Adventures in Soil Erosion Management

Or OH, CRAP!  I JUST CUT THE PHONE, TV & INTERNET CABLE.


Yep, we did.   We cut the cable.  But, it got fixed & all was once well in the world of interweb & boob-tube entertainment.  Another thing we accomplished was planting around the giant Maple in the front yard to deter more soil erosion.  Blah, blah, blah.  We planted a bunch of stuff, ok!?


Over the past 5 years we have experienced some soil erosion during storms as well as the floods of 2009 or Floodmageddon 09.  Our gently sloping yard becomes a cascading waterfall, beautiful, but destructive.  Not only did the water take a lot of soil & grass with it, it also flowed into the front flower beds.  Most of the flowers & soil from the beds ended up at the bottom of the driveway.  Not cool!  

Before 

(water would cascade from the top left area where the lovely transformer & phone tower are located, around the tree, in front of the steps, down the walkway & thru the front flower bed)

During

(14 low/ground cover Junipers & 40+ plugs of Monkey Grass/Lily Turf. Only half of the mulch is down & there are more plantings to the left of the Maple tree, but you can see it taking shape)

Also, the corner of the yard by the walkway had dried up from the drought.  Weeds & ants abound.  I decided to dig it up & make a planting area for sun loving plants.

 Loropetalum, Wax Begonias & Lily Turf

I am still in the process of figuring out the best way to "edge" the corner garden.  I really hate landscaping bricks, like the ones here, so I came up with something for the edges that touch the concrete of the walkway & driveway.  What do you think?  

The best part about this solution to edging, it was FREE!  I collected sticks from all around the yard, cut them down to 6-7 inches with a jig saw, then using a rubber mallet, hammered them in one-by-one.  

Time consuming? 

Yes indeed.  

Do I love it? 

Absolutely. 

Why?  

One reason is because when looking at the yard from the street, these sticks disappear into the mulch & do not distract from the plants.  The other, it is not bulky like the ugly landscaping bricks.  I gotta pat myself on the back with this one! I plan on taking the landscaping bricks which flank the walkway out & hammering in a few hundred sticks.

Oh, and did I mention IT WAS FREE!