"A Victory Garden"- my family's site in the States.

Discussion in 'Members' Systems' started by Finchj, Jul 12, 2012.

  1. Finchj

    Finchj Junior Member

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    Continued pictures from May's slide show.

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    May 22, 2012. Parsley comes along a little later and is quite the popular choice for specialist insects. Although we only had about four parsley plants from the year prior, now we'll have hundreds of seeds to spread throughout the garden.

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    May 22, 2012. Having done some yard work for a neighbor, I took the cuttings home to use as bulk-sized mulch. We had a lot of evergreen/acid material so I used this to bunker down the berm extension- which has a southwest facing aspect. I knew that we would have a hot summer, but no idea it'd turn out to be the worst drought since the 30s. Anyway, my hope was to 1) cut down wind drying out the bed 2) act as a hide for insects and 3) a slow layer of mulch. The large bunch of branches in the foreground is acting as a wee little wind break for the rest of the garden

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    May 22, 2012. One of my favorite photographs- we have at least three species of birds in one shot! A finch is occupying the mustard plants devouring seeds, a cardinal is swooping in (center left, red blur), a gold finch is hidden among the branches of the birch, and what could be a sparrow is perched upon a bamboo pole.

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    May 22, 2012. A pepper transplanted below a few mustard plants. While it'll take a while to gain some footing, the partial shade from the overstory of mustards keeps it from being stressed from the sun quite as much.

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    May 22, 2012. The transition zone between the old green and nightshade guilds.

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    May 22, 2012. Chopped and dropped red clover and alfalfa in the old nightshade guild. They regrow quite fast so a few times a season isn't out of the question. And since it takes a while to make sure we aren't cutting down other plants at the same time, this allows for quite a bit of flowers to be available throughout the cutting season. In other words, by the time we reach the end of the garden, the earliest cuttings are flowering again.

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    May 22, 2012. Back to the transition zone at the upper, first swale. Self sown lettuces doing well in a mixed cultivation with echinacea getting ready to put on its flower display.

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    May 22, 2012. Some of our native perennials growing out to size before transplanting. They include three Baptisia (indigo) species, Thermopsis caroliniana, Robinia pseduoacacia, Amorpha fruticosa, two species of Lupines and some others...

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    May 29, 2012. Bee balm looking nice- leggy, but still healthy. We cannot wait for the other three species of Monarda to take off.

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    May 29, 2012. Same location as the other chop and drop one week later. Like I said, it doesn't take long for them to regrow!

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    May 29, 2012. Now that is wild fungus! No idea what it is. Growing on a pine stump we chopped down November 2010.

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    May 29, 2012. This is an experiment that didn't do too well... cool season crops sown under a pine tree during the summer. Thought I'd give it a go, and they didn't fare very well at all. Probably needed more water besides the lack of light.

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    May 30, 2012. The sheet mulched bed with transplanted natives, among other crops. We took to soaking our mulch in a bucket before putting it on. Seemed a lot easier than standing over it with a watering can waiting for the wood to become saturated. The squash produced prodigious amounts of food this summer.

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    May 30, 2012. Bumblebees love onions.

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    May 30, 2012. Cucumber seedlings, among other veges and herbs, emerging in a newly established bed.

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    May 30, 2012. A view of aforementioned bed. It had been growing copious amounts of chickweed over the winter, which I chopped and dropped regularly. The soil was soft in this minihugel mound and we put mini terraces and little pools for water to stay in when it rains (or when we water). Cucumbers, tomatoes, and sunflowers were the main crop with many other herbs making an appearance.

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    May 30, 2012. While we are happy to see bees and other pollinators, we cannot help but to feel that if neonicotinoid pesticides were not used by our neighbors that we would literally be humming with bees. Unfortunately, people do not know what they are using. At my place of occupation I regularly informed customers that it was being banned abroad, but the stuff still flew off the shelves. Systemic pesticides are "easy." An easy way to kill off the bees...
     
  2. Finchj

    Finchj Junior Member

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    Photos from June 2012

    June's slide show is the last from 2012 that'll have photos I took. So, lets take a look at some of the highlights from June.

