A couple of weeks ago, after a dramatic 24 hours of thunderstorms and torrential downpours, I stepped out onto our back patio and glanced down at what had been an empty 5-gallon bucket that I use to collect weeds. It contained a little over NINE inches of rainwater. NINE INCHES IN ONE DAY!!  If we had received that amount of rain a couple of years ago, we would have had ankle deep water in the crawl space under our house. But the previous night our automatic sump pump didn’t even click on. What happened to the water? Richie Mitchell and Bear Creek Organics found a way to manage it through a system of food-producing gardens, ponds and swales.  

My husband and I live on an acre of land in the Poconos that backs up to a large tract of undeveloped scrub oak. The yard slopes gently downhill from north to south toward the house and then from there to the street. We’ve always had trouble managing the access water coming toward the house. Water not only accumulated in our crawl space but under our front porch where in the winter it would freeze, undermining the foundation of our house. The access water also made it hard for us to garden. What little lawn we tried to grow had boggy bits and bald spots. That is not what we wanted. 

We wanted a dry house and we wanted gardens that flourished during wet years or dry. So Richie went to work. He analyzed the lay of our land and then created a system of water management that transformed our property into a little bit of paradise. He created two small ponds and a connecting stream with an overflow ephemeral stream and pools that help distribute the water and slow it down to give the land time to absorb the water. He created a swale that stops the water flowing towards the house and collects it to feed the strawberries, blueberries and pollinator attractors that cover the berm. Then access water goes to the pond. I love the swale so much that we are planning a second one where I can grow perennial vegetables like asparagus, horseradish, Good King Henry and mushrooms.

This landscaping project has been a big job but it has been an investment that is already beginning to pay off with a dry house and bountiful gardens.

Has this wet, wet summer opened your eyes to water problems on your land? Maybe it’s the wake-up call you need. Contact Richard Mitchell at BearCreekOrganics.com for water management and food production strategies on your land. 

www.bearcreekorganics.com 

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