Permaculture Swales : first try on our land in Alentejo

Arriving to our house, there is a slope down, with a dirt road on each side. One road leads to our house, the other one leads to the next property. On this slope, erosion is pretty bad. To the point where now, there is barely any dirt left. As soon as you start digging, you hit the rock after about an inch deep. Something had to be done.

First, our local council came with the big machines and redid our dirt roads. Now it looks great. No more holes, no more big rocks. It is just nice and flat.

Then, for the area in between the two roads, we decided to build small permaculture swales. Very small ones. By hand. If you would like to learn more and see how that went, feel free to check our video below.

As we say, we will now plant different kinds of native bushes. That will include lavender, rosemary, common myrtle, and more. We will also monitor the 3 swales, and adjust as it goes. We might want to dig 3 more in between the ones we just did, in order to slow down the water even more, and plant even more!