In hilly country such as ours, water tends to concentrate in the valleys. This causes erosion in the valleys and means the hills dry out very quickly. In an attempt to get around the law of gravity, we tried building a swale. The idea is to dig a small bank, perfectly level, from the low, wet area in the valley, along the hills to either side, to allow water to move “up hill”.
We only dug through the topsoil, as we don’t want to disturb the ground too much and we want the water to soak into the soil, not run along the swale. After rain, the water running down the valley should work it’s way along the swale, filling the soil as it goes and wetting the higher areas.
Our first attempt seems to be working very well, the water made it all the way around both hills and the ground below the bank seems to be filling with water. We’ve had so much rain, that it’s hard to judge the results, but as things dry out, as they always do, we hope to see the moisture on the higher areas hang around for longer.