Swales and Terraces (aka. Lot's of Digging, Shoveling and Ben Gay!)

We are preparing to plant some strawberries, lingonberries, and cranberries on the North side of the house.  These are shade loving perennials.  There is a fairly steep slope there (I'd guess about 10-15 degrees).  Currently, the water just runs right down the hill.  Nothing grows there. We are going to use the permaculture concept of swales to retain water and build the planting areas.  Basically, a swale is a ditch that is dug on the "level contour" of the slope in order to catch the water.  On the downward slope of the swale is a "pile of soil" which is your planting area.  The water is captured in the swale, and seeps into the planting area.  We used a "land level" as a tool to determine what the "level contour" line should be.  It's amazing how your eye is deceived by the slope of the land.  Here are some short videos of what we've done so far.

Here's a video of the "Work in Progress"... 

Here's a video of the "semi finished" product...