New PNW Farm- Looking for advice and resources

My husband and I moved into our new property last August. We're located in Washington state on a very sandy ridge top site. Zone 8b.

I am looking for local PNW resources and advice for designing earthwork placement and the basic framework for a ~20 acre farm/homestead. Main buildings are already in place so I'll have to work around those. I'd love consultantation but I'll start with spit balling ideas.

I am conflicted about where to place swales, ponds, terraces, etc. Or if they are even appropriate for my very sandy site. Water is my biggest concern after our current summer of nearly 50 days without rain and averaging 85 degrees for weeks. Things are looking more arid in our usually maritime PNW.

We dug a 4ft hole last fall near the house and it seemed to be mostly sand all the way down that held no water throughout our rainy winter so there probably isn't enough clay to capture water without additional inputs.

Goals:
-Terraced with swales on the east slope
-Mark Sheppard style orchard with many tree/shrub species on a North/South contour
-Pig or Cow grazing in the orchard alleys
-Family garden
-Some kind of water retention, preferably ponds

Following the rough contour lines it looks like the best spot for water retention would be right under the house haha. That also happens to be about where the east slope flattens out. Another good spot might be right next to the road and drive way and the field west of the house. The road along our property is higher than our land so any water traveling along it is traped on our side. We might need to do some water diversion if we can increase rention around the backside of the property since a paved road cuts through the front.

I'm sorry you haven't gotten any replies yet. I've added your thread to a couple of other forum headings in hopes that it will catch someone's eye. I can't give you any advice because my land has next to no topography. I do like looking at your maps though, because I can fantasize about having hills. Man, that'd be sweet.

**Fingers crossed for a better welcome to Permies**

Is your property in a landslide or liquefaction hazard zone? Either one would indicate against storing excess water in the soil.

Oh good call out!
According to the 2017 FEMA Risk Report my property is in a "Very Low Liquefaction Risk" zone and on the Washington Geologic Information Portal it looks like no risk of landslides though the neighbors have some "Shallow Susceptibility".

More maps!

The slopes are pretty gentle.  

Sounds like you're in a good spot for swales, at least as far as hazards are concerned.

Check your state laws about water rights for using surface water. (I live in Oregon, so my laws are different.) Does your property come with any water rights already? What water can you legally use without needing a water right? If you build a pond without approval, the government might fine you and/or make you demolish it at your own expense when it gets found out.

As for water retention in general, although under the house might be easiest due to the contour, that's not the same as the most useful. (Especially if you don't want to flood your house.) It's generally more flexible to have your water retention uphill if you can manage it, because then you can let it flow anywhere downhill that you need it.

Is there any run-off coming from the road or the property uphill to your east that you can capture? That would give you an uphill water reserve. Since it'd be run-off from property you don't control, it might be polluted but you could filter it through a wetland to clean it up.

Another option would be to collect water from the building roofs into elevated cisterns. Because roofs are higher than ground level, you can elevate your cisterns enough to give them a wider area that they can supply without pumps. And since cisterns are waterproof, they dodge the problems with sealing a pond in sandy soil. Since you will probably want your family garden close to the house, roofwater cisterns would be a great way to store water for the garden.

If you do build a pond, you will probably need to truck in clay or a pond liner to seal it. To mitigate water loss from the pond's surface through evaporation, you can shade it with trees and/or cover a large part of it with anything from a pier to a floating cover.

Hi Brittany,
I’m thinking about earthworks and water storage too. We bought land on Salt Spring Island in BC, do also in the PNW. We are building a house and designing a permaculture homestead. I’m a permaculture designer in training so if you want to talk through some ideas, I’d be happy to. Our land is very sloped and with our drought summers and rainy winters I’m designing a combo of rainwater catchment for irrigation and terraces to stabilize slopes (ours are too steep for swales) and slow and sink water.

Happy to chat!

Kerrie

I'm in PNW near Tacoma and we are also trying to figure out the water storage issue. It sometimes makes my head spin that half the year in walking in inches of water while being soaked by rain and then almost zero rain from June to August. We've been on our land for five years and we put in some hugelkultur mounds the very first year. They retain so much moisture that I do not have to water the trees and flowers growing there at all during the summer. We have been working on setting more up in areas around our property.

Our ongoing plans also include a cistern but we haven't quite figured out the logistics of buying one and getting it in place. We also took a rain garden workshop from the county a couple of years ago and we plan to put in a large rain garden in a large section of our yard along the road that gets a lot of water flowing through it in the winter. The idea being that the rain garden slows down the water so it can soak deep into the ground in that area, and hold onto the moisture for plants to access. There is a special soil mixture that is most effective- a mix of loamy soil, sand, and compost. (Sounds like you have the sand part! We have a lot of rocks and clay. 🙄) We have a seasonal pond in the lowest area of our land and it would be nice to expand it to hold more water but it's right next to a wetland so I think that is a no-no.