Aljaz Plankl

Does it defeat the point of channeling water gradually across the slope (keyline) if my plantings are perpendicular to the "keylines?

What is the context, what are the goals and main intentions for this land?
If it's silvopasture with focus on high quality pasture, than shrubs are not your concern and you should respect keyline geometry for your tree system!
What will defeat the purpose is water runoff and soil erosion becuase of management and access.
Especialy animal and machinery impact.
It's very DESTRUCITVE to have overall downslope pattern, it's not practical and healthy for the animals, humans, tractors etc.

You have a wonderful opportunity to slow down!

People systems are usually the most challenging, because people don't take time to focus on holistic context.
Maybe improving soil is not the most important thing for the benefit of the land you own and manage and for your life in general?!

1. Study Holistic Management and take time for the first  most important step - setting the holistic context.
Introduction to Holistic Management : https://holisticmanagement.org/free-downloads/

2. In terms of the land, you need to manage water first - keyline desing will help a lot.

I love Regrarians platform as it takes both of the above and gives you a wonderful frame to work with.
http://www.regrarians.org/regrarian-handbook/

Very nice idea, but i have a critical question. Doesn't the water in the tub freeze during the day?

Hello Henry. Do you know about keyline design?

Thanks Darren.
About that old road... is it still there? If not, how did you take care of it? I assume a road like this continue to be erosive element if not handled somehow.
Below is a digital orto photo, color height map and contour map (click on them for big picture). Please go on and comment about that ridge or anything else, if you have time.
Thanks again for stopping by, i wish you all the best!

Hahahaa, sensibility came a year or more ago, before i also wanted to swale everything i saw. Well, luckily it stayed at thinking about it and coming to the conclusion that swales are not appropriate for our climate and land form.

Thanks for your answer... i will be careful that the pattern comes out right. I'm only working with the ridge contour (am i wrong?), because valleys on both sides are too steep for any cultivation and they are overgrown with selectively managed forest. Hmm, i really wonder if the pattern will come out right if i go parallel to the ridge contour from the lowest point. As i see it, there are no anomalies on this ridge, it's quite the ridge. I assume i can check the pattern on site with bunyip since the area is not that big. I'm wondering now what is the gradient of fall that you are looking for?

Actually, we've done a really good survey for our property. We have aerial photos, cloud point, Digital Surface Model and High quality orthophoto. Young slovenian fellas are doing great job with drones and their knowledge of geodetics. Check it out, you will probably like it a lot - http://www.modriplanet.si/
At the moment i'm not on my work computer, but i can upload some photos and other data later.

I'm in love with the ridge that we have here, you'll see. I think there is also a potential for a ridge dam.

Maybe a quick question on dams and roads as catchment surfaces. Where i can learn little details like connecting the catchment road drain to a dam. I'm very interested in how these systems are designed to meet each other, where water actually flows into a dam. Is there any source from which i can at least get a theory about this little details. I'm not aware of anyone doing this kind of work here in Slovenia, so i can not see it in real life.

Regarding your 2016 world tour - are you planing to do PDC's, KDC's or just traveling? Will you come to EU? If you decide to come to Slovenia, we are more than happy to be your hosts here on our homestead and there are many other places to stay and feel the true vibe of Slovenia. We also have experiences with organizing courses, so that's also an option.

Thanks for your time again and i really hope we meet someday!

Hello Darren,

welcome to the forums, i'm really glad you are here... thank you for your time! And big thanks for regrarians platform! I will go deeper in the handbook chapters in winter, it's mostly outdoors time now, but i checked it out a bit already and it's awesome work!

Mostly it's very hilly here, we are geologically a very young country (Slovenia) so it's really hard to find/have keypoints on our properties. :) I really hope you come to Slovenia one day, we love your work here even though it's really hard to apply whole keyline design, properties are small, hilly, steep and so on. There is a saying that Slovenian farmers bread is earned with really hard hard work. It's true. I'm fascinated what areas we populated, by the book it should be forest almost everywhere. Farming here is crazy with tractors on steep steep slopes and back in the days with human labour which is still a big part of a work now. But you are invited to Slovenia, it's a beautiful country, around 70% if forests, amazing natural water systems, diversity in everything, there is alpine, panonian, coast, flatlands, marshes... well you are welcome!

I'm visioning a bit different kind of farm/homestead life for me, especially not haying steep slopes and feeding animals in the stall all year round.

I'm currently working on a homestead where i apply keyline design, holistic managament, permaculture.

Our property is towards the end of a main ridge line. We have very steep primary valleys and ridges, so tree systems are the only option i see for the big part of a system.
The best crop field cultivation is possible on one of the ridges that flattens out and goes steep again quite fast, it has good deep soils with quite a bit of organic matter.

So my question for now is about crop field i'm establishing. I will not do keyline plow cultivation, just regular cultivation for cropping and mostly it will be no-dig.

Three years ago i made a mistake, finding a contour line on a highest appropriate point on a ridge and then going parallel below with deep paths (soil on beds dug out from path area). Well you know what happened with the watter and the pattern. :)
In autumn i will push the reset button and start fresh.

I want to clarify and if you have some other points i will be really glad.
- starting point when doing cultivation on a ridge is the lowest appropriate point on a ridge?
- where exactly is this point? is it on a center line of a ridge?
- how do you define/mark/find parallel lines in the field without tractor cultivation? do i stand on a contour line and just try to eye out the 90° angle to a contour? any other tips when doing this in a field with machine or without...?

A big thank you for your work! ...
I hope you don't mind further questions if they appear.

All the best,

Aljaz

Online course, EASY NO-DIG GARDENING

Over the last ten weeks I have created an online course. The cost of £95 gives you access to 34 videos, text and photos for six months.

The course has concise, visual information about time-saving methods. Its aim is to help gardeners save time and effort, for better results.

Homeacres garden is testimony to the success of these methods, for example we supply three busy restaurants and two shops with salad leaves.

The information I give has great roots and grows really well: the advice has been tried and tested during 34 years of intensive gardening, it is practical knowledge that works! For more information about the course please click here. - Charles Dowding

Paul, what is the resolution of digital download video?

The download version is resolution 480px ? Isn't that quite low?