Water Works

This weekend was the second weekend in my series of Permaculture Design Classes. One of the focuses was water -- how to conserve it and control the flow within your area. Why was I so excited about this?

Did I mention we had another record breaking wet fall?

Right now our class project is to design a new plan for the Matanuska Experimental Farm. But we'll have something put together by early next year and then we'll move on to a more traditional permaculture project -- designing our own space.

First task I need to do is observe. There's a lot of parts to this of course, but regarding the water issue, I need to calculate the contours in my back yard. We learned a couple of techniques to do that this weekend. Here, Cindi and Louisa are making a simple A-frame to use. I hope to get that done soon, before it starts snowing and things get all covered up.

My tentative plan is to take the deepest spot (to the left) and turn it into a pond (obviously I'll have to do some reconnoitering about whether I want to keep the garden boxes there or not). Then, I'll take the line that runs along the fence, and make a gradual slope so that water that collects here runs into the pond. It won't be a stream or part of the pond, but I will plant it with water loving plants to make a sort of rain garden. This will also reduce my mowable area, another goal of mine. I hate mowing.