Collecting Spring Runoff For Dry Summers

We are in southern Saskatchewan, Canada. It's a semi-arid region mostly covered in farmland. The acreage we live on is about 15 years old, before that it was part of a grain field. So there is nothing natural about the grade anymore, it's almost entirely flat. Every spring the snow melt runs along the surrounding ditches and much of it accumulates on one side of our driveway before over-topping it and continuing (we can't put in a culvert...long story). This is the only time of year that we see this type of moisture, even in a very wet year this area isn't even close to creating that. There is a small ditch that was dug by the previous owners to redirect some of the water into the neighbouring field. It has a hedge of chokecherries, alders, and Hawthorne running along it.

My question is, what is the best way to make use of this water instead of pumping it away?  I feel that planting a rain garden isn't feasible because the plants wouldn't get a reasonable amount of moisture the rest of the year. Anything we plant must be drought tolerant. The other problem is that the vegetable garden, compost, shed, etc. are all located on the other side of the property. So I can't just redirect it there either.

Help!

The idea of pumping it shouldn't be off the table I don't think, a diaphragm pump capable of pumping raw sewage (like with 2" solids on it) is a few hundred bucks and runs on standard power. For the intake, take a piece of ~2" pvc that's a few feet long, drill a bunch of 1/2" holes in it, then wrap it all up with window screen and hose clamp it down. Lots of ability for water to ingress and you can keep the junk out. You could run temporary plastic tubing across the surface to wherever you want to store the water. After it dries up, just put the pump away and recoil the tube, call it good.

I very much try to have gravity do everything for me but pumps can be worth their weight in gold.

Hi K. Have you looked into pocket ponds? If it’s already collecting you could keep it around much longer. I’m not sure that your slope is enough but look into a key line setup as well.

Some more information will help.
What size it the block?
Do you have any photos or details of the topography to let us see more detail.

I understand that you are wanting to collect water for use during a dry summer.

What you are describing sounds like you also want to get the water off your driveway.

Every spring the snow melt runs along the surrounding ditches and much of it accumulates on one side of our driveway before over-topping it and continuing (we can't put in a culvert...long story).

I believe that is why the previous owner dug that ditch.

Like Scott suggested a pocket pond might be what you are looking for.

Here is a thread about building a pocket pond and the results:

https://permies.com/t/120095/Invincible-Garden#983169

This thread also sounds like something that you are wanting to do.  The very last picture on this thread they are calling a U-bend and is something like might work, please read the whole threads though:

https://permies.com/t/165409/Puddle-dirt-lane-move-side#1298688

I also agree with John that a topo map would be really helpful.