Permaculture and our yard. Part 1

Oh our yard. We have a lot and I think it will be our summer project until the end of time.
When we first moved in we thought we would be hardscaping the slope. After spending a summer working on one wall, that only spans half our lot, we have had a hard time really getting on board with finishing what we have termed "The Great Wall of N." It will get finished eventually but our focus has moved up closer to the house. 

Akahige has made huge progress in moving our excavated backfill from the build. He has been building terraces down the slope. During this process we have discovered we also have a pond. Great! Who doesn't want a pond? Well ours isn't exactly in a prime location. 

A dear friend, Mrs. B suggested we look into permaculture and swales. (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture) Upon further research we decided this might be the answer we are looking for, in regards to the slope and pond. To put it really simple. You build swales (ditches) to direct water to feed the slopes vegitation. This will help drain it pond and by planting vegitation on the slopes, retain the soil. The vegetation on the ground with be mowed and create green mulch thus improving the soil.There is also a technique (hugelkulture) using lumber to help in the building of the swales side wall/birm. Perfect again for our huge pile of weed trees that we have cleared. These ideas lend themselves to being more affordable and better environmentally.

We have a few obstacles to accomplishing this.
#1: my garden is on the first level to be swaled. And I had already started growing food.
#2: where to put my veg garden and do we make it a permanent or temporary.
#3: our slope is at a greater incline then the recommend use of swale.

To date these are some of our answers.
#1: wait the growing season before touching the top tier and work on terracing two additional step downs. Roughly 6 to 8 feet below the upper level.
#2 move the vegetable garden closer to the house in a permanent wicking bed. This will use the swamp to water the vegetables freeing us from hose & sprinkler problems.
#3 do trial swales above the first tier, small scale, to perfect the technique. And see if our degree of slope could be structurally sound.

This series will break down each part as we tackle them. Hope you enjoy the ride. And we hope others can learn from our success or failure.

As always Thanks for reading! From our little blue house on the top of a hill to yours.