River Tree Gabion and Swale Design

Gabion System
Originally uploaded by tlbaraka

At the top of the picture is me (Jesse). To the right of me is a culvert that runs under the main driveway. In a heavy storm a significant amount of rain water can be expect to coming rushing out of that culvert.

The assembly of small rock walls coming to the foreground is a gabion system that Tanya and I designed and constructed using rocks from the site.

Without the gabions, water would likely rush down hill causing erosion and damage to the surrounding area. With the gabions in place water is slowed and soaked into the soil giving us an opportunity to assemble a productive ecosystem of useful plants.

Gabions first slow the water down and secondly collect sediment and other materials behind them. The top edge of the gabion is roughly level from end to end, pacifiying the flow of water down hill. As material builds up behind the gabion, a level area of moist soil is built up. This becomes an excellent area for growing plants.

Gabions are a desing feature often used in deserts, fequently measureing meters in height. In this case a smaller scaled down version is most appropriate.

Survey stakes for swale
Originally uploaded by tlbaraka

Little more than sticks in the ground these are the survey markers of a swale that Tanya, Fredrik and I have designed here at River Tree. It follows a contour line from the bottom of the gabion system over 200m to the edge of the property.

A swale is an on contour water harvesting foresty system. Swales intercept and hold water running down slope. Once in a swale water has an opportunity to soak into the soil and move into the root zones of the plants in the swale mound and in pastures below.

Tanya checking her level
Originally uploaded by tlbaraka

This is Tanya using the laser level to check that the swale is not falling or rising too much. Differnces off dead level within 20mm or so are acceptable. This kind of variation will self level over time.

The laser level is a great tool, as it requires only one person to use efficiently. However, the laser level is battery operated and cannot be looked through like a dumpy (transit) level.

Tanya digging the swale
Originally uploaded by tlbaraka

After she has checked her work it's back on the machine to further demonstrate her proficiency.

Leveling out the swale
Originally uploaded by tlbaraka

Lucky me, taking this picture from the machine, as Tanya toils away to fix my mistakes. A professional operator would do such an accurate job that this hand work leveling would not be required.

The level sill spill way
Originally uploaded by tlbaraka

The gap in the swale mound (center of picture) is the level sill spill way for our swale. This is a very important feature of any swale and must be constructed with great care. As Tanya, Fedrik and I are all new at operating the machine, we opted to use hand tools for this job. The edge of the level sill was set at 10 cm above the bottom of the swale, using the laser level. This means that the swale will fill, to a depth of 10cm along its entire 200 meters, before the excess spills over the level sill. When the water does spill over it will do so evenly without causing much erosion or damage to the slope below.

The tree that had to go
Originally uploaded by tlbaraka

Unfornuately a medium sized tree had to be removed, as it was growing on the conture line of the swale. This was my first time taking down a tree with the machine and I did it safely. The useable parts of the tree will be milled into fence posts, and the remainder will be fuel and mulch wood.

Jesse resting on the edge of the swale
Originally uploaded by tlbaraka

There's me, taking a break on the batter (up slope edge) of the swale. This part of the swale is usually graded at 2:1. We did this work by hand, hence the resting. Across the bottom of the swale is dead level and is flexible in its width. We designed this one to be used as a track for an ATV or small tractor. The wider the swale the more water it can hold. The bottom of the swale can become quite compacted over time. The hump of the swale is made of the material removed from the slope in creating the level track. The size of the mound is dependent on the slope of the hill and the width of the swale. A swale mound is never compacted, hooved animals and machines must never be allowed onto a swale mound or it will not be able to soak up water. Planting is also another important aspect of a swale. In the application of permaculture design a swale will have trees planted in the mound.

For now we have seeded this swale heavily with 5 different legume seeds: clover, lucerne (alf alfa), vetch, peas, and lupin. We made sure that all seeds were innoculated with the appropriate nitrogen fixing bacteria and then they were well raked in. Its an experiment! In about a months time we will begin to plant trees into the swale mound. We do not have the trees, or we would have planted now.

water moving through gabion system towards the swale
Originally uploaded by tlbaraka

Fortunately for us, we have access to water that can be used to flood our swale. A dam on the property is going to be cleaned out and the water level must be lowered. Rather than wasting the water we can pump it up hill to the culvert above the gabion system and use it to flood the swale. This picture shows the water moving down the gabion towards the swale in the back ground. In most situations we would have to wait for rain to soak the swale. By pumping water now, we can help to germinate all the seeds we have put on the swale and prepare it for trees in the coming weeks.

Flooding finished swale
Originally uploaded by tlbaraka

After the water has moved through the gabion system it enters the swale. Remember that a swale is on level. The water moves along the swale realatively harmlessly, like a spilt drink across a table, spreading equally in all directions. Erosion is not a concern in a swale. The only time a swale can be damaged is if it overflows its bank. That won't happen to ours, because we did such a good job on the level sill spill way. That's Fredrik in the picture looking quite proud of the job we have done. We all watch the water move along the swale until the sun went down.