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    June 5, 2012. How do you clean water before it enters a pool or pond? Vegetation! The more vegetation, the less run off and the cleaner your water will be. Even better, the more biomass accumulated into the soil the slower the water will move through the landscape. While we may want our ponds to fill and fill fast, they will stay full longer as long as we continue to increase the organic matter in the soil.

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    June 5, 2012. Two gifted plants- asparagus and a tomato. We were fortunate enough to meet a few other like minded people in the area and they were happy to share some gifts with us (and vice versa!).

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    June 13, 2012. Comfrey and great blue lobelias occupying two different niches along the second swale. The GBLs will occasionally be flooded when the swale fills completely- mimicking their preferred soggy habitat. Russian comfrey enjoys a steady supply of water and is placed on the downslope- its strong roots holding soil and accumulating nutrients as they wash into the swale. Both produce beautiful flowers!

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    June 13, 2012. We were also gifted almost thirty strawberry plants that couldn't find a home this summer. So we experimented by putting them in full sun, partial shade, and elsewhere. My family report back that they even produced some strawberries for us in the first month of transplanting.

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    June 13, 2012. This was a surprise: what I believed to be dead or dying mustard plants decided to have another round of flowering. Just incredible to see them continuing in their efforts to produce offspring.

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    June 13, 2012. I believe that echinacea must be medicinal for other creatures as well as ourselves- and even if it doesn't- it'll delight the insects regardless.

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    June 13, 2012. Now this was an experiment inspired by Yacouba Sawadoga's methods of digging holes and filling them with compost to amend the soil. While we may not live in a desert, I figured that sinking water storage into the ground could be a good way to turn the "overflow ditch" I had dug in 2011 into something useful. So, out comes the shovel and I dug 20-30 gallon holes and filled with water logged mulch. By stepping them down the side of the fence, we could absorb large amounts of rainwater without putting in potentially dangerous holes.

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    June 13, 2012. Part of the south facing berm with all sorts of plants growing in the first year.

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    June 13, 2012. Volunteer shade growing tomatoes that fruit. Who knew?

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    June 13, 2012. Another view of our new addition to the garden. The next step is to bring in more aquatic plants to clean up the water and improve the ecosystem services the ponds can provide.

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    June 16, 2012. Birds can't eat every last seed. Or, maybe sometimes they can but not here. The seeds get lost in the mulch and are free to sprout. Strangely, these brassicas believe that mid summer is a good time to grow! We are hoping enough seeds were smart enough to remain dormant.

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    June 16, 2012. Another frog has taken up residency in the upper, smaller pond. This must mean our supply of food enough for the two frogs to tolerate one another.

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    June 16, 2012. And lastly more echinacea along with lettuce flowering. These lettuce plants will produce the second generation of lettuce grown on site.
     
  3. Finchj

    Finchj Junior Member

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    Just finished editing some photos from late June and through July that my parents had taken. So expect to see another slide show detailing those! I'm hoping to convince them to ask my sister-in-law who has an iPhone to perhaps... do a walk-through on Skype with my and maybe we could record it. Why? Because my parents are using my "old" point and shoot. The photos are much better than I expected, but I'll have to rely upon my ... ahem.. narration skills to show you whats going on. The camera has been through a lot and just doesn't like to expose properly.

    That said, you'll see what drought brings to the garden as well as some freakishly large sunflowers and squash plants!
     
  4. Finchj

    Finchj Junior Member

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    After moving to Finland, I haven't updated this thread.

    I've been able to visit twice since 2012- once in December 2013 and just recently July 2014.

    I'll update with Winter 2013 photos, reposting the text and photos from my blog about the project.

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    27.11.2013 A Victory Garden in Fall

    So I haven’t updated this blog since I moved to Finland over a year and a half ago. My wife and I were able to fly to the States for Thanksgiving and Christmas this past year and I took some photographs of the garden.

    Unlike most of the other fall seasons, this past 2013’s autumn got cold quickly! So there isn’t as much going on as usual, but I thought I’d put up some photos.

    These first will be from before I began clearing out some of the grass and doing some work to assess where we are in the project.

