Today we go over the four basic questions that guide all holistic water patterning design. Whether you're an experienced designer or homesteader, or a complete novice that is just getting introduced to optimizing water patterning on your land, this show is for you. That's because, no matter what level you're at, the process is always the same!

Every good whole-site water design follows this same progression:

1. How much water do you have? Quantify and qualify the resource you are working with!
2. Where is the water currently going / how is it currently behaving? Assess the current function of your homestead watershed.
3. Where should the water go / how should it be behaving? For what you want to produce / for your specific homesteading context, where do you need the water to go that it isn't, and how does it need to behave en route and once it is in that location? This step is all about optimizing your hydrological function to have the healthiest soils capable of supporting to greatest amount of living plant life (i.e. your solar panel!) to convert as much sunlight as possible into the greatest about of carbohydrate possible.
4. How will you best get the water where it needs to go while behaving as it should? What are the appropriate drainage, infiltration and storage elements to pattern water passively or actively to optimize the overall function of your homestead ecosystem?

Water is blessedly predictable - it always flows straight downhill. Because of this, we can design systems that optimize the productive capacity of every drop of water that our landscapes receive - we just have to take a little bit of time to objectively analyze our landscapes. This is how you do it.

Show Resources

• Water Drainage Elements
• Water Infiltration Elements
• Water Storage Elements
• Pumping Options
  • Bunyip Pump (low-head, variable-flow)
  • Ram Pump (high-head, low-flow)
  • Rife River Pump (low-head, high-flow)
  • Nose Pumps (livestock powered pumping

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WHAT I DO:

Design:

On-Site Consultation

Online Site/Project Consultation

Holistic Ecosystem Design

Implementation:

Water Harvesting Earthworks

High-function, Low-Maintenance Access

Living Systems

Spring Development

Courses:

Minimum Holistic Goal

Media:

The Sovereign Homestead Podcast

YouTube

Instagram

Music by Alex Grohl