Permaculture Patterns - considering making waves

Having never read the Pattern Language book  or taken a PDC, using 'patterns' in permaculture is one of the things I struggle with understanding - George Yacus suggested here that we take a pattern in turn and look at ways it is implemented in nature and in man-made systems. - So this is a thread on wave patterns and maybe we can build a bit of a reference library and learning resource. Please feel free to add your knowledge about wave patterns here and maybe start a new thread for a different pattern if you feel inspired!.

Thinking about waves in nature:

water ripples


Sand dunes


These are the interface between two different phases - solid, liquid and gas.

clouds


These come at the interface between different atmospheric regions - warm and humid, cool and dry.

Here Paul Cerghino considers that the pattern of design ought to come out of the energy of the place involved.

Paul Cereghino wrote:So the pattern or structure emerges from the energy of place. So I suspect that the placement of pattern depends on accurate recognition of the process environment. If you build a sand castle on a beach it is an aberration in a place ruled by wave energy combined with tidal saturation. It doesn't matter if it is a spiral or a rectangle. So by focusing on pattern and using pattern to control process and function, we may be putting the cart before the horse, because the pattern must respond to dominant processes of a place. Pattern can shape process, and process results in emergent patterns, but you cannot escape the reality of your process domain.

You can certainly see the energy flowing in this video of waves on Barley stalks:



It is the individual stalks moving in the wind that make the wave patterns. But they don't move as a whole, just vibrate in position.

What are the other feature of a wave or ripple?

They stack together making a macro pattern.

They can have smaller ripples within the big ripples

.

They oscillate from one side to another but never abruptly or to extremes

How does the natural oscillation translate into a design feature though? Any thoughts?


(photos from https://unsplash.com)

Rivers

Professor Bentley wrote: When they are young, rivers ideally start out relatively straight in map view, entrenched in V-shaped valleys. You’ll also find plenty of waterfalls and rapids at this “Youth” stage. As time goes by, the river erodes downward to base level, and loses the gravitational impetus to incise any deeper. The river now begins to meander side to side, and as it does so, enlarges the size of its valley by lateral erosion at cut banks. It is “Mature.” As time goes by, the valley walls get further and further apart. …Then what?

(Source: Professor Callan Bentley, River landscape evolution)

Folks can check out his blog post to see how the river further changes into the "Old Age" and "Rejuvenated" stages.  


(Source: Professor Callan Bentley, River landscape evolution)

Thoughts as a permaculture designer:
When it comes to water, we usually want to "slow, spread, and sink" it to rehydrate a landscape.  A wave pattern (in an overhead plan view) does just this, from "source to sink" going down hill.  A wave pattern slows down erosion by reducing the velocity of water.  This also maximizes the water's "edge" and allows more plants and animals along the way to fully utilize it -- using edges being one of Holmgren's 12 permaculture principles.  

I've found some examples from elsewhere on permies of how to implement a wave pattern with boundaries.

https://permies.com/t/75233/Creative-fence-idea-work
https://permies.com/t/148230/crinkle-crankle-walls


These are two threads that explain how an undulating structure is stronger than a straight boundary fence or wall.

Mike's wavy deer fence

They also provide varying microclimates at different points on the wall and distances from it.

wall in England

Fingerprints

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fingerprints_close-up.jpg#file

Arches, Loops, and Whorls, but they certainly remind me of waves.  In addition to showing the uniqueness that is you, the little waves of your fingers provide just the right friction to touch and grasp.

In this case the "waves" are like little speed bumps or a rumble strip, again slowing things down.  

Thoughts as a permaculture designer:
In a permaculture design, a few "waves" in the vertical profile of an otherwise flat landscape could slow down or redirect wind for high value downwind plantings (e.g. a wind break made of an ecotone of woody herbs, then taller shrubs, then taller trees).  Waves can also slow down and concentrate rain -- like an imprinted desert landscape (see https://imprinting.org/ to learn about imprinting.)  Waves in the vertical profile can "grasp" a little extra sunlight and turn it into warm (and cool) spots when compared to a flat garden -- think tefa, or the sunward and pole-ward sides of a hugelkulture garden bed.  

In a horizontal setting, a wavy or curved path slows a traveler down compared to a straight one.  This subconsciously encourages a gardener or visitor to "stop and smell the roses" and perhaps tend plants.  On a highway it helps keep drivers energized and on their toes during long stretches and forces them to slow down (road to Hana, Hawaii, anyone?).

A wavy garden bed may make it extremely challenging to conveniently use some larger farm machines, forcing a farmer to do more things by hand or by animal perhaps, and possibly  protecting soil structure from losing aggregation in the process.

I think that there's value in looking at this phenomenon in the development of any kind of mixed planting. Anywhere you live there is a predominant wind. You can either be subjected to this force and it's power or you can match it. In the same way that on contour plantings can slow the spread of water, in the same way these strip plantings could slow and spread the force of wind.

Instead of letting the wind create the pattern pointed to in the OP, you can create the pattern to meet the form nature wants. Strips of annual crops with smaller strips of perennials that rise up vertically and disrupt the wind match the natural pattern while minimizing the negative impacts of wind erosion and trapping the mineral wealth it carries

Is there a good article or your good advice to analyze the placement of my hugelkulture beds.  I have a square parcel with winter sun and cold winds both coming in from the upper right corner.  This is south facing and coastal valley environment.  Parallel curving raised beds with gaps between perpendicular to that corner?  I would want to flow the wind with the curves so it doesn't build a frost pocket?

Thank you !
Chris

Swales on terraces is a good example of waves ...

Long hair with waves is another example ...

Chris Ferguson wrote: Parallel curving raised beds with gaps between perpendicular to that corner?  I would want to flow the wind with the curves so it doesn't build a frost pocket?

That sounds logical to me Chris.

I have rather straight windbreaks perpendicular to my main wind direction (a little South of South West) which end up diagonally across my slope. I was concerned with concentrating the wind, so I didn't go with a wave shape along the windbreak, although the trees themselves will form a series of vertical waves as they are parallel across my plot.

On a smaller scale I have mini hugel - raised beds with twiggy cores - built in various directions. Sometimes they are across the slope, sometimes up/down,  sometime perpendicular to the wind, sometimes aligned with it. I like to think that I will get a lot of different microclimates on a small enough scale not to make a particular problem in any area.

Here is my 'shell garden' for example, showing the water that has collected in the depressions recently - perfect for plants that like a damp sheltered spot (Skirret is one!). The trees beyond, going diagonally away to the left, are part of one of the windbreaks which nicely shelter the area. The slope goes gently to the left (East). The top of the mounds are for my Aronia bushes, and I am hoping to be able to plant some of my tea Camellia here too. I'm going to broadcast seeds of various native and useful perennials in the spring, and they can hopefully find a spot that will suit them!

One of many charming details: the corner of a garden bed, like the prow of a ship, slices through another wall, making waves in the concrete. I don’t know how he managed this fluidity. Impressive

Making waves in the Wave Garden

The Wave Garden in Richmond Point, California, overlooking San Francisco Bay.

https://www.torontogardens.com/2013/11/making-waves-in-wave-garden.html/