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Thank you!

Really pleased you found it useful. Thanks so much for the supporting comment!

I didn't appreciate untill recently what a huge blessing it is having unlimited water supply. You can still use this method of watering aswell if you want too. The helpers are always gorgeous honestly. Thanks for the comment really appreciated!

@@TheSmartGardenRomYenHouse it was the "4000 YEARS OLD"... that caught my eye when your video just slid across my feed. As I am a Bible student (I dare not say scholar), those words always catch me. Yours was a very interesting video. Thanks for sharing! I thank God, though, that we have gotten .... (and i'm afraid to say this - lest I curse us) our share of rain for the season!

I love this lol

Hi Ken, @kenaar I agree that would be a more sustainable solution - I will try that in the future. Many thanks for your comment.

​@@TheSmartGardenRomYenHouseterracotta pots about that size by me in Louisiana USA would be near $10 for each pot and the bottoms would cost about the same! Also I have never seen an ​terracotta pots shaped just like yours. Ours all have straight angled sides.

Hi Will @willbass2869, Adding volume and surface area should aid water infiltration in general. In our situation though the soil is so overfarmed and compacted that the water just sits on the surface and takes for ever to infiltrate the soil (because of compaction). Over time this will improve as we grow more and more trees and other plants on and around the swales as the roots will aid water ingress. If you have good healthy soil already this will probably help alot. It doesn't hurt trialing different techniques such as this to see what performs better. Many thanks for taking the time to comment Will - really appreciated!

@conorgraafpietermaritzburg3720 Thats great! Glad you found it useful! Thanks for taking the time to comment!

Hi Mum, They are soooo hard working!

@davewillcox All great ideas mate will definitely try these..!

Ah mate ty so much!

I hope so too Tony Even with other areas of thailand suffering terrible flooding we have had no more rain for over a week! Thank you for the comment t!

Hi Gérard, ideally yes in that order. Just one queetion as long as the land is not too steep of a slope say no more than 20 degrees There is a lot more to the planting on swales though so I would suggest looking at agroforestry techniques. Things like livingg mulches and ground cover and diverse planting. Try and find two or three other plants to plant with your avocados! Also vary in heights, try and make it like a natural forest would be. Good luck 8 months without rain sounds brutal!! But don't give up if they can green deserts then I'm sure you will make progress with these techniques over time! Thank yiu for you comment Gérard take care.

Hi Daryl, @darrylcrump2373 You've nailed it, I've seen both the bird dropping and the larger green monsters that eat a tree in a few days. I thought they were swallow tails with my limited knowledge. Thanks for the comment!

Hey Mark thanks mate!

Thank you Kim!

Thank you so much @BarbellMethod for taking the time to comment and support us. It is really appreciated! Thank you!

Hi Sophia @@sophiareygrace6656 Many thanks for taking the time to comment and supporting the channel with your positive comments - really appreciated! There are definitely loads more videos on the way and I hope that you continue to enjoy them! Take care.

Hi Mum @mumster absolutely we are trying to! But it is a long slow process that takes a lot of time! Fingers crossed it works and we can start regenerating the over farmed soil (sand!) Thanks for the comment P'Mum everyone is appreciated a lot!

Hi @arayaindra3035 How are we doing?

Hi There and thanks for the comment. When we get rain it can be a lot and we do our absolute utmost to collect that rain in a multitude of ways. Directly with 24,000 litres of rainwater tanks that collect water of the roof of the workshop. We have a small pond that is filled by collecting ground water run off and we also have a large pond that also collects ground water run off. The main issue is that the last 2 rainy seasons have delivered maybe at a guess 20% of the water that is normally delivered, with many dry days and weeks inbetween. The final pain point is when it is not the rainy season, we can have zero rain for 5 or 6 months at a time. Bearing in mind we use at least 3000 litres a day mainly on keeping plants alive, that equates to say 90,000 litres a month. So utilizing the ponds and all of the rainwater tanks we may be able to last say 6 weeks at the very best. The other water conservation that we use are swales and water batteries - over time I think these will be the main way of combating serious drought - the last swale can easily collect 50,000 litres of water (or even more) and drive it into the ground whilst at the same time stopping soil erosion. As you can see it is not a simple problem to fix! When we do build a house we can also add major amounts of rainwater collection to that too. I also have some cunning plans in mind that I am working on - and hope to release more info on that fairly soon. Thanks for the comment and hope you enjoyed the video!

@@TheSmartGardenRomYenHouse All sounds good and you've given it a lot of thought. Best of luck!