    Although it looks messy, the fundamentals are still there. Very well hydrated soil from the swales and organic matter accumulation along with the continued thriving of our dynamic accumulator plants.

    The only real sad thing to report is that our very nice patches of red clover and alfalfa were decimated by the groundhog who moved in this past summer. I only found a few crowns of each, when the whole garden had been covered in the plants back in 2012. Still, the garden moves forward in an accumulation phase (of nutrients, niches, and inhabitants!).

    Lastly, I was able to get a new camera for Christmas :D so that means my trusty Pentax K-7 is now in the hands of my parents along with a very nice 18-135mm weather resistant lens. Which translates to……. more photos!

    Anyway, this photo is a terribly stitched panorama of the garden before I began doing any work. I don’t have a real pano head on my tripod so there are quite a few optical errors. However, this isn’t mean to be art so I didn’t even bother trying to feather the layers or anything. Just wanted to give an ultra wide perspective for you all.

    PS- I’ll be adding all the photos I want to share from late November through the end of December, then it is back to 60npermaculture.tumblr.com for me until I am emailed new photos from the garden.
     
  5. Finchj

    Finchj Junior Member

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    27.11.2013

    Closer up photos from the garden. Russian comfrey, sorrels, grasses, yarrrow- all still moving along fantastically during the autumn. Even as early as October I think I remember they had freezing temps, so these are the true survivors in that situation. Still a lot of others coming along too, such as our old favorites henbit, dead nettle, and chickweed making up the cold weather “weed trio” loathed my many.

    PS- Moderator: is it possible to add "Warning: photo heavy!" to the topic of this thread so people are given fair warning? Thanks!
     
  6. Finchj

    Finchj Junior Member

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    27.11.2013
    Besides having most of our cover crop eaten alive by the groundhog, seems that the garden is still accumulating plenty of biomass and nothing stops comfrey :p
    Can’t wait until we have a shrub layer added, should be this year…
     
  7. Finchj

    Finchj Junior Member

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    4.12.2013

    After a week or so of clearing out grasses and setting up nice boundaries for the beds, the garden continues to grow slowly.

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    18.12.2013

    Unidentified pair of birds scouting out the garden. Unfortunately, we don’t have any winter crops going well so they won’t have a nice treat come early spring; but we do have plenty of seeds that will be sown starting late Feb.

    Next are the goldfish in the large pond, enjoying the warm days while they last!

    Strange tree would be a black locust, readily identifiable by the pods and upon further inspection you can see the thorns. That black locust is growing along the fence to the interstate.

    Then we have a happening patch along the second swale with big old comfrey, French garden sorrel, and other nice hardy plants doing there thing with extra water from the swale.

    Lastly is a photo of the weeping willow and red maple, you can see the pathways have been set aside with jute twine and bamboo stakes (originally harvested back early 2011)
     
  8. Finchj

    Finchj Junior Member

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    5.12.2013

    Almost forgot the strawberries.

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    22.12.2013

    Photos of water harvesting. Towards the end of my trip we had quite a few rain events and I wanted to take some photos of the swales and “zai” pits. I think the photos of the zai pits (last two) are hard to distinguish, unless you catch them just when they fill up you won’t be able to tell anything is there (because they are full of mulch).

    The pits work very well, I need to dig more the next time I get to travel to the States. As you can see from the second photo, the neighbors yard just dumps water into our property like no tomorrow and the swales, since they cannot go all along the contour of the bowl, don’t catch everything. So thats where these 30-50 gallon [maybe not all are that large] pits filled with mulch come in handy along the fence line: cheap, simple, and effective buffers to slow, catch, and sink rainwater.
     
  9. Finchj

    Finchj Junior Member

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    22.12.2013

    More water harvesting. You can see from the last two photos just how fast the water came. The second swale is about 35 feet long (10m) and about 2 feet deep (60 cm). It begins almost empty and an hour and 12 minutes later (I had the camera on time lapse), the swale is full to the overflow pipe (on right with stone holding it down).
     
  10. Finchj

    Finchj Junior Member

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    Ok, thats it for now. I'll keep updating after dinner.
     
