Starting a food forest with Bermuda grass and dry swales

Hello, I am starting a food forest in the Tulsa (Oklahoma) area. I have a lot of Bermuda grass and I was thinking about removing it and growing guilds with tall plants so the shade provided would keep it away. I was told that swales don’t work in Oklahoma because we get a lot of rain in the spring and scorching conditions in the summer, so the swales dry out. Any advice to help? I also have dense clay soil, am in a zone 7a, I also have sheep manure and duck water (my ducks poop in the water), many cardboards (we just moved in) and bags full of dead leaves. I still don’t know if using cardboard is okay for lasagnas as some of its glue potentially contained chemicals. I was told to do solarization for the Bermuda grass, but I would rather work with the nature here than against it. Is it naive and idealistic?
What should I do to start my food forest? I have the anxiety of the beginner afraid to start and mess it up!

I can provide some observations on the swales. We have torrential rains in the spring and then periods of drought over the summer. We got 11" in May alone, which is unusually late for that much rain. It has been a very wet spring in Central MS.

I have 300'+ of swales. They are small, 16"x16" roughly. I use a 2 wheel tractor and rotary plow to dig them. At first, I left the ends on contour and filled them with mulch. This was to help retain any summer moisture. It works great in the summer but requires maintenance during the rainy season due to the material washing out. We had a downpour 2 weeks ago that showed 2.5" in the rain gauge in about 45-50 mins. We are on a gentle sloping property and not at the peak.

I ended up removing the mulch out of the swale and cutting a trench in the ends 2 or 3" below contour. This allows for the runoff from the torrents to leave the swale and not burst through the lower mound but still holds water to seep into the ground.

I can say that they provide a huge advantage during the summer drought periods. They also provide a place to plant fruit trees and bushes and flowers, etc. I get the sense they even hold the dew longer or more of it or something. Any depression on the property looks pretty good in the summer verses the surrounding areas. Something about it that I don't quite understand but can clearly observe.

All that to say that I think swales are still something to consider.

I lived several years in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Where I lived we did not have dense clay though we did have black gumbo.

I feel swales will work if done properly and placed where needed.

We put small swales around our fruit trees.  we water our fruit trees until they mature.  The swales help direct the water where we want it.

If I wanted to start a food forest I would start small.  Several fruit trees and some berry bushes.  The some annual plants on the sunny edges.

Hi, I recently moved to Tulsa, haven't made any friends except one recently whom I haven't met in person yet. Maybe we could chat sometime, or I could learn more about any permaculture related things here in Tulsa. Or maybe I have duplicates of seeds you might want for your forest.  If you are open to this, you can email me laffingdukk@protonmail.com. Thank you, good luck with your project!  
Dina