Our property is in a natural floodplain. Apart from the front of our property, which slopes down from the road - a drop of about 5 metres - the rest of our property is about 14.5 acres. Not such a big property, in farming terms - but this is our piece of paradise. It was formerly a cattle property, and we are now building our new home on this property. We have a Water Authority easement about 50 metres in from the front of the property and have a lot of drain off from the properties behind us - so we have had a lot of flooding - which I am ok with - seeing this is after all a floodplain. I would love to hold on to some of this water - we have a dam at the front of our property - at least 3 metres in depth, which we fill up during this rainy time from run off as well as draining off the easement.
Any ideas on how to do better with this available water and how to vegetate this property to sustain it - would be greatly appreciated.
I would love to make a small stream across the back of the property. Not sure if this would be possible?
Floodplain
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Sounds like an interesting property pjac, can't offer any advice sorry, I have no experience at all with the sort of property you have described.
As your property is part of a flood plain am I correct in assuming that it is very flat, or is it eroded and gullied by the moving water?
If the water is moving and eroding it would be very hard to manage and control I would think but on the other hand if it is still and sitting water that gradually subsides you could have some success with contour banks.
These are basically a channel cut into the ground following the contour of the land i.e., not down the gradient but along it, so that water that enters the channel doesn't continue to fall but sits in the channel on that level.
Generally the earth that is excavated is piled on the downside of the channel to help stop the water from flowing past the channel.
Obviously one end of the channel would have to be slightly lower to act as a spill way although often it can lead into a dam, to act as a sink.
The dam itself would then have its own spillway to allow excess water to pass on by without destroying the earthworks.
These sorts of measures can be cheap to construct using a normal road grader to cut a channel.
Make sure you get advice from an experienced land care officer in your area to help in surveying the contours, it's something you have to get exactly right or it won’t work and the water will make a mess of your hard work.
Alternatively an excavator can be used or even a bulldozer depending on the scale and the volumes of water you are going to be dealing with.
The contour banks slow the water down and can store huge amounts of water which would have otherwise rushed away.
The stored water can then permeate the area allowing you to grow more vegetation.
Planting trees on the down slope side of the banks is a nice way of using the stored water and looks really nice and healthy too.
If you have stock you will have to protect the trees from them unfortunately or they will only look good until the next mouthful......
Good luck, make sure you tell us all what you decide to do and how it all works or fail.
Some photos would be great.
As your property is part of a flood plain am I correct in assuming that it is very flat, or is it eroded and gullied by the moving water?
If the water is moving and eroding it would be very hard to manage and control I would think but on the other hand if it is still and sitting water that gradually subsides you could have some success with contour banks.
These are basically a channel cut into the ground following the contour of the land i.e., not down the gradient but along it, so that water that enters the channel doesn't continue to fall but sits in the channel on that level.
Generally the earth that is excavated is piled on the downside of the channel to help stop the water from flowing past the channel.
Obviously one end of the channel would have to be slightly lower to act as a spill way although often it can lead into a dam, to act as a sink.
The dam itself would then have its own spillway to allow excess water to pass on by without destroying the earthworks.
These sorts of measures can be cheap to construct using a normal road grader to cut a channel.
Make sure you get advice from an experienced land care officer in your area to help in surveying the contours, it's something you have to get exactly right or it won’t work and the water will make a mess of your hard work.
Alternatively an excavator can be used or even a bulldozer depending on the scale and the volumes of water you are going to be dealing with.
The contour banks slow the water down and can store huge amounts of water which would have otherwise rushed away.
The stored water can then permeate the area allowing you to grow more vegetation.
Planting trees on the down slope side of the banks is a nice way of using the stored water and looks really nice and healthy too.
If you have stock you will have to protect the trees from them unfortunately or they will only look good until the next mouthful......
Good luck, make sure you tell us all what you decide to do and how it all works or fail.
Some photos would be great.