back |
Just began delving into the wonders of keyline design and Love the results. Keyline design uses topography mapping to read the land and employ the techniques soon to be described. Keyline design was developed in Australia by farmer and engineer
P. A. Yeomans, and described and explained in his books
The Keyline Plan,
The Challenge of Landscape,
Water For Every Farm and
The City Forest. Keyline design utilizes deep trenches carved into the sloping land as a way to direct water away from the valley center and will prevent erosion.
First we must identify our
Keypoint in the sloping landscape. The
keypoint is defined as the place where the lower and flatter portion of a primary valley floor suddenly steepens. Once this point is identified we place a mark and locate our keyline. All the points on the line are at the same elevation as the keypoint.
Contour plowing parallel to the Keyline, both above and below will
automatically become "off-contour" but the developing pattern will tend
to drift rainwater runoff away from the valley center and incidentally,
prevent erosion. This pattern of cultivation allows more time for water to soak in.
Keyline pattern cultivation also
enables controlled flood irrigation of
undulating land, which further assists in the fast development of deep
biologically fertile soil, which results in improving soil nutrition and
health. The limitations of the traditional system of
soil conservation, with its "safe disposal" approach to
farm water was an important motivational factor in the development of the Keyline system. (thank you to Wikipedia for the thorough explanation)
Keylines are usually linked throughout a landscape to create ponds that can be further utilized in irrigation and development of micro-climates.
Whether newly discovered or now being remembered it is our job to employ the knowledge we have been given in order conserve our resources. All of these techniques can be implemented, to a varying degree, on any size landscape. If you have any interest in the design of and implementation of these techniques we would be more than happy to discuss options. Please contact us:
Raiseyaroots@gmail.com. We will work with you to achieve your goals!
First we gathered what looked liked clay and performed a shake test to determine how much of our sample actually was clay. This is a great way to get a quick and accurate read of your soils structure. We filled a third of our container with the soil sample, added water about 3/4's of the way up, and began shaking. Within five seconds sand and heavier particles sank to the bottom. Within a few minutes the silt had settled (which there was very little in this sample), and finally on the top horizon (maybe have to wait several hours to completely settle) was the clay. Some organic material may stay suspended. We determined this would work for now and so we gave it a go.
We began by adding a few handfuls of our clay to one handful of compost into a bucket or tray. I've read 5:1:1 (clay, compost, seed). Then add one serving of the seed mix. Now begin shaking the tray or bucket while slowly adding a little bit of water. As you're shaking notice how the seed balls begin to form. After some trial and error we were able to determine the right amount of water for our given mix. This may vary based on your type of clay and seeds. We then placed our formed seed balls onto a tarp in the sun, to dry. Once they cured up after several hours we gathered them into a basket and were ready to spread. And it was just our luck that rain was on the way.
So we took our start and began broadcasting the seeds. Our particular mix was for erosion control and nitrogen fixation. We used a mix of vetch, clover, rye, oats, fescue, and brome grasses :
