Kerrmaculture Workshop: Rainwater Management Using Berms and Swales

You are all invited to a berm workshop at Quiet Valley Ranch, home of the Kerrville Folk Music Festivals. With rainwater cisterns and permaculture earthworks, these folks have worked miracles, transforming a bare, baked caliche hillside into a welcoming landscape.

Learn how you too can create your own permaculture earthworks. Often, all it takes to transform a dead patch of ground into a water-sponge is a few folks with shovels!

The workshop is happening May 19 – details here: http://www.kerrville-music.com/KerrmacultureWorkshop.htm

What are Berms and Swales?
It is easy to slow down and capture rainwater by installing berms and swales. Small berms act like speed bumps laid out along the contour of the land perpendicular to plumb. As water moves downhill, berms catch and hold water/soil/organic matter allowing the water to soak in rather than gain momentum and runoff or flood downhill areas. They also allow the soil and organic matter like leaves and sticks to accumulate behind the berms (in the swales), over time creating soft level areas.

Micro-berms/small scale berms can be made from small piles/rows of mulch and gravel and do not require digging, trenching, or earth moving.

Hands-on Workshop:
Presented by Adams Kirkpatrick
(Sustainable Landscape Designer featured on Central Texas Gardener) www.sunflowerdesign.net

Students participating in the workshop will take part in a discussion on why berms and swales are important to stormwater management in the Texas Hill Country and then get their hands dirty learning how to easily create them using simple tools (rakes, shovels, & buckets) and easy to find locally available materials (gravel & mulch). The class will focus on small scale berms and swales, but will also discuss other techniques for larger scale berms.

Cost:
• $20 per person
• Free for Kerrville Folk Festival ticket holders/staff (please bring your confirmation email)

What to bring:
• Note taking materials
• Gloves, shovels, rakes, and trowels that your hands are used to (optional, but very handy)
• Lunch
• Water Bottle (we have refilling stations)
• Appropriate clothing

Class is limited to 30 people.
Please call to register 830-257-3600
“Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple.” — Bill Mollison