  11. Finchj

    Finchj Junior Member

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    23.12.2013

    Another storm came through the following day. Not so much water harvesting anymore :( Off the top of my head, given 60% efficiency, over 12000 gallons of water will run through the back yard if we receive an inch (which we had more than an inch between two days). Hard to capture all of that when you have 1/2 of the space the rain falls on to begin with (neighbors property just sheds water like no tomorrow).
     
  12. Finchj

    Finchj Junior Member

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    28.12.2013

    Last photos from the garden before flying back to Finland. Also a good time to photograph due to being near the winter solstice (Check out how far the house casts a shadow!)[​IMG]
     
  13. Finchj

    Finchj Junior Member

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    28.12.2013

    Some photos from the old green guild where we typically grow a lot of shade-tolerant plants. The white clover appears to have fallen victim to the ground hog as well… once so lush now rather sparse. Even the dandelions aren’t as plentiful. However, the soil still writhes with worms and it appears that some wasps have taken up residence in a chop and dropped red maple sapling.
     
  14. Finchj

    Finchj Junior Member

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    28.12.2013

    The old nightshade guild that transitioned to perennial herbs with soil building with red clover and alfalfa. As I said before, those legumes were eradicated by the ground hog. But the oregano, lemon balm, parsley (even!), two types of bee balm (Monarda spp), French sorrel, and others survived.
     
  15. Finchj

    Finchj Junior Member

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    These wrap up the photos from my trip over the winter:

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    28.12.2013

    Into the old four sisters guild, which was a bit more wild and largely dominated again by red clover and alfalfa until the desolation.

    One thing about lining the pathways with guides is that it allows people to visualize and estimate the amount of work that needs to be done. If there is a plan with the patches laid out, lots of times we (humans) enjoy ticking things off the list. Without the guides, without breaking these areas down into manageable parts, the idea of working can sometimes get overwhelming.
     
  16. Finchj

    Finchj Junior Member

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    Alright- here start the photos from the work I was able to put in during the past 2 weeks in the States.

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    24.7.2014 Nottinghill Forest Garden

    I just returned to Finland from a short visit to the States and wanted to post some photos from the garden back at my parent’s place. In two weeks, we managed to get a handle on the problematic species in the garden (particularly Bermuda grass [Cynodon dactylon] and the mock strawberry [Potentilla indica]) and even managed to plant our first fruit trees!

    One of the first things I noticed about the garden was just how much the existing overstory trees had grown. The ornamental plum has put on quite a bit of new growth and the other trees have begun closing the canopy.

    Which basically confirms the direction we were heading: attempting to build soil as fast as possible using the available sunlight.

    It should also be noted that their place hasn’t received any significant rainfall in over a month- which amounts to at least 12,500 gallons (47,000+ liters) short of normal. The lack of water has really taken its toll on the old green guild area (last photo).

    Without any tree cover for self mulching, this patch is exposed to sun almost the entire day. With temps above 30C for much of the month and no rain, the area is bone dry. Yes, even with mulch.
     
  17. Finchj

    Finchj Junior Member

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    24.7.2014

    1- Probably the only great blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) left in the garden struggling to make it along the edge of the first swale. It’ll need to be transplanted down to one of the ponds where it can have shade and more water

    2- Some volunteer red maples (Acer rubrum) that we cut back to single leaders and shaped up a bit. Makes it easier to get through the garden. And in the heat, they can use the little water they have available to maintain less leaves.

    3- A long view of the garden (looking north from the fence’s gate). Very clear that the treeless gap is struggling with not much identifiable desired plants growing. This entire section will be redesigned using pits and mounds to create a better water situation for the asian persimmon we purchased (Diospyros kaki grafted onto D. virginiana). Since it is a fairly large tree, it’ll cover the entire gap and provide the family with some very good fruit.

    4- Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) showing signs of nitrogen deficiency along the fence line. The left side is much more green after a dose of liquid gold.

