Elsa, Fabian and the ponds

Just before Christmas 2019, Storms Elsa and Fabian brought us more than 70 mm of water in a few days, which means millions of liters on the farm. A blessing after such a dry year. The frogs and toads were singing at dusk. And all our 14 Mediterranean temporary ponds but one were quickly filled to the brim. Some of them infiltrate better, rendering them especially useful for the surrounding trees's root system and the aquifer. Others hardly infiltrate because they are in a stone bed, which makes them very suitable for the reproduction of amphibians. With ponds scattered everywhere, the landscape feels very different from what we would expect from a dryland savannah. Impatient to discover the frogs and toads reproduction in spring. In the swales of the orchard, it is also super easy to plant bare roots trees and simply water them with the swale water.