Sunday, June 19, 2016

The heavens open


They're predicting 40-80mm of rain for us today, but I think we'll be lucky to see 40mm here. Not to worry however, as our various earthworks projects, around the place (mostly dug by hand) are busy capturing as much as possible.


Pond


The pond, connected to our upper swale is full, and could get even fuller. Which means it will lap up to the lemon grass, without falling over the edge. I'm glad I did all that work around the pond recently. Both our pear trees, sit either side of the pond and this rain event, should hopefully see them through until spring. Especially since they've been recently mulched.



 Driveway


The driveway, that would formerly run water, straight down to the house and erode, has now been dealt with by our new concrete pavers. They collect water in the cells and there's very little movement, even if the cells fill and spill over. I'm hoping the grass can eventually populate the whole driveway. That would make it absolutely rock solid and very difficult to erode.


Wet


Down in our lower gully, the dragon is awakening. David snapped this picture, just as the water was starting to tickle down the footpath. Perhaps you remember this footpath, from my recent posts about Natural fertility and Natural resilience? This is what it looks like in the dry...


Dry


The water moves slowly, and when the rain stops, it will sit here until the ground drinks it in. Which will cause the plants we recently cut back, to re-shoot again. Then we will cut them back to mulch, continuing the cycle for the next rain event. If this was all sand, like it was formerly, we'd have serious erosion problems. So would our downstream neighbours.


Water moves


This view shows the same footpath flowing with water (top) with the middle section of water, virtually still. The water runs on the higher ground (read Peter Andrews, Back from the Brink, and Beyond the Brink) because it has been blocked by us, higher up stream, causing the water to split. It runs on the higher ground, and barely dawdles on the lower.

This is how we are attempting to manage water flows in the lower gully, to prevent soil erosion, and maximise water retention.


Dragon detour


This is where all the action is happening. To the far left of the image, the water is entering our property. It hits the barriers we placed across the gully, using vegetation. This causes the water to back up, and split into different paths where it can get away.

Splitting the water, effectively means you're splitting the velocity it flows at. In this way, our dragon takes many detours to the higher ground, to the middle ground and down to the lower ground.


Overflowing


Of course, the land is happy to receive all this rain, but what it also means to us, is a full rainwater tank. Until rainwater becomes your only water supply, you'll never truly appreciate a full rainwater tank. This means we can shower, wash our clothes, cook and clean again. Its such a thrill to see it overflowing.

I write posts about rain events, as a record for when the rain is falling, how much and what its doing in the landscape. Back in May, this kind of rain was filling up my new swales, I'd dug, to capture run-off from our driveway.


May 2015


I was worried when we got to June this year, and hadn't had any serious rainfall. Without it, moisture doesn't get captured in the ground, for the dry weather before spring. So I am happy to see our swales filling, as they ought to be.

We're about one month later, than last year, so I wonder what next year will bring? As an extra note, its good to have as much mulch down as possible, before it arrives.


12 comments:

  1. I really enjoy looking at the photos of your swales Chris. Water management is such a fascinating subject and you have done such a good job designing your water flows and swales.

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    1. Thanks Sherri, water movement is fascinating to watch and attempt to mitigate purposefully. I will have to come and visit your blog soon. We probably have a lot in common. :)

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  2. I haven't checked the rain gauge since late this afternoon but at that stage we had received about 32mm of rain, Chris. Our driveway was getting a bit boggy looking so we need to buy some more gravel. There will be some weeding needing to be done soon I think.

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    1. Hi, Nanna Chel. Toowoomba normally gets more rainfall than us. If your comment was before noon, then the serious rainfall was predicted to get cracking after 1pm. I imagine your driveway is well and truly soaked!

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  3. It never ceases to impress me how powerful water is. Seeing all that water rush by, sometimes I get to thinking how it could be harnessed........

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    1. This water event was quite tame, but still fascinating to watch. When it threatens to fill the whole gully, we won't go down there for photos, lol. It's nice to be high and dry when observing. ;)

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  4. You've done a great job there! I love to see water in the landscape. My 3 pools are all full too (It's raining at the moment). Peter Andrews would be so proud of you!

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    1. I imagine Peter would spot a number of flaws in our design, because he is the master of reading landscape. ;) But I thank you for your compliment, all the same. It's a learning process. :)

      I'm happy to hear, your property is getting hydrated too. We normally get all our serious rainfall, before June, so being this wet in winter, is a novel experience for us.

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  5. I was thinking about you last weekend, wondering if you'd got any of the rain, glad to hear you did! We (Central Coast) only received 40mm, but the low 2 weeks earlier gave us over 200mm, even the rain gauge was overflowing!
    It is SO nice to know that the water tanks are full again!
    Caroline

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    1. Hello Caroline. Glad to hear you have full rainwater tanks too. It's such a delight. You certainly got quite a bit of rain over the past month. I much prefer the slow steady rain, as opposed to the hard and fast. I hope you received the former, as we did. :)

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  6. As usual, your dxplanations make sense to me as compared to reading most permaculture sites. Seeing the way water is treated on your land, my first question is, how long did you kbserve before digging or planting?

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    1. It was probably a few years before we started intervening, in the lower gully. I wanted to see what Peter Andrews was talking about in his books, without our interventions. Then I could see what the difference was, when we intervened. Our major water events only tend to happen once, or (if we're lucky) twice a year, to get the water flowing in the gully. The land likes to drink its fill first.

      Waiting for the water, is what took us so long to start. ;)

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