Mosquitoes... Thought I'd address it in one comment here. It's always coming up on videos I do about waterways and ponds, etc. When you have a pond, you invite frogs, and other water loving beings. They eat mosquito larvae. Ponds help reduce mosquito populations, I've found, rather than increase them. Just my personal experience, but after 8 years of working with these systems I find very little mosquito pressure happening...

You won me over completely when you said you didn't want to use a liner 💖

I love that you sharpen your shovel not a lot of people do that but it makes all the difference in the world

VERY useful!! 99% of the pond videos are about digging a hole. This shows how to work with the land, using the soil removed, integrating water into a great agricultural system. JUST what I needed!

Love the appreciation for a slow build and taking time to understand the water flow and levels. So many people want something done and 'finished' in a short time frame, there can be so much value in slowing things down.

I admire your ambition. Over a period of 35 years I have turned an old worn out 1880 farm into a nature paradise with forest and three ponds. I save my shoveling mostly for tree planting. Some many years ago I acquired an old D4 bulldozer that I patched back together. Yes a wheel barrel and a shovel and an ambitious man can do a lot but I highly recommend mechanical help if you can. I am in Michigan. If you were closer I would push some holes for you on an exchange basis. My biggest pond is about one and a half acres and is over twenty feet deep in part but I had professional help to root that out. I hope I can construct a few more ponds before I get to old to care about it and I'm already 73 yrs.

Wow, how did I miss this? I've been hand digging a pond as my therapy for healing my hip replacement. It keeps getting bigger and bigger and I love it. Excited to watch the video.

I'm so glad I found your channel!! I discovered a lake uphill on my land, next to an old well of my 1755 farmhouse. I'm so excited to make good compost and create a sustainable systems on the farm.

Nice shovel it looks like a ground breaking invention

I am so glad you did this video to explain the reasons behind not moving water from point A to point B as if it were a nuisance. It is a banked (pardon the pun) resource, maintaining what you receive with future needs in a balanced account. I can only assume your spring and summer watering is reduced dramatically by the use of this retention of resources. I can only imagine how happy and prolific your elderberries will be. Cheers to you!

Probably the best video I've found on creating hand dug ponds. I've been observing the water on our property for a while and now I'm ready to start digging - small and slow like you suggest. I love the videos you create - keep on doing it, you are sharing some very important information.

You are an artist and your use of language is rare. New sub here. That's a ton more work than using equipment like I have, but I think your method is much better. Far less damage to the area around your digging and all that goes with it. Excellent!

Thanks for sharing. Good to know that there are others out there alone with but shovels to lean upon and observe.

One of the things I look forward to most in the week is watching your videos. You channel is currently my favorite KZfaq channel.

Yes I very much enjoy playing around with these concepts! I love your respect for the land, and your approach to moving the water around - it is what I want to do with my own land.

This is fantastic! Congratulations on slowly developing such a fantastic landscape and skill level at reading and modifying landscapes and waterflows. My chickens just uncovered a spring I couldn't locate, so I think it's time for me to get out there and start playing with that waterflow.

Fascinating.. I'm reclaiming a duck pond, hand dug outta my marsh on my property for also, a reflection pond area to sit & enjoy the shimmer of the pond

Love this long term planning!!💝

I also love how the ponds help to keep the land cool

Awesome information here. Really great to see what you've done by hand. I will hopefully be making a small pond for our own garden next year so I'll be watching all your related videos when I can. Thanks!

Not sure if your aware but most kitty litter is bentonite clay and I've found it to be a cheap way to seal small pond bottoms or dams, it works really well if you mix it with some clay soil and spread it after you take the loamy stuff out. Great channel.

I am doing this on my flood plain. My high ground doesn't hold water so it percolates down to the flood plain clay. Previous residents on the farm tried to dig north south ditches to drain low spots which did not work. As I have been doing my permaculture observations and raking the muck to the edges of the ponds I discovered there was a natural zigzag to the south west and back to the southeast corner. So now I have only a few sections of ditches to connect culverts for my field paths where I can drive in the summer. The soil only freezes down about 3 inches here about three times a year but it is cool to see a mole hill setting on top of a 6 inch high column of ice. Instead of beavers I have moles for irrigation engineers, They work their way to the pond as the water level drops during our 3 month dry period theu the water flows back and deeply hydrates the field during the winter.

thanks for all the info. we have a kind of boggy property and have started to dig a pond at the higher end just like you did, planning to connect it to small waterways further down. we just moved here a year ago, so we are only at the beginning of our adventure. i find your videos to be very inspirational!

