Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Weather: Dog Days of Summer Part 2, 1 by Muddy1

Muddy1 wrote:
Sequoia, you must have a cold office because you weren't bundled up at the plant swap, at least not that I noticed.

SSG, my fish were fine; thanks for asking. The stream of water was flowing around it in the little channel I created. It helped that I had made the pond sides 3 inches higher and pounded in landscape edging around the danger zone, too.

Here's an ugly photo of my backyard in December so I can show where the swales should be.
You can kind of make out a swale where it flattens out towards the top of the hill. That swale's not too bad, and it helps direct water towards my new garden bed.

There's a new swale right along the patio that also works well, but I've been trying (not very successfully) to block most of the water that should flow into it.

There used to be a 3rd swale in the middle of the hill, but 44 years of erosion have eliminated it. I think I'll start by getting that one re-done so that my neighbor's rainwater gives a Japanese maple and holly in its path a good soak as it flows through.