Chapter 9: The autumn equinox brings earthworks and the creation of a swale to Rhuddin 🍂 🌍 🌞
After a dark clear night jewelled with stunning stars, we saw the first frost of the season up here, most prominent on the north facing land across the cwm. And we couldn’t have asked for more perfect conditions for the day’s activities. Blessed with a brilliant blue sky, the gorgeous Welsh sunshine has returned to us here in the Brecon Beacons.
Summit jackets and hats that were much needed first thing, were pulled off with the strength of the sun up here soon warming our bones.
It was exciting seeing the diggers arrive and after a quick check in with the guys from AV Contractors, they started to swiftly move across the first meadow, creating a swale.
A swale is a ditch on contour. The theory is that it will enable us to manage the movement of water and nutrients to the lands’ advantage. In a dry season, which we have definitely experienced this year, the swale catches, slows and disperses the water and nutrients across the contour line above the first orchard.
In times of high rainfall and again we have definitely experienced this in the last couple of weeks, we have the option to release a surplus of water to each side into stream channels that already exist on the land. This will help protect the orchard from becoming waterlogged, not something apple trees are fond of.
The whole idea is, of course, experimental, as are all our endeavours here at Rhuddin but we are curious to see if this empowers our land management and gives us a little more protection from extreme weather events.
