Thursday, September 25, 2014

Back to Gardening

The gardens took a hit this year with the sickness and eventual passing of Lyn's Dad. He was a great man, great father, husband and a good friend to me. He liked to build things and fix things and was always interested in what I was doing. I couldn't have wanted for a better father in law.

After the entire redo of the back yard, including the deepening of dirt, held into the beds by more and larger rocks, the run off problems we have always had was lessened considerably. Much of the running water was now directed into the beds where it could soak into them.

There was one place that kept washing out though. We keep two syrup tubs under the gutters that don't drain to the rain water collection, to catch that water. When they would over flow, the course they would take would wash with every rain. Lyn and I looked it over for months until we could both agree on a plan. It would include building more steps that would block the present run off direction and making a dry weather creek bed for the rain water to run off in a new direction to a rock walk way. That rock walk way went to the back gate and the water could get all the way out of the yard with out hurting any thing. Bold plan but a lot of work.

The tubs catch water from a very small part of the roof but it is still a lot of water. When the tubs run over, they now run down the creek. We've just recently had enough rain to see it all work and it worked great.


 The rock steps in the left of the photo was the route the water used to take. The steps and the built up ground now block the water and it runs onto the rock walk way that we built years ago.
 Once on the walk way, the water runs down the low steps in that walk way to the gate. There is a walkway under that rock rose I promise. I guess I better prune that.
 

13 comments:

TexasDeb said...

Very sorry to read of your father-in-law's passing. It is always hard to lose a family member but he sounds like he was a great friend as well.

Your waterway looks like a lot of work but is an attractive and ingenious solution to a persistent problem. We've done drain and swale work here, but we really ought to consider adding dirt to the bedding areas out front where there is a thin layer of soil over bedrock.

Bob, did you transplant and/or lift your existing plants as you raised the soil level? I don't know that I'd know how to do that!

katina said...

Very nice dry bed; glad to see that it's working for you.

Rock rose said...

It was good to see you yesterday Bob, and to hear about your plans for more rock work! I love rocks too but you know who is not wanting to be moving anymore. Wet weather creeks are a must for the Texas landscape as that rain comes down so quickly there has to be a way to move it on to a safe place. I envy your water collection system. They must be full after all that rain we had recently.

Thesis said...

interesting pictures.

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