Benjamin Busch

I dove in and put in the swale. It's very small right now, only 12" wide and 8" deep. The raised bed it's directly behind is 4' wide and about 12" deep. I think I may need to increase the width though so it will match the side of the raised bed. To me this would make the right size as a normal swale would be dug and the dirt would be put to the downhill size making the hole and the lump roughly the same size. Technically, the hump would be a little larger even as you don't pack the dirt when you lay it down.

The perfect size would probably be 4' wide and 2' deep. Also, for the next swale/raised bed I do both the bed and swale a little deeper to allow for the hugelkultur wood to fill the bottom half of the swale and continue directly into the raised bed. This will allow all of the wood to rot together and allow transfer of the water into the wood under the raised bed very very well.

Any one have any thoughts on this?

'ello!

This is my first post so I want to introduce myself. My name is Ben and I live in Iowa with my kids. I'm just starting out with permaculture and hugelkultur. I'd love some input on an idea I have based upon my knowledge of these processes.

I have limited space so I want to combine the benefits of a swale, a raised bed and hugelkultur. I already have a raised bed in place on a slope (the bed itself is level). The current bed is 8'x 4'. I want to put a swale directly behind the raised bed (higher side) and use the raised bed essentially as the raised section in a typical swale. I don't have another bed yet but the next bed will be identical but will be a hugelkultur raised bed with the bottom half being wooded (see picture).

Would this idea of using the raised bed as the raised section of a typical swale work? I have drawn out a quick diagram below for further clarification.