Permaculture Analysis, Water

Water water everywhere, we just need a pump,
Water water everywhere, as long as the grid stays up...

As I touched on in some previous entries on this blog, many permaculture designers consider water to be something that should be planned for on any landscape. Here (http://permacology.blogspot.com/2010/04/design-details-slope-and-water-flow.html) I showed images which are representative of the work and advice of Geoff Lawton (who helped plant a forest garden in a desert), Sepp Holzer (who has ponds and terraces on his Alp mountainside farm), and diagrams from one of Bill Mollison's documentaries (showing the how's and why's of slowing and capturing surface-water runoff). These theorists and practitioners suggest that any food-producing system should first and foremost rely on natural rainwater and shallow groundwater for irrigation needs, and that careful manipulation of a landscapes topography can create places for water capture and storage.
Aside from water being vital for plant growth in general, having open ponds on a landscape can create niches for new types of food production: the water itself can support an "aquaculture" which can include fish and edible aquatic plants; and the micro-climates created by open water in a wider space can include heat pockets - Holzer is able to grow Mediterranean tree species in an alpine environment, with proper placement in the vicinity ponds.

Right now all of Simpler Thyme's drinking and irrigration water is sourced from wells which are operated using electric pumps. They do have a couple of old hand pumps on the farm which barely see use, and could suffice for some very basic water needs in an emergency. But... all the annual and perennial gardens, and the animals, currently rely on electrically-pumped water to deal with their "thirst," except when rain suffices (which is not every year, or even every month on decently moist years). Hence the farm is in a very precarious situation compared to where it could be.

The farm only has two (tiny) intentional patches of open water on-site, both of which are specifically for enclosed waterfowl to be comfortable and able to live out their habits and desires and don't seem to serve any other purpose. The small ponds seem to be quite algae-filled and don't seem to support aquatic plant species let alone insects, fish, etc.

Then there are two areas of specifically wet ground on the property, one of which is in the forest and is of great benefit to the local mosquito population, the other of which is an a very opportune area, but underutilized (see 'willows' and adjacent spaces).

The map below shows all of these elements discussed above {except for showing one extra thing only being mentioned now: two small swales in the 'nut grove' which are more to divert water away from a barn than to capture it for irrigation}



The area with wet ground out in the open part of the property is an instance where something very appropriate and something dismal are happening right beside each-other. The pictures below illustrate...

Here we see an spot where water coming from the animal pasture and barn area has thoroughly over-saturated the soil; this picture was taken June 1st... and every time I passed through that area since including up to the week of August 16th, there was still open water. What is "dismal" about this isn't that the water is there or even though it isn't being used, but, that the site is being utilized inappropriately. The space which is wet was plowed and tomatoes planted in rows (as it is the very end of a long rectangular field); where the ground has remained saturated the tomatoes have died off and some kind of water-tolerant grass is flourishing. The fact that this space has been subject to the intent and implementation of one style of farming, while in real terms it is "asking" for a different type of plant community, is a bit of a failure.


Meanwhile just beside the previous image is a thick patch of willows and other water-loving vegetation, a very appropriate plant community for the ground-water patterns in this area.


When I think about this area in general I have some ideas of how I would do things differently.

First off, put 1 and 1 together: no open water on property; place where water seems to naturally collect. Solution - take the end of that plowed field out of dry-ground vegetable production and instead excavate it a little bit, use that earth to build up some study banks, plant water-loving vegetation, stock it with fish, and let the ducks live there.


The same could be done for the other named "wet area" in the vicinity. The annual field on the other side ("downstream") of the willow patch also has a soil saturation problem. I have never seen water in that locale, but, one can see a swath running through the low-point of that field where brussel sprouts are suffering or dying off; it appears to be where the water flows just below the surface towards the nearby ditch/channel.

On the topic of the ditch itself, there is a place where water flows onto and through the property, and could be slowed down and captured for the creation of one or more ponds. Like any other location it would require moving earth in quick a drastic way (needing a back-hoe likely), but the benefits would last for generations: farm-fresh fish and wild rice, better habitat for waterfowl, new micro-climates for tender plant species.

All in all it could like something like this:


Note one detail on that map which I had not talked about yet: "graywater," or, waste sink-water from the Lanigan household is directed into the main garden and soaked into the ground there.
The system in place right now looks like this:

Note the black color of the water and sediment build-up here, as food leftovers and soap just collect and/or soak into the ground here without any specifically hardy or purifying plants planted here. This aisle is between two beds of tomatoes and is, everyone agrees, the most disgusting place to walk on the farm when barefoot. As can be expected, there is a strong smell associated with this polluted water.

The map below shows where the lowest lying terrain in the garden is, and thus where the water may travel under the surface currently, and where it could travel if an above-ground series of ponds and channels were established:


If ponds were established in the main garden, they could also look alot like previously talked-about and visualized bodies of water on the farm, with the main difference that a greywater treatment system would need some specific plants in place for water-cleaning purposes.
Otherwise, such a system (especially if it had multiple ponds, each being a new stage in cleanliness) could still incorporate edible plants, fish, and locations around the ponds with differing micro-climates and appropriate plant selection.

As far as irrigation goes, the garden with it's drip-lines could still be maintained in it's current form if there were a solar or wind-driven water supply system in place, be it one which still pulls water up from a well or one that sucks water out of a pond. If they really wanted to get technical AND work with existent natural conditions, they could install tanks on higher parts of the property (right beside the Lanigan house for example) where water would be pumped to in ideal times, and could flow from even on cloudy, windless days.

Overall, water needs to be thought about very seriously for any farmer, gardener, or even food-consuming urbanite. Even though Simpler Thyme is in an area with moderate rainfall, as of now it still depends on electric wells for irrigation and that it not resilient in the least. For a farm to be truly sustainable (as in, "able to be sustained") it has to have secondary or fall-back systems in place. If the grid were to go down during a dry summer, Ann and Bill would end up having to abandon a large part of their operation... unless they planned for such an eventuality.