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In this video, Geoff Lawton takes us on an early morning walk through a new series of water features at Zaytuna Farm 👣

The journey begins at a swale that feeds through Paradise Dam to Cubby House Dam around the Zaytuna campsite to Mafia Dam and finally Campus Lagoon, near the property boundary. This water harvesting system has multiple swivel pipes, three level-sill spillways and is the fourth swale in the sequence of swales moving down the property.

This fourth swale soaks into a v-drain on the upslope side of one of the farm’s main tracks. From there, we follow it down the landscape where life potential expands and the complexity of the system grows. The drain leads to a pipe beneath the road before dropping into another swale where cows graze and drop manure, which dilutes and spreads throughout the swale to fertilize a food forest downslope. A swivel pipe here moves the water further downslope into a v-drain behind a house site that flattens to contour, where it becomes another swale with more food forest and more swivel pipes, as well as a level sill spillway. Then, that feeds into …yep… another swale.

This swale is fenced for grazing, planted to trees with lots of crops, and exits via a pipe into a lotus paddy, which spills into a new pond (actually three new ponds) that all have spillways on both sides. The ponds collectively overflow into Wood Duck Dam, a large body of water with lots cultivated around it, swimming features, and a spillway that leads to another swale that leads to Geoff’s new house site and one more dam: Fig Tree Dam.

Key Takeaways

– At the top of a site, water features tend to be concentrated and limited by the landscape. Then, as we move downslope the possibilities and complexity of the system increases. (Geoff calls this a reverse dendritic pattern.)
– Each water feature can flow into another water feature to create a slow, gentle soak throughout the landscape, feeding productive systems all the way down.

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About Geoff:

Geoff is a world-renowned permaculture consultant, designer, and teacher that has established demonstration sites that function as education centers in all the world’s major climates. Geoff has dedicated his life to spreading permaculture design across the globe and inspiring people to take care of the earth, each other, and to return the surplus.

About Permaculture:

Permaculture integrates land, resources, people, and the environment through mutually beneficial synergies – imitating the no waste, closed-loop systems seen in diverse natural systems. Permaculture applies holistic solutions that are applicable in rural and urban contexts and at any scale. It is a multidisciplinary toolbox including agriculture, water harvesting and hydrology, energy, natural building, forestry, waste management, animal systems, aquaculture, appropriate technology, economics, and community development.

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