Operating the excavator was easier and harder than I anticipated. Easier in the sense that working the controls was not as hard as I thought it would be. Harder in the sense that I found it somewhat difficult to make each cut at a consistent depth and angle. A more experienced operator probably would not have had this issue, and I did get better at it as I went along.
Since my property is relatively flat, I made the swales pretty shallow, probably about 18 inches deep and around 3-4 feet wide. Remember that this pasture used to have pines planted in it, so I had to make some adjustments due to the stumps. Oh, the stumps! They slowed me down considerably!
I started on Friday afternoon and was pretty much finished with the rough cuts by Saturday afternoon. And I do mean rough:
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| initial swale cut |
I never said my swales were pretty, lol. I spent the next four days leveling and smoothing the bottom of the swales. Does this seem excesssive? It does to me. Having never done this before, I don't know if that's normal, or if I'm just incompetent. Hahaha. So this is what the resulting swales look like:
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| Finished swale |
Much better, right? Now I am dying to see them in action!! Unfortunately, I will probably have to wait until next summer before we get enough rain to fill them. Stay tuned!
Excellent! I have a small house in Volusia County and am looking to do a small swale in my yard. We are on septic so I am limited on the space right in front of my yard but on the other side I am planning on doing one. Would love to know your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteUpdate on my swales: In 3 years, I have never seen them fill with water even once. Hard rain has pushed a lot of debris and organic matter into the swales, but the soil here is so sandy that the water filters right through. That includes the massive amount of rain that we received from last year's hurricane. I also made a mistake in not running an irrigation system along the berms when I planted my fruit trees. I tried watering by moving a sprinkler around, but it was not enough for the trees to establish and they all died. I have currently put this project on hold until I can put in a better system for watering the young trees, and figure out a way to keep my sheep out. Don't take this as a discouragement for your project thought! I say go for it! Learn from my mistakes!
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