Staale Brokvam

I've also been wondering about the idea of making swales on a slight incline so as to direct the water flow from the 'top' of our garden towards the corner where I've installed some raised beds. It's a suburban garden, and my garden beds share the space with a young child and a couple of dogs, so I'm not really at liberty to dig swales anywhere I want. The dogs would probably dig in the swales, and my daughter probably would too, or else trip and fall in!

However, I read in Gaia's Garden about straw-filled swales, and I figure dogs and child alike would probably leave those alone. I also wonder whether this would slow down the water flow? I don't know exactly what the angle of the slope is - it seems rather slight to me - but in case it is steep enough that an open swale would erode over time, I'm thinking a swale with straw, leaf litter, etc. might prevent such erosion. Does my intuition seem accurate?

Thanks for any advice!
Ståle

Julia Winter wrote:I am trying to find a contact email for Steve Kunstler (of Two Beers With Steve) buy I'm not finding one.

Actually, it's Steve Patterson. Here's his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Two-Beers-With-Steve/150744272687.

(Not sure how Kunstler came into it, but that would probably refer to James Howard Kunstler, right?)

Ståle

Another podcast episode: http://twobeerswithsteve.libsyn.com/permaculture-with-paul-wheaton.

I recently got a suburban block in Denmark and am figuring out what I have to work with before deciding what to do with the place (i.e. I'm at the observation stage). I have a handful of quite tall trees I believe to be Lawson cypress. Here in northern Europe, these are comparatively inexpensive trees at garden nurseries and therefore rather common. It seems they don't grow anywhere nearly as tall as in their native western US, but they're still too tall for my property and also nothing else grows underneath them.

They may of course shade out other plants, but a quick google search also makes me think they may be allelopathic. If this is the case, how large an area might be impacted by this allelopathic effect? Only the area where they shed needles or the whole area penetrated by their roots?

I make neither arrow shafts, coffins, temples or string instruments (to which end the straightness of the grain apparently recommends this type of wood), so I am considering either hugelkultur (after some rotting), firewood (after some drying) and making fence posts from the thinner branches.

Cheers,
Staale