    5- Patch where the lemon balm pictured in 4 is located (right side). Large patch of yarrow (Achillea millefolium) coping very well with the dry conditions (as expected). We found that both the lemon balm and yarrow are very good at excluding undesirable species and forming multifunctional ground covers in the early stages of a forest garden. In addition, oregano (Origanum vulgare) and beebalm (Monarda spp.) perform well at this task too. So these four plants wound up being part of the new guilds around the new fruit trees and bushes.
     
  18. Finchj

    Finchj Junior Member

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    24.7.2014 First Swale

    Along the first swale we planted two varieties of European elderberry (Sambucus nigra): “Cut leaf” and “Black lace.” These two will cross pollinate and give the first swale some much needed shade in the coming years. Black lace is quite showy with its dark foliage and pink flowers, which should complement the ornamental plum quite nicely. Hence, its favored position nearest the deck.

    The metal tags are “Impress o tags” from Amekron. Simple to use and rust resistant, tagging the perennials in the garden will go a long way to ensuring their survival. It also adds a nice finishing touch to the garden. We wrote the common and Latin names on the front of the tag. On the reverse side we included the nursery (Edible Landscaping), where the plant is native to if introduced, and the date of transplanting.

    I also want to say that the speed of soil production at the bottom of these swales is very rapid. Only being mulched with cuttings from the swale, rich soil is at least 5 inches deep in the upper swale and even deeper in the second (which benefits from more shade and leaf litter).

    In the two weeks I was there, I only took my camera out on the last day to take some photos and forgot to get a close up of the soil there :(

    Oh- and the plants look like they are tied up beyond belief, but actually the twine is only lightly wrapped around the stems in such a manner that they aren’t even being pulled by the twine. The twine is perpendicular to the prevailing winds (from the SW) so that the plants are only supported in the event of strong gusts. This method was described in the Edible Forest Gardens books and we used it to great success in bringing the weeping willow in the old nightshade guild back to health.
     
  19. Finchj

    Finchj Junior Member

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    24.7.2014 Old Nightshade Guild

    I need to name the areas of the garden again to reflect their current composition. This section, between the two swales, has a canopy of red maple and weeping willow. The understory currently comprises of large patches of oregano, lemon balm, yarrow, bee balm, red clover (Trifolium pratense), and alfalfa (Medicago sativa). We also have a nice little patch of strawberries ((Fragaria spp.)cultivated, not wild [Fragaria virginiana]) that is doing well in its second full year. Echinacea (Echinacea purpurea) is also to be found. This plant (large one, 4th photo) has been doing exceptionally well even in strong partial shade.

    The tomatoes my mother purchased and transplanted from the farmer’s market aren’t doing so well, but I think that has to do with a) being eaten a live by some catepillars and b) the soil hasn’t had any additional compost or nutrients added (except from nitrogen fixation) since we had a heavy crop of tomatoes the first year. It is also very dry, as mentioned earlier.

    It isn’t easy to see from the second photograph, but along the fenceline the heavily mulched water harvesting bowls (zai) have been doing their job well. I couldn’t even dig into them because the red maple has put such a strong root network into the mulch that its impossible to dig without destroying roots. Before we purchased the trees, I dug another 3 zai bowls in the line. Still room for about 3 or 4 more before reaching the second swale.
     
  20. Finchj

    Finchj Junior Member

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    24.7.2014 Second Swale

    On the eastern end of the second swale (left second photo, back ground of last photo) we planted an “Adams” variety of native elderberry (Sambucus canadensis). It will cross pollinate with Edible Landscaping’s “Native #5” elderberry that is planted just north of the swale by the upper/small pond. Like the European elderberries, we didn’t have to do any significant earthworks (pits/mounds) to satisfy the Adam’s’ need to be high and dry and water accessible since they are all on swale mounds.

    In the second photo you can see how clearly the area south of the first swale is bathed in sunlight even to the end of the day. The rest of the garden has nice filtered light through birches, pines, and the willow oak.

    In the last image it is hard to tell, but I added a few steps into the swale to fix the problem I had of digging it off contour during establishment. These two steps will allow a significant amount of water to accumulate before moving down the slope. In the event that we have enough rain for this to happen, by the time water overflows into the main part of the swale, the water level will have risen high enough to fill the full length. While not the perfect solution (digging on contour would be), it is a workable fix.
     

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