I keep telling myself I am not going to post a blog every single day, but it seems there is always something new to write about! So I hope you find them interesting!
It has been a rainy day to say the least! The front 3/4 of my yard is probably loving it, while the back 1/4 is a mess. Flowing from one end to the other!
It starts here, where the previous owners tried to build some sort of make shift dam! Uhg! It is a mess! It is actually poured in concrete about a foot deep.
Flows down the back of the yard!
Into the neighbors yard!
A view from the upper window.
Now, the neighbors yards are pretty pooled with water too, but not like ours. They have grass or weeds and smooth pools. We on the other hand have a white water river. It flows fast and hard around all those rocks they put in and erodes everything. Under the rocks are two solid (not perforated) parallel drain pipes running the length of the yard.
We have all kinds of ideas about how to fix the problem. One I like is Dave's idea for a rain garden on his blog, The Home Garden: Gardening in the Home Landscape. I am wondering if we could do something similar between the fence and the shed. It is gonna take a lot of work though.
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We have been working on trying to clean this up for two years now. When we started, that whole area from the rocks back was covered in ivy. It was full of bugs that ate you alive and junk. You wouldn't believe the stuff we found buried in there. 5 full unopened bags of topsoil. Some pretty edging bricks, plastic edging and fencing. Lots of broken yard ornaments, and toys. Landscaping wood. None of this you could see until we killed it all and mowed it all down. Boy did the lawn mower like that. We totally needed a new blade after whacking all those metal ornaments we couldn't see. We had no idea what we were getting into when we moved in.
**Before pic of one corner. Doesn't look too bad till you are standing in the middle of it. It is deep.
**Before pic of one corner. Doesn't look too bad till you are standing in the middle of it. It is deep.
We tried to save some of the plants that were buried out there that were worth save. This is where some of the hostas came from that we moved to the front and sides.
This is a major project with lots of ideas for impovement. Right now I am just waiting on freecyclers to come pick up all this rock! They never take it all, it is just too much. I have six ppl scheduled to come tonight. Maybe between them all it will mostly be gone!
I'll keep this project updated.
Whew - what a mess! I hope you can install a rain garden, after all the work, they're really quite lovely. (My neighbor has one) Also hope no one floats away in the meantime. (Oh Noze!) Have you thought too about a deep "dry" riverbed that would actually be able to contain your micro-floods when they happen?
ReplyDeleteI think that the kind of dry creek bed was what the previous owners was trying to do...maybe. But we really want it to be more kid friendly since we have little ones running around back there. More space for them to play and not get hurt on rocks or ditches. :)
ReplyDeleteHi, I 'm new here and if I may comment I'll say that you are realy progressing there, it is beatiful your garden , allso your plants, I hope you do not mind I'll stop by sometimes... and please excuse my bad english, I'm not so handi on it at all!
ReplyDeletetreangelsmother-absolutely! I love to share my garden!
ReplyDeletethank you for sharing it, and if you want to see more of my garden you can also vizit this blog( this is my first one): http://picurideroua.wordpress.com/ and I'll try to make possible the translation bar, for you to understand what I'm writeing there, I hope that will be soon availeble , and now I'm sorry for the inconvinience, you can just look at the pictures. Thank you again, and see you soon!
ReplyDelete