Brainstorm needed: Where to place fruit trees and swales on steep hill?

Hey everyone,
I am really excited to be writing this and happy to ask community for help.
I have a land in the mountains in Poland (600m elevation) Dimensions:180m long, 40m wide. Land from the top is connected to forest (beech trees and maple trees have slowly started to forest top of my land (I will let them grow in peace). Land has not been used for past 20 years, it's been a meadow.
Average yearly rainfall around 1000mm, quite evenly spread. During strong rainfall it gets to 60mm daily, records are at 120mm/day.

Land is on a hill, West exposed with plenty of sun during day, with a hedge around the edge from south (see on atached maps) with trees (maples and some rowan tree, hawthorn). Me and my partner plan to plant more shrubs and bushes and nut trees along the hedge line and also to create a second hedge along the north side border of land.

Steepness of forest above the land is around 15-18 degrees, steepness of top part of my land is 17 degrees (80m long) and then it flattens to 11 degrees (100m long). Place for house is right below farming land (where colors end on attached map).

Ideally I would like to plant fruit trees and nut trees on the top of the land so it is connected with the forest and that I gradually transition to lower vegetation. I am thinking about 5 on contour rows (30m long) of fruit trees. (we want to use net and create 2m high fence around fruit garden to protect it from deer and roe)
I would like to create on contour swales (2 or 3) and then plant some fruit trees on berms (woodchips and horsemanour on straw on top).
Key point on the land seems to be 80m from the top where on attached map green and blue colors meet.

I wonder if you have any thoughts about my idea?
If maybe it's better to start digging swales from key point and have fruit trees lower where land flattens to 11 degrees?

I have used some calculators for swales, assuming that i place fruit garden on the steepest part of land and it seemed like i don't need to dig deep swales.
Results below:
Swale 1 at 50 m from bottom.
Swale 1 volume is 43500 litres.
Swale 1 minimum cross-sectional area is 1.45 m2

Swale 2 at 79 m from bottom.
Swale 2 volume is 31500 litres.
Swale 2 minimum cross-sectional area is 1.05 m2


Any thoughts, recommendations on that subject?

Thanks for reading it, I would gladly add some more data if I you think something is missing

Cześć Wojtku,

I'm wondering if you really need any swales in such a gentle and water soaked climate. I hardly even watered vegetables when I was living in humid summer climates, and never even thought for a second about any water for trees. Is your slope's soil ever dry at the depth of 50 cm?

Where we place swales is also significant, and it’s important to remember their relationship with water when doing so. Swales are not appropriate on steep landscapes. Any area with more than a fifteen-degree slope (about 1:3.75) isn’t appropriate for a installing swales, as the water saturation may cause slides, which could be dangerous.

From here.

How do you feel about tiers sloped slightly toward the 'mountain'?

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:

Where we place swales is also significant, and it’s important to remember their relationship with water when doing so. Swales are not appropriate on steep landscapes. Any area with more than a fifteen-degree slope (about 1:3.75) isn’t appropriate for a installing swales, as the water saturation may cause slides, which could be dangerous.

How do you feel about tiers sloped slightly toward the 'mountain'?

Hey Joylynn, Could elaborate a bit more about tiers? Not sure if I am familiar with this term.

Thanks for your feedback and link about swales. I am aware of most of the information in there, some sources say swales can be up to 20 degrees and some 15 degrees. It's one of the reasons why I ask you, community at the forum

Cristobal Cristo wrote:Cześć Wojtku,

I'm wondering if you really need any swales in such a gentle and water soaked climate. I hardly even watered vegetables when I was living in humid summer climates, and never even thought for a second about any water for trees. Is your slope's soil ever dry at the depth of 50 cm?

Hola Christobal,

Thanks for your feedback, I aprreciate it. I was thinking about swales not only as a way of collectiong water but also a great way of having a thriving fruit garden supported by nitrogen releasing plants and a way of inviting more biodiversity to my land (and maybe overcomplicating my design ideas a bit :) ).


We experience some dry periods in summer.
I guess, that soil doesn't get dry at 50cm depth though. I only base it on soil tests, which I have done in May and September.
My grandfather has fruit orchard 30km away and also never waters his trees, which could support your take.


Assuming there would be no swales. Do you have (or anyone else) any thoughts about placing 5 rows of fruit trees. Would you do it close to the forest or more where the land flattens. And why :) ?

Wojtek Nowicki wrote:Assuming there would be no swales. Do you have (or anyone else) any thoughts about placing 5 rows of fruit trees. Would you do it close to the forest or more where the land flattens. And why :) ?

In southwestern Poland the summers are the warmest, but at the same time you are on rather high altitude. I would plant close to the forest the species that are thermophilic, to take advantage of the western slope.
I don't know if you can grow grapes there, but if you can I would plant them high. Lower you could try peaches - if there are cultivars for you climate available, and walnuts. I would also recommend quinces. On the flat part I would plant everything else what grows in Poland.
It looks that Sokolec is located in a valley, so be prepared for temperature inversion - bringing you late frost in spring and early in the fall. If this is the case then taking advantage of higher planting could mean evading some of this phenomenon. Peach blossom, grapes and walnuts would most sensitive to frosts. Everything else that grows there should be fine.
Planting by the forest has one disadvantage - more wildlife trying to eat your crop, but at the same time if it can avoid possible late frosts, it would be totally worth, even you had to protect the trees with netting.

Well, I guess the favored term would be terrace. Example of terrace farming.

I have a few tiers, shown here. Further down that thread, I mentioned that I don't recommend doing the wattles. They break down too fast. On your land, I would consider my style tiers dangerous. Mine are only 20 linear feet or so till land is sorta flat. China has full mountain sides in terrace from. Copying their styles should be safe. Making the terrace edge slightly higher than the portion against the hillside would help slow the water on its way down the hill. I think Sepp Holzer has examples of this.