The heavens open

They're predicting 40-80mm of rain for us today, but I think we'll be lucky to see 40mm here. Not to worry however, as our various earthworks projects, around the place (mostly dug by hand) are busy capturing as much as possible.

Pond

The pond, connected to our upper swale is full, and could get even fuller. Which means it will lap up to the lemon grass, without falling over the edge. I'm glad I did all that work around the pond recently. Both our pear trees, sit either side of the pond and this rain event, should hopefully see them through until spring. Especially since they've been recently mulched.

 Driveway

The driveway, that would formerly run water, straight down to the house and erode, has now been dealt with by our new concrete pavers. They collect water in the cells and there's very little movement, even if the cells fill and spill over. I'm hoping the grass can eventually populate the whole driveway. That would make it absolutely rock solid and very difficult to erode.

Wet

Down in our lower gully, the dragon is awakening. David snapped this picture, just as the water was starting to tickle down the footpath. Perhaps you remember this footpath, from my recent posts about Natural fertility and Natural resilience? This is what it looks like in the dry...

Dry

The water moves slowly, and when the rain stops, it will sit here until the ground drinks it in. Which will cause the plants we recently cut back, to re-shoot again. Then we will cut them back to mulch, continuing the cycle for the next rain event. If this was all sand, like it was formerly, we'd have serious erosion problems. So would our downstream neighbours.

Water moves

This view shows the same footpath flowing with water (top) with the middle section of water, virtually still. The water runs on the higher ground (read Peter Andrews, Back from the Brink, and Beyond the Brink) because it has been blocked by us, higher up stream, causing the water to split. It runs on the higher ground, and barely dawdles on the lower.

This is how we are attempting to manage water flows in the lower gully, to prevent soil erosion, and maximise water retention.

Dragon detour

This is where all the action is happening. To the far left of the image, the water is entering our property. It hits the barriers we placed across the gully, using vegetation. This causes the water to back up, and split into different paths where it can get away.

Splitting the water, effectively means you're splitting the velocity it flows at. In this way, our dragon takes many detours to the higher ground, to the middle ground and down to the lower ground.

Overflowing

Of course, the land is happy to receive all this rain, but what it also means to us, is a full rainwater tank. Until rainwater becomes your only water supply, you'll never truly appreciate a full rainwater tank. This means we can shower, wash our clothes, cook and clean again. Its such a thrill to see it overflowing.

I write posts about rain events, as a record for when the rain is falling, how much and what its doing in the landscape. Back in May, this kind of rain was filling up my new swales, I'd dug, to capture run-off from our driveway.

May 2015

I was worried when we got to June this year, and hadn't had any serious rainfall. Without it, moisture doesn't get captured in the ground, for the dry weather before spring. So I am happy to see our swales filling, as they ought to be.

We're about one month later, than last year, so I wonder what next year will bring? As an extra note, its good to have as much mulch down as possible, before it arrives.