>> The west side of our hill is entirely in swales that I made using an A-Frame level I built.
I assume that's to retain as much water as possible for the dry season. Plus maybe to reduce erosion?
The Farmer's handbook seemed to emphasize digging the ditch, but the illustrations made it look like the built-up berms on either side of the ditch were 2-3 times bigger than the ditch.
Did you use buried logs (hugelculture) to beef up some raised ridges below or above the swales?
