Catching, Slowing, and Spreading Water: Creating a Bio-Swale

In my previous YouTube video, I created a level and marked my swales on contour. Today I finally just went for it and dug out the swale ditch, piling the dirt on the downhill side as a berm. In the video I said I dug to a depth of 6-8” since livestock graze the area. I actually ended up doing about 10” deep and plan to keep the stakes and poles in the ground for now, for the safety of the animals. After 24 hours the swale filled and the downhill side was drying up! After the first rainfall the water was successfully collected, spread and waiting for slow absorption.