Swale

What Is A Swale Learn About Swales In The Garden

What Is A Swale Learn About Swales In The Garden

What is a swale? These are manmade structures made out of earth that are typically used by road management officials to divert water from impervious areas, such as roads, to a depressed earthen area that acts as a bowl to hold that water and filter it.

  1. What is the purpose of a swale?
  2. How do you make a garden swale?
  3. What does a drainage swale look like?
  4. How do you maintain a swale?
  5. Are Swales effective?
  6. What is the opposite of a swale?
  7. Can you fill in a swale?
  8. What is a swale in a yard?
  9. How do you size a swale?
  10. How do I divert water in my yard?
  11. How much does a swale cost?
  12. What is a dry swale?
  13. What is the best gravel for drainage?
  14. How deep should swales be?
  15. How far apart should Swales be?
  16. What is another word for Glade?
  17. What is a synonym for Valley?
  18. How do you redirect water runoff?

What is the purpose of a swale?

A swale is a shady spot, or a sunken or marshy place. In particular, in US usage, it is a shallow channel with gently sloping sides. Such a swale may be either natural or human-made. Artificial swales are often infiltration basins, designed to manage water runoff, filter pollutants, and increase rainwater infiltration.

How do you make a garden swale?

Try watching this video on www.youtube.com, or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser.

  1. Step 4: Dig a trench along the marked contour line. ...
  2. Step 5: Mound the soil from the trench on the downhill side to create a berm. ...
  3. Step 6: Test and adjust the swale. ...
  4. Step 7: Plant the swale.

What does a drainage swale look like?

A typical swale has a parabolic profile, starting at one edge and gently flowing down and up. You can do one so broad and shallow that it looks like part of the sculpting of the landscape. For this reason swales are often used in residential or commercial settings where there are large expanses of turf.

How do you maintain a swale?

  1. SUGGESTED MAINTENANCE ACTIONS.
  2. MONTHLY.
  3. • Inspect your swale during and after storms to make sure that rainwa- ter has drained and there is no erosion. • ...
  4. SEASONALLY.
  5. • Mow grass no shorter than 3 to 6 inches. Remove and compost all grass clippings. ...
  6. AS NEEDED.
  7. • Reseed bare areas to avoid erosion. ...
  8. DO NOT:

Are Swales effective?

Facts About: Swales

Swales use soils and vegetation to provide pollutant removal through vegetative filtering, sedimentation, biological uptake, and infiltration into the underlying soil media. Because they are linear, swales are effective at treating runoff from roadways or property boundaries.

What is the opposite of a swale?

Noun. Opposite of marshy land. desert.

Can you fill in a swale?

Can I Fill in a Swale to Make It Level with My Lawn or Other Landscaping? The short answer for this one is no. Some homeowners consider swales unsightly and would rather have a nice, level lawn or a smooth surface along their driveway.

What is a swale in a yard?

Swales are ditches or trenches built to direct and slow the flow of rainwater so that it has a chance to sink into the soil. While many gardeners dig swales on hillsides, all that is required is that the outlet on the far end of the swale is lower than the swale itself.

How do you size a swale?

When constructing a swale with known side slopes, the width of the swale can be defined in terms of the depth. For example, 3:1 side slopes on a swale indicates that for every 1 foot of depth, each side slope will be 3 feet wide, for a total swale width of 6 feet.

How do I divert water in my yard?

shovels

  1. Dig a Swale. A swale is a shallow trench that redirects water to where it can be safely released. ...
  2. Construct a Dry Stream. Like swales, dry streams redirect water and prevent runoff damage. ...
  3. Grow A Rain Garden. ...
  4. Build a Berm. ...
  5. Route Water Into a Dry Well. ...
  6. Lay Pervious Paving.

How much does a swale cost?

Generally speaking, Vegetated Swales cost between $4.50 and $8.50 per linear foot when vegetated from seed, and $15 to $20 per linear foot when vegetated from sod. Annual maintenance costs will be around $1 per linear foot (seed) and $2 per linear foot (sod). The expected lifetime of a Vegetated Swale is 50 years.

What is a dry swale?

Dry swales are essentially bioretention cells that are shallower, configured as linear channels, and covered with turf or other surface material (other than mulch and ornamental plants). The dry swale is a soil filter system that temporarily stores and then filters the desired Treatment Volume (Tv).

What is the best gravel for drainage?

For the best drainage, look for coarse washed rock (gravel) that is screened, with a stone size of 1/2 to 3/4 inch. Smaller rock with fine particles could clog the holes of the drain pipe. Pea stone works, but the smooth stones settle together and don't move as much water as coarse rock.

How deep should swales be?

There are no hard rules about the size of a swale, but the bigger it is the more water it can absorb during a rainstorm. Six- to 12-inches deep and 3- to 4-feet wide are typical dimensions. Smooth out the shape of the berm with a hard metal rake to form a planting bed.

How far apart should Swales be?

Peter Bane in his book the Permaculture handbook recommends in general swales be created at a rule of thumb spacing of five to six feet ( 1.6- 2 m) elevation change. In drier climates you tend to create swales spaced further apart but when big catchments are involved then they are spaced more closely.

What is another word for Glade?

Glade Synonyms - WordHippo Thesaurus.
...
What is another word for glade?

clearingdale
meadowopening
valleyopen space
denehollow
valeglen

What is a synonym for Valley?

valley(n) Synonyms: vale, hollow, bottom, dale, ravine, dingle, glen, clough, dell.

How do you redirect water runoff?

  1. BUILD A BERM, a small hill covered with grass or other plants that will divert runoff around what you want to protect. ...
  2. ROUTE THE WATER INTO A DRY WELL. ...
  3. GRADE BROAD SURFACES to direct runoff away from houses, sheds, barns, and patios. ...
  4. INTERCEPT THE WATER by using a swale, a shallow ditch with gently sloping sides.

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