Good Start to the Snow Harvest this Winter

I was out to our acreage today and got excited about our snow capture on the property.  Around here, nearly 20% of our average annual precipitation comes as snow.  In drier winters, you see the fields eroding into ditches along the road.  One of my goals on the property is to manage natural precipitation better.  In my mind, that includes capturing snow for the spring melt.  Depending on how things thaw in spring, it should add to deeper soil moisture.  It can delay spring activities though as the land stays wetter longer, but that also helps spread out the hectic spring prep / planting season.

Our predominant winds are from the NW, with secondary wind direction from the SE.

We haven't had all that much snow yet this season, but I have done some snow moving in the city and today was the second time I did some clearing of the drive at the acreage - it helps make it look a bit more lived in and enables us to access more easily.  Driving out today the landscape is covered, although I could see dark areas in open fields where it is pretty thin.

Along the south side of the property, I have seeded a mix of native tall grass prairie plants (grasses and flowering plants).  This summer things really started taking off and this line was easily about 5' tall (you can see this as the line on an angle to the right of the photo - camera facing a SE direction).  Between this swath and an area of planted trees closer to the house, drifting was 4-5' high (first photo).  The second photo was taken farther east and in the middle of the shot you can just see the tops of our currant plants, which are approaching 3' tall.

I don't really get excited about snow generally, but capturing some of it means our property will be more drought-resistant.

A dry winter is a little scary. Makes the spring rains so much more vital!

Around here people use straw bales in rows in the drainage areas to prevent erosion. Is that done much there?

I can't say I've seen bales used for erosion control.  There are bales left in fields in stacks which do help break the wind, but I think that's just a storage location for bedding until they get used.  Of course, any disruption to elevation on the relatively flat land around here will capture snow.

I used to see a lot of snow fences, but that seems to be a practice that has fallen out of favour.  Around here you tend to see channels created to get the spring melt off the land as quickly as possible to enable cultivating or seeding to occur earlier.  And people wonder why we have flooding issues.  Of course, there is a limit to how early one can seed many crops with respect to spring frosts.

Around here, farmers in open areas are experimenting -- trying to catch more snow on their fields by cutting channels in the snow perpendicular to the wind. This sort of acts like a snow fence. Capturing that winter moisture is increasingly important in these dry years.

On my little homestead, I do everything possible to move snow onto growing beds, trees and perennials. A snowblower is just a pump for solid water. This makes the drudgery of snow removal a little more meaningful. Snow is nothing more than funny shaped rain after all.

It has been a strange start to the winter here in New York. We have received some snow, but we seem to be getting hit with waves of just above freezing weather/rain so everything ends up melting and getting pushed into the streams/rivers because the ground remains frozen.

This weekend is about the third time this has happened so far. Usually the spring melt brings a bunch of debris down the river but with these events, I wonder if it will be minimal?

Have you made swales to direct the snow melt to your advantage?

Anne Miller wrote:Have you made swales to direct the snow melt to your advantage?

I have two shallow swales and berms in the broad open area.  They aren't exactly on contour, but aside from slowing flow and infiltrating water are intended to direct water toward a low spot that will be further dug to create a pond area for garden irrigation if necessary and to create some moisture loving gardens (with native plants and potentially food-based plants like watercress).

We have very little slope to the field portion of the property, but it does gradually slope toward the north and east.  It is effectively imperceptible to the naked eye.

I was out today and I moved some snow.  One challenge for us with this property in winter is that the lack of tracks makes it quite obvious the house isn't lived in and it's in a fairly prominent location on a reasonably busy road.  So, when the weather is good and my schedule allows, I strive to head out and at least make tracks.

I did scare up a white-tailed jackrabbit...managed to get a photo with my phone, but at a distance, so it isn't great.

Much of last week had above freezing temperatures.  The prognosticators are telling us there should be a mix this week.  The snow pack has definitely come down.  Driving out to the property this morning, most of the farm fields were pretty bare although the ditches showed dirty snow.  We can see about half the height of the patio table shown in the last post.

This area had originally been swampland that was drained, hence the "Sperling gumbo" name for the soil (a jar test showed it to be silty clay - about 50% clay, 45% silt, 5% sand).  I'm told that is why many locals have difficulty growing trees.  Learning that recently has me a bit leery about capturing too much moisture, in case we simply saturate and turn it back to swamp.  That's why so many channels exist in the area to move water off the land.  If nothing else, it seems tall grass prairie plants do OK and if things do get more moist, perhaps we'll just lean into willows and other moisture lovers.  Time will tell.

Derek Thille wrote:...This area had originally been swampland that was drained, hence the "Sperling gumbo" name for the soil (a jar test showed it to be silty clay - about 50% clay, 45% silt, 5% sand).  I'm told that is why many locals have difficulty growing trees.  Learning that recently has me a bit leery about capturing too much moisture, in case we simply saturate and turn it back to swamp.  That's why so many channels exist in the area to move water off the land...

Have you read about Chinampas?
https://permies.com/t/39459/Chinampas
https://permies.com/t/74407/permaculture/chinampas

Versions of chinampas have been some of the most productive food producers before the current farming model. Instead of using channels to move water off the land, they form them into a matrix that provides low management wicking beds (with a crop of fish as a bonus.)

Jay Angler wrote:

Derek Thille wrote:...This area had originally been swampland that was drained, hence the "Sperling gumbo" name for the soil (a jar test showed it to be silty clay - about 50% clay, 45% silt, 5% sand).  I'm told that is why many locals have difficulty growing trees.  Learning that recently has me a bit leery about capturing too much moisture, in case we simply saturate and turn it back to swamp.  That's why so many channels exist in the area to move water off the land...

Have you read about Chinampas?
https://permies.com/t/39459/Chinampas
https://permies.com/t/74407/permaculture/chinampas

Versions of chinampas have been some of the most productive food producers before the current farming model. Instead of using channels to move water off the land, they form them into a matrix that provides low management wicking beds (with a crop of fish as a bonus.)

I'm vaguely familiar with chinampas.  At this point, we have dry land with a couple of low spots.  I do want to dig out one of the low spots somewhat to create something like a bog garden and try growing things like watercress that prefer moister areas.  If it comes to it, we could certainly create channels...I have photos from Peru of a similar idea that I'll have to dig up to share if it ever gets that moist.