Water is life - and the ability to source, collect and distribute water is essential to the well-being of our farms and homesteads. During the past few years in New England, we’ve been increasingly experiencing the challenges that come with irregular precipitation patterns like flooding and drought. These realities make clear the imperative to place water as a central aspect of our our land use designs.
In this daylong workshop, we’ll examine the fundamentals of hydrological assessment, design, and management from the perspective of the small farmer and homesteader. We’ll look at a suite of water harvesting, diversion, and distribution techniques and systems on our small working farm and homestead, discussing design options, materials, armchair engineering, and troubleshooting.
Specifically, we’ll unpack -
- The fundamental principles of hydrology, discussing how water flows across landscapes both above and below ground and how that understanding should influence the placement of buildings, agricultural systems, and access ways
- The basics involved in understanding and calculating your site’s water budget
- A range of drainage and diversion structures including ditches/swales, culverts, French/curtain drains, gutters
- The basics of rainwater catchment, storage and distribution off existing building roofs including sizing and design calculations, material choices, and costing
- Water storage in soils using subsoil plowing and infiltration swales and basins
- Spring identification, development, and design
- Pond siting, design, construction, and maintenance
- Basic irrigation systems using high efficiency distribution including drip and mini-wobbler sprinklers
We’ll spend the majority of the day in the field, looking at these strategies and discussing the decisions and management that goes into it. While all knowledge and experience levels are welcome, the workshop is geared towards students who consider their knowledge ‘beginner’ and ‘intermediate’.
The workshop runs from 10am - 4pm rain or shine. Students should bring their own lunch. $100 tuition
As always, note that we will not turn anyone away for lack of funds. Please reach out if you'd like to request the sliding scale tuition. We keep our course sizes small to maximize potential for discussions and student interaction so be sure to register early.
