Rewilding My Lot

At some point I’d like to have an ecosystem pond here if there is enough room, but it’s probably going to be at least a year until I’m ready to research and create that if it seems doable.

Meanwhile, in the time I have been here since February 2023 I have been studying the way that water flows across this property in times of heavy rain. Looking out from the back of the house, water flows from back right to front left and pools on the left side near the fence.

It seems logical, therefore, to locate a pond on the left side where the garden already has a low point. But before I am ready to set up a pond, I have dug a swale to help to collect water in a hollow and to minimize standing water elsewhere in times of flood. In other words, when we have heavy enough rain to produce standing water, let me have some control over where that water collects so that I minimize flooding where there are plants, and reduce water run-off into the street.

So I have dug a hollow in my back yard, about the size that a grave could be and a few inches deep. I hope none of my neighbors reports this as suspicious behavior.

There are various things that I could do to finish this hole, such as make it deeper, change the shape, fill it with big stones, or plant things in the hollow that like wet soil. However, for now I am going to leave it as is through a few rainfalls to see what happens and to determine whether I want to make any adjustments.