swale

Nowadays most people don't even know what a swale is crusso raises his hand then goes off to google.

I'm in Seattle too, and have neighbors with driveways that slope to the garage, with a trench drain or a swale drain. Their garages flood.

- There are people who built their animal barn at the top of a hill and dug swales to transport runoff from manure downward. They plant edibles all along the swale.

He took a bulldozer and built a really long swale along the slightest slope and mulched it. Then the project ran out of money so they abandoned it.

But especially on rural highways that aren't limited access there's a ton more, like driveways hidden behind signage, or some kid on a 4-wheeler flying out a drainage swale. Just because you think you're alone on a road doesn't mean you actually are.

Better to use woodchips after digging swales/garden paths on contour as fill for the swale. After 3-4 years dig the garden paths again as the woodchips are ready to be applied to garden beds having mostly decomposed by then into a perfect growing material/medium.

His swale and pond layout, as well as the food forestry corridors for his animals are spectacular. Large scale implementation of arid desert techniques from the Permaculture handbook is one thing that definitely needs to be looked into.

We're also not allowed to create and kind of water runoff storage system like a swale or redirect water from the driveway. We do have a ton of trees and shrubs and bushes and I'm going to be making some gardens with native wildflowers that should be able to resist the local weather machinations but I'd like to find some drought tolerant vegetables.