New subscriber. My wife and I love your channel. This video is really great. Thank you for the information and inspiration.

thanks, nice to see it all, cant wait to have some property to develop for those decades you talk about

Loved it....you have great articulation! And I thought I was crazy! I bought this property with three ditches turning into rivers every rain event....one ditch up front I hand dug and dammed to make a big curving pond which is ever fascinating....I'm going to enlarge it....enormous labor but I enjoy it...sometimes after major storm the entire d breast becomes a waterfall....and with grass it usually holds....I'll probably dam the other dutches for more ponds! Digging deeper and bigger scenic holes which fill with rainwater is great fun....and good exercise!

I love your gentle approach to everything you are doing...such understanding and respect...I love your channel...thank you...greetings from Australia

Cool results. I'm glad that worked for you back yard. I'd have a hard time in my back yard. Super rocky.

Love your videos, thank you for doing them! Will be cool to see you jump into your hand dug pond. 😎👍

I have been researching ponds for a long time. I had an acre pond at my last house and since I have moved, I long for another but I don't like the look of the way pond builders make theirs. (Rocks everywhere.) I grew up in Syracuse, NY, went to college in Rochester and lived, played and worked in the finger lakes for over a decade! Horseheads, Corning, Elmira, Ithaca, Watkins Glen! So cool that I can find hope from this video and it's from a kindred NY soul.

A swale is a pond dug into a slope of a hill by digging out the high soil and placing it lower on the hill to format the swale pond. There are often trenches dug around the slope to dirrect water into the swale. Just some stuff I learnded in the skuells

Just what i was looking for! The way you read the land is so inspiring. Just started hand digging today! Glad for this perspective

I've been doing this same thing except with one pond that I've hand dug over the past number of years (which continues to evolve). You describe my experience perfectly: the water has a dialogue with the digger and reveals its nature through the iterative digging. Observation and patience are as important as the labor. Thanks for your video.

Beautiful knowledge indeed thanks for sharing your journey . We got a over flow lot in Florida and we want to work with it to make it a place where we can develop a permaculture sistem to help nature be nature and man be man ! Thanks so much . I will continuing watching your other videos to enrich my self , I’m here taking notes . Appreciate it very much keep sharing valuable knowledge and love .

I love this. I've done a fair bit of hand- digging swales and ponds myself. I'm on steep rocky slope, so it's hard digging and doesn't seal very well but nevertheless I'm keeping the water table happy. Hoping the winter creek will flow longer each year as I slow water down

this is very helpful, thank you! I appreciate the low-tech, high-attention approach.

your property is truly a model on which we can all benefit. Have a marvellous day

I have been in the process of draining a unused wet area for 8 years now using a tool called a mattock. A mattock is like a hoe shaped instrument on the front used for pulling towards you or for digging directly below to the depth of the 4 foot handle. On top of the hoe part in the opposite direction is a axe like bit of steel sharpened in such away that can be used to cut unwanted roots or wood found in your trench that you are digging or to help break or pull rocks, the total weight of the mattock depending on the user can be 8kg for the ladies version up to 15 kgs with a added metal handle as mine has. My trenches first started out like yours using gravity to help drain the area and to help shrink the soils the more water that was extracted. Today I now have a trench from the source running right along the highest point of the high ground angling down to the lowest point and exit out into the main creek. Leading away at right angles or which ever the lowest point runs but not attached to the main creek I have what I call intermediet trenches, these take care of the wet areas draining from the centre outwards. Some parts of the detch is deeper than others this allows me to dam that part of the drain up in summer which after 24 hours fresh water flows out onto my dryer areas where my melons or other produce are growing to self water the beds before releasing all back down that same drain, this is done every other week it saves time and let's me do other things while nature looks after my food crops. I like your ideas with the self dug ponds, but will still carry on using my detches which in a way still works about the same.

According to Geoff Lawton duck poop is a great pond sealer although someone else said that not all duck poop is created equal.

