This year I learnt a lot about the power of Swales in a farming landscape. A Swale, for those who don't know, is a water harvesting ditch dug on contour. As with many permaculture design elements, a Swale performs multiple functions. It harvests water, pacifies water as it comes down a slope, in turn this retains topsoil, and nutrients - in time, the continued soaking of water into the landscape rehydrates the soil and also recharges underground water systems.

Given the dry, undulating nature of my farm, this design element will be critical to restoring fertility.  So I observed on the property, where I might be able to run a small experiment with Swales.

I found a perfect part of the property in a far corner. It's triangular in shape and I would only need to fence off one side from the cows.

So I drafted out a few designs and provided on below as an example of this process.

Next steps are to get the right people out to give me a quote on the work and to understand what is involved from there.  Fingers crossed the earthworks are not that expensive :).