Jr Saslo

Hi Mark - thanks for the detailed response. To answer some of your questions:

1) How dry does the current soil get if the swales were not there? The soil gets very very hard in the summer months. Nearly impenetrable with a shovel. In the winter months, it turns into that molding clay you mentioned.

2) How long does the water stand in the dug swales before it seeps into the soil? This is a brand new swale and has only begun to start collecting water but it is slow to drain due to that clay layer at the bottom.

If I'm facing a hardpan layer - am i looking at several years of soil improvement before the water absorption will improve?

And for context: this project wasn't meant to address a drainage problem. The goal was to divert a small amount of water from a larger drainage ditch onto the property in order to slow/sink/save water. I'd rather not backfill the swale which could be done in a few hours, but I'd rather keep at it and see if this bit of soil/property can be improved.

Thanks again for all of your feedback!

Afte an atmospheric river here in Northern California - these are my first observations:

1) I didn't account for gopher holes! The swale did it's job but it was slowly leaching in several locations. Although I don't think this is the worst case scenario, I need to fortify the downslope side of the interior to prevent that from happening. Any advice?

2) A lot of sediment from higher up on the property has collected in the swale. I feel like i should dig this sediment out of the swale so it can return to it's original depth. Is that the right move? Any recommendations on what to do with this heavy clay sediment?

Picture 1: Swale doing it's job
Picture 2: Showing water leaching downslope of the swale through a gopher hole. Currently diverting it away from the bare root tree we recently planted.

Sharing a quick update on this project.

1) I dug the connection between the swale and the drainage ditch. The plan is to redirect a portion of the water from the drainage ditch into the swale, and then once at capacity, block it off with a rock. This connector is kind of deep and narrow.
2) I followed some advice and continued to broadfork the clay soil at the bottom and then added some organic matter so it can start breaking down. To start, it's all straw at the bottom.

It's supposed to rain in Northern California hopefully next week, so I'm excited to observe:

1) Will water collect along the length of the swale ; it was dug on contour so i hope so.
2) Where will the failure point be? I haven't planned for this in advance, but will closely monitor it and then build a bit of a sill out of stones where it's flowing over.

If all goes well, i'll then dig another swale on contour below to capture more run-off and hopefully sink more water.

Also, not sure if we jumped the gun here, but we planted four bare-root trees at the bottom of the berm. Figured it was worth a shot!

Thank you all so much for the feedback and moral support

I've heeded some initial advice and made the swale wider and the slopes more gentle.

However, the next morning, one problem I'm already seeing is that the swale is naturally filling with water, either from gopher holes or is maybe percolating up? I don't know how deep our water table is, but our well goes down 300 ft so I don't think that's the problem. Also, the water that is pooling in the swale looks almost rusted.

I've attached a few more images of the project
1) Shows a better perspective of the drainage ditch and length of land I'll need to dig out to connect it to the swale (to start diverting some of the water)
2) A wider swale with slopier slides
3) A rusted spot on the side where I think water is coming out of? It all came overnight, and you can't easily visualize where the water is coming from.


A few other notes based on other comments:
1) Despite the trees, this is west facing and it will get ample sun in the summer/fall months.
2) I have a broad fork and use this to make the bottom of the swale more porous  and look for a different soil structure below this clay.

My next steps:
1) Need to ensure the berm is level and that the bottom of the swale is mostly level if not slightly angled so that the water carries to the furthest end.
2) Make the berm a bit more rounded so that it's easier to plant into .
3) Add a ton of organic matter into the base of the swale to start encouraging a transition away from the clay - perhaps Daikons!

Thanks again for all of your time and feedback!

Hi All - long time observer, first time poster.

I'm hoping to create a series of swales on my property (West Sonoma County, California) that tie into a large drainage ditch. The goal is to divert a portion of the water from the drainage ditch into a first swale, that will then overflow into a second, and then overflow into a third, before routing back into the drainage ditch and off our property.

With these swales, we plan on planting a series of fruit trees and native plants.

When I dug the first swale, they immediately started to fill with water from various gopher holes. It's now been dry for days and the water isn't draining. Any advice on how to encourage faster drainage in our clay soil? Add organic matter to the bottom of the swale? Any particular kind of organic matter?

I've added two photos to show the swale which was dug on contour with the help of an A-frame level ; and the second photo shows the drainage ditch that the swale will tie to.

Thanks in advance for any feedback/advice!