I realize this is a 2yo video but it is currently very relevant (and super helpful) to us! Thanks for taking the time to share your property and wisdom. We are currently figuring how to best manage the very wet/soggy ground in our new property and digging small ponds and new water pathways seems to be a very sensible way to go. In your experience, how deep did you need to dig the pathways before you saw meaningful results on the surrounding surface? And do you have any general sense of quickly you saw the impacts of those new pathways? I’ve dug a bit already where I felt the land really needed it but I’m hesitant to do too much before I see the results of my current test. I’m just trying to figure out if it needs a week, a season or a year (or longer) to show how the new pathway will change the saturation of the surrounding area.

First time viewing your videos, I loved it, thanks. Subscribed.

Thanks for the great video.

This video is great thank you for explaining how you do it. I am glad to hear you just used a shovel. When I watch the people with A-Frames and Levels and drawing contour maps it starts to get confusing. I can handle a shovel sharpened with a file and digging high on the landscape.

I'm inspired to try this.

Fantastic! I will utilise these ideas. This is of great value to learn from. Shared :) Blessings :)

Thank you for this video. What you refer to as Hugel mounds i think need to be called Holzer mounds as Holzer was the one who advocated the method. Hugelkultur is about digging pits and loading them while the Holder method is about creating mounds. Please do check. I'm so happy to know you're not using plastic. I've resisted it myself. Thanks again and all the best to you!

This has been a favorite channel of mine for years, I love going back through old videos. What books did you read for working with water?

Very smart approach.

Interesting strategy. Things seem to be working well.

Very interesting video. Thank you.

Really enjoyed this prog.

He knows and explains well.

Your channel is very interesting. Keep up the good work.

this man is so wholesome

I have been devising my own clay bed matting. It’s made of sheep fleece it is woven into 1 inch matting and Inc with clay. The idea would be you dig your pond out lay the matting over the pond Ever water or wait for it to rain it will then set. Completely organic but the pricing at the moment is very expensive. It would work out cheaper for me to make it if I was to use synthetic nylon but I do not want to do that because that is too much of a compromise. It’s going to be difficult to market due to the cost it’s around £140 a square metre To manufacture at the moment Plus I would have to make at least 40% profit so would not be accessible at the moment to the average user. Thanks nice video.

Loved this thanks

Lovely ideas!

This is a very interesting video about pond building. Could you address a flat acreage and how you might approach a flatish property?

Thanks for this vid. Very interesting.

Liked and subscribed! One question for discussion pertains to my property. My one acre lot is in a creek bottom. A creek runs a couple of hundred feet from the lot but not through it. The soil is very good and drains surprisingly well unless heavily compacted. The property just north of mine has a pond on it (1/4 to1/3 acre) which is almost always dry. Enough background. My question is: What techniques can I use to slow the absorption of my soil? I would like to have ponds and "swales" but worry that with such good percolation to the soil the effort might be wasted.

Hey there, Cardwell farm here. I very much enjoyed this video. Thank you for sharing it with the world. This could help all kinds of people including people in desserts. They could use this method to improve their lands and possibly recreate their ecosystem. I in Texas would love to use this to improve our property for future generations.

This is great! I found clay at the bottom of a hole our dog dug and the customers at the local small-town market want bread... so I'm building a cob oven and I was beginning to wonder if I could combine that project with creating a pond on a low corner of our property. Looks like I can! You also challenged me to try again to think outside of my straight, tidy beds (4'x100+') and to think in terms of increasing the topographical diversity instead of decreasing it (i.e. making mounds and holes instead of leveling)... Although I need to keep some level-ish land bc. I'm not ready to give up my salatin-style broiler pens. I was thinking about moving the top soil and sand from the pond excavation 350' away, uphill to fill some depressions, but I should probably leave it close by, eh? and use the raised beds/huggels to plant stuff that would be good food for ducks and chickens? I'd like to hear more about how you envision the sunlight reflecting off of the water onto neighboring beds... Are these beds on the north side of the water, or does it work anywhere around the pond? Would this allow me to grow more in partial shade? what about tree roots when digging? I grew up in Ohio and now live in East Texas, so I feel like the sun is hunting me down to roast me alive on the unshaded parts of our property. I want to plant more shade trees on the east side of the house (west side is very nicely shaded), but I don't want to cut down on the space where I can grow useful stuff. Also... I'm a little concerned about the increased frog/toad population from a pond attracting snakes. I know they have a legitimate function in the eco system and all, but there are many poisonous ones here, and I have a daughter to protect...

