Dry land Verge (update)

• 20L of grey water once per fortnight was used to flood the basin/swale.
• swept leaf litter from foot path into the basin/swale.
• decreased the depth of the second collection basin so that it can only hold 1” of water before spilling.

1st month Observations;

Soil permeability - my initial concern was the water retention was too good which was causing the swale to act as accidental reservoir . This turned out to be less of an issue than I initially thought. On the 3rd wetting cycle I noticed the soil structure had visibly changed to become more crumbly and water penetrated within 20mins

Mulch - I have observed that any sort of feature tends to collect wind blown leaves. So I attempted speed up the process by also adding leaves caught on the adjacent foot path. This is when I observed that the swales also protect leaves from being blown away. While the flat terrain downslope sheds its leaf mulch.

I also observed that the basin with leaf litter will stay visibly hydrated for up to 4 days, while the unprotected basin dries to a cracked clay surface in 24hrs.

The flow of energy - this was something I completely overlooked. I’ve had two cars attempt to park on the verge. They’ve crushed 3 plants. My first reaction was to go for the board with nails routine and fuck their tires up. Then I applied some self regulation.

In my research into legal methods to prevent this I had to eliminate the usual suspects of large rocks or similar hostile features. However, I did stumble across a free tree program provided by my local council. So a 1meter sapling has been ordered for installation. These are installed with 3 support posts to stabilise the tree. Hopefully this will provide a greater visual cue and deter parking.

Climate - In the first post I forgot to mention the climate cycles that influence this site.

We’re bang on the S30’ latitude which is where the Hadley cell and the Ferrel cell converge to create a semipermanent high pressure band called the (subtropical ridge). This band produces very little precipitation because the air in always descending from the upper atmosphere.

Most of my water comes from the blue cold fronts that circle polar vortex of Antarctica.

These two climate drivers oscillate seasonally. In summer, the subtropical ridge moves south and the rains fall over the Arctic Ocean. In winter the ridge moves over the central desert and the rain falls over Southern Australia.

RemindMe! 3 months

Awesome experiment! Install No parking signs?

Cool! Have you though about doing a curb cut and a basin for the next rain event?

Edit: added benefit is no parking is possible :)

This is really great, thank you for sharing

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