T Melloh

Lovely spot!
Let me clarify your intent. Sounds  like your goal is to infiltrate water into the soil, clay, on your property versus draining it away into the ditch?
If so, for infiltration, slowing the flow is needed. Faster moving water will carry away your soil.
There are great suggestions already: Widening the trough, making shallower sides. Adding organic materials to both slow flow, hold moisture and allow biology to begin to change your soil structure. Broad forking to open the soil, and perhaps using compost tea or extract afterward to introduce biology deeper into the soil. Planting in the trough as mentioned, and plantings on your mounds.

If flow through the swale maze is still too heavy at times, you might add loose leaky rock dams  intermittently to slow flow and catch soil. Though I suspect the other measures should suffice. The ditch might be a place to consider this, depending on your needs. Slowing water is usually a good thing.
Best of luck.  Looking forward to updates.

Toxtli

Hey Alan, that's really cool. Might try a version of it myself. Based  on past experience, for the first few years keeping the soil moist will be a challenge given the shallow soil over logs which will take a while to decompose somewhat to hold moisture.  The elevation increases sun and wind exposure increases drying, as will any cracks to allow air flow.. Mulch, green or brown will help. Great you are getting numerous plants in to help with that.
I look forward to updates on your progress. Thanks for the pics.

Responding to earlier comment which indicated grafting is hard.  Grafting a scion onto rootstock can be challenging. It is a skill to be learned, like any other, so don't give up too easily. Good instruction(s) is important.
Much easier is cleft grafting. It requires you have tree(s ) to start with. Given that, it is a super way to expand your varieties, all on the same tree if you wish. Below is a link to a description. Many video instructions can be found online.
You can also use this technique to graft onto a fresh stump.  Cambium to cambium is the key, whatever the type of graft.

https://www.motwebpageherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/grafting-apple-trees/

I like Lina's idea.
Working with lasagna gardens over time I see mother nature takes advantage of any weakness in a cardboard floor.  Grasses enter through any cracks (overlap less than 6 inches) and from the sides. Covering one large plot well makes construction and especially maintenance is easier.
As mentioned by someone earlier the paths can be dug out to give height and hold moisture. If you cover the entire area with cardboard and chips in the fall, adding beds where desired, in spring you can dig out your paths with less risk of grasses growing in them and on their walls.
I recommend a work party, permablitz, to initiate your project.

      Great ideas shared above. Dug Hugels make sense with your soil. My raised Hugels were not packed and covered  well enough when constructed and dried out quickly in the summer sun for a  number of years.

Have fun creating!

Hi, This is a topic of great interest to me.  Thanks for all the sharing.
After 30 years in Western medicine, family medicine & geriatric practice and teaching, I left it in 2008 and was certified in medical acupuncture in 2012. Knowing what western medicine can and can't do,  I am amazed at what acupuncture can do. In my humble opinion it should be a significant part of any health care system, human or otherwise. My learning curve is still steep, yet I have had many successes after western medicine practices had failed. Great for peri-operative comfort and healing, or avoiding surgery altogether, and, and, ....  I too have heard of many occasions where acupuncture has helped pets.
Wish I could treat animals with acupuncture, but there are licensing restrictions in my state of Maine.
As mentioned acupressure is a good option to consider Lana, at least as a starting point.

My father had an MD–PhD in Pathology, because he wanted to learn about the cause and progression of disease, which is something only pathology studies. (Yes, most MD's often don't know the actual cause of your malady, they only know how to treat the symptoms). My father felt that if you wanted to truly cure someone, you needed to address the cause.

Thank you L Cho for sharing your father's amazing journey. Agree totally, treating the underlying cause is key, whatever system of practice. A big part of that is taking a good history and physical, which is becoming a lost art in the time and dollar pressured business of medicine.
Will say, not sure I would agree a pathology degree is absolutely necessary to understand the causes, rather a strong emphasis on underlying issues as one goes through training and continuing that curiosity through your career whatever field of medicine you pursue.  In any system lifestyle and the clients responsibility to care for themselves, preventive medicine, is paramount.
When I took my PDC in 2009 it was clear to me its principles were key to a healthy society, to our children's futures. THIS is essential medicine.

Appreciate the earlier reference to the Four Paws, Five Directions, and Touch of Health. Will check them out.

Thanks again.  
 TOxtli

I wholeheartedly agree with Anne and the others, the critters who visit the garden are great company. From the tiny bees and birds to squirrels and possums. Just one plant such as fennel can have perhaps 40 pollinators of all shapes and sizes buzzing around it.  Hummingbirds love the bee balm and scarlet runner bean blossoms. A true gift to be present with the lovely creatures whose land we share.