Thank you.

Great video! - I suggest you put some thought into the quality of the audio. They make wind screens for microphones.

Looks fantastic 😊😊😊

Good stuff.

Thank you

You can also throw some clay in the water and throw in a few bubblers to mix it and keep it suspended for a while. Then remove the bubblers and let the clay settle out.

A LOT of labor. I’ve been digging and messing around with a spring in my yard for a few years and it’s fun but hard. The only problem I have is tons of silt accumulation on the bottom. I have a stream running into the pond, is there any way to prevent lots of silt? I also love the idea of growing a garden around it but there are so many animals around mine that would just eat it. Cool vid bro

Thank you for the video...how do you deal with the accumulating water while you're digging?

How much Betonite Clay is needed to seal a pond? Let's say a 10 x 10 pond. Is it like 20 lbs or 100 lbs or a 1000 lbs. I am wondering if it is a thin or thick layer. Or do you mix it and spread like a thin layer of cement? Thanks! LOVE every video you and your wife put out. So wise and peaceful.

THATS GREAT.i like to have a shovel blade ,very sharp on both ends of the handle…that way if i stumble or fall .the grand kids get to work for a change.it would do them good…god bless them!

Very cool

I have this amazing bubbling spring, something about working a shovel instead of hiring a backhoe js

you should try japanese millet or wild rice, or water chestnuts; especially in anything that gets stagnant. Lotus are cool too. I like that you have realistic time frames on hugels. People don't get that they take lots of time to develop properly.

Elegant!

I've some success with stopping leaks in my ponds by laying cardboard in the bottom and eadges of the ponds... Denis

Nice video I love this

You truly have a gift my friend. Thank you for sharing it with the world. How did you acquired all of this knowledge if you dont mind me asking?

You people are amzing

You mention potentially using pigs for sealing your ponds, have you considered ducks, instead? I've heard Geoff Lawton talk about that and I'm actually considering it myself. Great videos. Thanks.

Your knowledge is obviously vast. I am not trying to troll you, maybe if you tried to film on days it is less windy your videos would be of a much higher quality. There are multiple times in the video that the wind drowns out what you are saying, the loud bursts of wind are quite painful tbh. Thanx for the information regarding ponds.

I love you so much!

Have you thought about adding ducks? They trample their own poop at the waters edge, gleying it. The water comes up and they gley the edge some more. The water comes up even more... and so on. In that way, ducks actually seal and thereby create their own ponds!

I would like to ask you about two comments that you made in which you suggest ways of sealing ponds [1] was to run pigs in the pond and the other [2] was to use Bentenite clay. As I am about to start digging on my land and install a pond, could you point me in the direction of how to use pigs or benternite clay to seal a pond. GREAT content chow

If your pond is silted up, you can clean it with help. motor pumps for dirty water and the suction nozzle Bagermaster. You can remove bottom sediments and excess vegetation without chemicals

Found your video by searching hand dug. And yes, I wasn't searching for machine dug..lol

I can’t remember where I heard this, but just by having ducks. it will seal your pond. I think their manure will form a film that waterproofs your pond.

i have a small field that retains a lot of water and makes mowing hard throughout the year, any suggestions on how to go about it?

We don't have any kind of creek or springs on our property, do you reckon that if we dig a pond here it will fill up from the rain?

i practice in the wilderness and spread local perennial grasses and pioneer trees

I want to do this on my property as well. I don't want to use a liner either. I have sugar sand on my property, which really sucks.

I've seen sodium bentonite clay used on larger ponds. Do you think it would make a nice natural seal for smaller ponds?

Are ponds only successful in clay soil? I’d love a pond but I’m not sure my soil structure would hold onto water this way??

Me and you do thing's exactly the same. WOW.

can we get an update on these ponds? Also, do you ever plant celery around them? Thanks

I am physically unable to hand dig the ponds we need, but I am having one or two mechanically dug in the next few weeks. We are still working on locations for the ponds right now. At this late season, should I still plan to sow brassicas after the work is done?

Are you still planning to release fish into some of these ponds? Not sure how they will make it through the winter when the ponds freeze over

Could you please talk more about how the pond "seals"?

Is there any organic method to hold water in ponds?.... My ponds doesn't hold water during dry season