I put in a few hand dug swales earlier this week where I plan to plant a browse block of trees for fodder. I had to mark level every 2 feet due to the crazy topography and even so some of the swales had to be pretty short to stay level. Anyway, today was drizzling so I thought I'd take a peek to see if there was any water in the swales. The first few I check out were as expected, no water.
I was completely stunned by the second set of swales which was totally full and then some!
The difference is soil type. One was black, rich & loose, the other was clay & compacted and probably over ledge.
It'll be interesting to compare how the trees do.