Rewilding My Lot

An important part of a healthy nature ecosystem, which is what I am trying to construct here, is some sort of reliable water source for wildlife. That could be as simple as shallow water containers elevated and on the ground for birds and other critters, or a more complex pond system. I don’t know which option I will choose yet.

In the meantime I have been studying how water flows across this lot and a few weeks ago I dug a swale to act as a temporary place for rain water to collect before it soaks into the ground.

The location of the swale was estimated to be at approximately the lowest point on the lot, but I didn’t want to dig it too enthusiastically until I had a chance to test the location, and also decide whether or not I will eventually be installing a pond.

In the 48 hours of December 23 & 24, 2023, there was approximately one inch of rainfall, most of which was overnight between those two days. That gave me a good opportunity to see how the swale would operate.

After about 0.7 inches of rain, the swale was the only place in the garden with standing water.

After a further 0.2 inches, the swale was full and there was some puddling to the left and right.

And a few hours after the rain stopped, all standing water had disappeared.

I am pleased with this. The swale seems to be in a good location and I think my next step will be to dig it deeper by a few inches to increase its capacity. Over time, I hope that as more plants become established in the garden, rain water will be more quickly be absorbed into the ground before it reaches the swale. I want to minimize water run-off from this lot, so having a swale to temporarily hold water should help with that. And on the occasions when we have sufficiently heavy rainfall that it does flow off the lot, I am confident that I am no longer losing soil in that process.