My biggest mistake at the start was not focusing fully all my time on the design. I thought I can grow some annual crops to support my family needs and slowly keep changing the landscape. What a mistake! Firstly the annual crop was taking most of my time so I didn't get done the landscaping as much as I should and secondly even after the swales were in place it took another two seasons for the soil microbiology  to recover. Elein Ingham Soil food web YouTube helped me a lot. I'm only on small scale. My land is 600m2 but if I would get chance to go bigger I will put the design in place first! This year is extra hard as the El Nino showing its power. Good luck wherever you are. And keep posting I'll follow