FarmI wrote:
songbird wrote:
....
all very interesting. in other arid climates with
no severe drains/gullies you can line rocks across the
ground and they will act as a water catch when it
rains to slow down the water so that more soaks in.

Standard practice in permaculture and other forms of land management but
usually it's contour forming on farmland using a tractor/dozer and uses
earth. They're called swales.

ah, the usage i'm familiar with for those
is a sometimes marshy ground, not a particularly
made structure -- though i can see how the term
would be adapted/adopted for them too. the
made structures i would call dams.

here i call places seeps are catches where i
gather water from a harder rain. i wouldn't call
them swales because they are not marshy.


songbird