OK, we got some rain, about an inch and a half. That is good and there is more on the way. Praise God! However, I am looking at the burn up grass in the pasture and it shows no sign of recovery-zero. So, I have mixed feelings. In fact, I noticed today that there are signs of erosion where the grass once was.
We have been doing some research on Permaculture and are very interested in swales. Simply put, they are trenches dug about a foot wide and a foot deep in strategic locations to "capture" rain water and distribute it into the surrounding land. If the ground ever gets soft enough to dig in again, i will be doing some of this. I need to do something, the price of feed is killing us. Any thoughts or experiences?
2 comments:
Swales may be for those "other" parts of the country....you know, where there is actual dirt / soil instead of rocks.
I can't imagine trying to dig a trench around here. For goodness sakes, we used a backhoe for our tomato plants the first year we were here...no joke!
Back in the 50's, or maybe the 40's, Dad plowed several ditches in our pasture fields on the contour. I'm sure the agriculture folks suggested it, as the dustbowl years were still fresh in a lot of folk's minds. They DID keep moderate rains from running over the hill and disappearing. They were also a pain in the posterior when clipping pasture.
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