Flooded swale
Originally uploaded by tlbaraka

There it is, our first swale seeded flooded and ready for action! All we need now is some rain and we won't require the pumped water any more. Notice in the middle of the picture that water has already saturated the swale mound and is now leaking through onto the grass down slope. Unfortunately this area is badly compacted and the water is not saoking as it should. Once we have the right equipment we will deep rip this area. Deep ripping opens compacted land and the water that soaks through the swale will move into the soil and not run across the surface. The best place to have water on a farm is the root zone of the plants!

Transition to Australia

This is the first of what we hope will be many posts chronicalling our pursuite of Permaculture. We do not claim to be experts on Permaculture and we have yet to teach a course. This is why we have choosen 'pursuing permaculture', for us this title represents a constant state of learning and exploration. We have heard it stated; that the futher one moves down the path of Permaculture the less one truly understands the details of Permaculture. A little bit cliche but it works.

From here on out to the end of our lives we are committed to providing an ever growing amount of our needs in a way that enriches, rather than destroys, the living systems of the planet. We are also committed to sharing in this experience with any others who are interested.

For us, Permaculture is a multidimensional perspective rather than a specific technique or strategy. Coming from a Permaculture perspective it is possible to work around any adverse conditions and achieve human needs while enriching the global ecosystems.

Australia is the birthplace of the Permaculture movement and after careful research decided that this would be the best place to learn. With careful management of our limited financial resources we sent Jesse on a two month trip to Australia in late 2006. While in Australia, Jesse attended two different Permaculture Designing Courses, one taught be Geoff Lawton and one taught by Bill Molison and Geoff Lawton. In between he spent several weeks training at the Permaculture Research Institute in sub-tropical New South Wales. At the end of his trip he was offered an opportunity to help with the design and implemtation of 480 acre system in September 2007.

The Plan...

Buy two plane tickets for Australia. Pack away and give away all of our unnessceary worldy possesions. Leave our two great jobs, loved ones, and everything familiar behind for a six month volunteer positions on the other side of the world. Cross our fingers and hope for the best!


The last few days before we left on our journey to purse permaculture in Australia were very busy, but we were able to squeeze in a nice evening with some great friends. The support that we received was such a boost to both of our spirits considering the huge leap we were making. Words could never express what the support of friends and family has meant to us. We know that we have made the right choice but it is not enough just to know, without the support we could not feel that this was right.



Life was really full-on in the days leading up to our departure. We were Pretty tired and nervous by this point but we managed to pull it together and spiffy up. Unsure of what was to come, we flew out on the 27th of September and landed in Australia on the 29th. We lost a whole two days and it is a wierd thing flying so far. It is almost as if you don't really exist during the flight and also a bit of a time warp.

In Australia...

Fredrik picked us up from the airport and took us straight to the land. The care and cultivation of this land will consume most of our efforts in the next six months.




We used an ATV to cover all 500 acres. We caught a glimpse or two of some Roos but they were to quick for my camera.



Jesse and Fredrik looking at one of the dams on site. Most of the earth works on site are going to need some repair. Jesse was feeling really overwhelmed at this point, 500 acres is a lot of land to try and envision especially after the flight. Most of our work will be concentrated on a small segment of the land near the new house site.

My PDC at the Permaculture Research Institute...

Three days after our arrival I went to the PRI and attended a 2 week PDC course, with Geoff Lawton. It was a lot of information to take in but I felt that it was the perfect length of time for me. I feel inspired to test all that I have learned but nervous too. After the PDC there was a dam and swale system being built at one of Geoff's student's place in Woolgoolga, NSW. Jesse, Fredrick and I went to watch and help. It was an extremly useful experience to be involved in. We got an opportunity to observe Geoff giving a consultation and to help with some of the surveying for the earth works. It took almost two full days to clear the site and dig the dam. We couldn't really help with the construction because there are certain things only a machine can do, not much need for muscle power during our time there. A fellow named EJ and his family are in possession of this land and have decided to take more resonsiblity for the food they eat. In order to have a food forest and increase the food they produce more water is needed. Hence the dam.



Geoff (Left) talking with EJ (right) about his vision and future plans for the site. EJ is trying to move away from working at his job and concentrate his time on growing for his family, using their six acre block of sub-tropical land. This earthworks project is his families big leap. EJ was really excited and happy about the whole thing. It was a great experince to give support to EJ and his family as they work towards their dreams.



The earth mover (in the distance) has arrived and Geoff is giving him directions on what will happen. You can see the dam area staked out in this picture. Most of the people in view are students from my PDC here to help and learn.



Jesse standing in the bottom of the completed dam. It is over 4m deep in the middle aproximatley 400,000l in capacity, and took a 15ton excavator 18 hours to complete. Once it is filled with rain water and had a season or two worth of growth it will be a beautiful little spot for EJ and his family. It is possible for an experineced aquaculturalist to grow 1kg of fish per litre of water at any given time. EJ could easily produce 100 kg of fish protien a year with this dam.