So True Joseph - some words of wisdom right there for sure. When we first bought the land we just fell in love with the location and the view - as this was our first time attempting something like this we had no idea about water supply and how incredibly critical it is. We also had no idea at that time that we could be completely without rain for up to 6 months of the year. (Just to make matters worse the last 2 rainy seasons have been a disaster in our province!) I am hoping that our mistakes help others avoid a similar, potentially costly issue to resolve (If it even can be resolved like your friends who just had enough and that is sad in my opinion). There are many issues that we are working through and I am hoping to document these soon. If we help one person avoid some of these issues then that would be a success for me. As for our plot, we do have some potentially good news on the horizon which I am hoping to share with everyone soon. We don't plan to give up any time soon so fingers crossed we can fix this! Thanks for your insightful comment - really appreciated and I hope you continue to follow us on our journey to see how this all works out!

@@TheSmartGardenRomYenHouse they gave up because they set an amount of cash as a limit ,so if it failed, they were left enough to move on to another venture, ive subscribed so i hope all goes well for you,

Hi Hilary - agreed - it is on the to do list! Thanks for the comment!

Ty P'Beb! I hope so too!

Thanks for the comment @nellerose1191 appreciated. Good advice on the filter system and with the concrete retaining wall around the top it will be easier to implement and less likely for leaks to have an impact. We do also have a large pond maybe 10 times this small pond size but that is not lined. It does seem to retain water to a much better degree than the small pond did so it could be a usable solution as is.

Thanks Tony, you have just given me another great idea for a video!

Haha I agree P'Beb!

Oh No! if the skin is looking good then maybe the camera is too close lol. Hope you are well S!

Thank you Beb x

THank you Mum!

Hi Beb, you are welcome any time just bring the swimming cozzie and I'm sure Rudie, Lisa and Bruno will want to play with you too!

Thank you Beb x

Thanks Bruce they seem to work really well. My only problem now is that I need several tonnes a month, so I'm going to have to work on a different solution. Not sure what yet!

Hi Harry, we try to collect as much as possible. But it is still tough to get through 5 or 6 months of dry season with no rain. Thanks for your comment

I would love a seasonal stream that would be heaven. There are some seasonal dams or ponds on nearby lands but unfortunately not bear enough on our land. You are correct about depth. There are major drillers that can drill up to I believe over 200 metres but the cost becomes very expensive at that point. It may be that we have no choice and have to go to this option

Hey @markandrews6291 we have to keep trying with bore holes Im afraid mate. As we just cannot store enough water to get through what could be 6 months with no rain! Unless another miracle option appears :) Hope you are keeping well mate

Thanks for the comment Tony. I was really hoping that the 3rd borehole was going to be a success - the team was super confident and very professional in execution. I guess I just don't know how this will end up - so I just keep trying to find different solutions!

Hi @gamingsince2014. With the small pond lined and the new rainwater collection system, we will then have in total storage of approx 75k litres. Which is pretty damn good. if we say we use 3k litres a day. that will then only cover 25 days or so of the dry season. The last 2 years have been pretty severe heat and short rainy seasons. We would need to cover around 120 days or so and that is at the current amount of planting we have - which we are hoping to increase. So its impressive but in my opinion but just not enough. I am hoping (praying actually) that the swales and water batteries (holes in the ground) that we have put in store huge amounts of water in the ground and actually raise up the ground water level over time. Our original Bore hole is still working but it seems to only provide 1k litres a day. Thank you so much for your comment and glad that you are enjoying the videos too.

@@TheSmartGardenRomYenHouse the swales will pay dividends im sure. That is very impressive 75k damn. Can i ask how you found contor lines for swale in thailand ?

Hi @gamingsince2014 Very sorry I missed this comment! For the swale contour lines it is a little bit complicated - but good idead for a video I think. You can put swlaes absolutely anywhere as long as they are level along their length - like you say on contour. Basically you have to work out where you need access to with say a tractor or other access requirements. Access is one of the main factors for placement. Then to ensure they are level you can use the traditional method of an A frame or a Laser is more ideal. I tried an A frame at first and it just didnt work. if you have very smooth level land maybe it can work but with ours this was not the case. I used a laser level that I bought at home pro with 50% off which worked fine but you couldnt see the laser so well in full sunlight! so I had to do it in the evening and early morning. This worked really well. They are not 100% perfect but they are close enough. Thanks for your comment and sorry I took so long to respond!

Sure thing @gamingsince2014 I will keep producing as fast as I can!