Masterline & Landscape Design
When we moved to the farm, I noticed old, human-made swales and berms on at least two of the fields, extending several hundred feet. While not confirmed, it’s my suspicion this was likely one of thousands of early NRCS projects to help retain water and buffer against erosion. (The farm used to grow tobacco with remains of old curing and hanging barns.) Having measured their gentle pitch, these swale-berm systems don’t have to be modified (or established) since they follow Shepard’s masterline design. We can still use these masterlines to layout the orchard plantings, livestock lanes and infrastructure. At the core of the system is the use of subtle earthworks (including the swales and berms) to organize the farm around water movement, tree rows and animal flow. In the Southeast, masterline becomes especially valuable for managing intense rain events—slowing, spreading and sinking water rather than allowing it to erode soil or overwhelm low areas. Tree rows planted along masterlines stabilize the landscape, improve infiltration and create predictable zones for equipment, livestock movement and harvest. Unlike colder climates where water storage is often the limiting factor, Southeastern systems must emphasize drainage paired with infiltration, ensuring soils remain aerobic while still capturing rainfall for long-term resilience.

Multi-Species Orchard Systems
Much like a market garden with rotated and mix beds of annual crops, the long-duration orchard moves beyond single-crop plantings into a diverse polyculture of fruit trees, shrubs and herbaceous understory species. In the Southeast, this may include combinations persimmons, pawpaws, mulberries, apples, dessert pears, peaches, along with nitrogen-fixing shrubs and native support species. Diversity is not just ecological insurance—it is essential for pest and disease resilience in a humid climate where monocultures fail quickly. By stacking species with different rooting depths, growth habits and harvest windows, the orchard functions as more of a self-reinforcing ecosystem that produces food, forage and fertility while continuously building soil organic matter.

Silvopasture with Sheep and Poultry
Silvopasture is where the system truly integrates livestock into perennial agriculture, with sheep and poultry playing complementary roles. Sheep are well suited to Southeastern silvopastures, grazing understory vegetation, managing orchard floor growth and cycling nutrients without damaging trees when properly timed. Poultry—particularly pasture-adapted broilers—follow grazing rotations, spreading manure, consuming insects and accelerating nutrient breakdown. Compared to cattle-focused systems common in Shepard’s region, sheep and poultry offer lighter impact on often wetter Southeastern soils, reducing compaction while maintaining high biological activity. Their integration transforms orchards from static plantings into living, productive landscapes.

Water Management & Climate Resilience
Water management ties the entire system together. Drawing from Shepard’s emphasis on reading the land, Southeastern water strategies focus on redundancy and moderation: shallow swales, diversion ditches, ponds and vegetated waterways that move excess water safely while recharging soil moisture. Tree systems and perennial groundcover act as living sponges, buffering both floods and droughts in a region where rainfall is abundant but increasingly erratic.