I am not a big fan of the iris flower but I have found that they are planted EVERYWHERE around where we live. And I have found the reason is due to the water runoff and they are used to help control that. This is a picture of the land right behind our house.
Here is the elevation of the back of our yard to show how much water runs down.
So because our backyard seems to always have water, a lot of just seepage we decided to make a ditch and put in like french drains. We (we being Scott doing the work and me being the supervisor!) planned to make an area in the back where we can put bricks and make a pretty terrace and reroute the water flow. I can not tell you how lucky I am to have a husband that will do any and everything. He is the most talented man I have ever met. Even though he makes me madder than a wet hen at times, and his talking can drive me crazy (do I hear an Amen from someone?) he is the best man to help everyone. so we are making the backyard more enjoyable and usable for family outings.
Here is another shot of the iris' that just grow everywhere.
And a yellow batch of them as well.
Of course you need heavy duty equipment to do all your hard labor. He has unloaded about 2 tons of gravel by hand using this lawn tractor and loading the rocks in the trashcans so he can direct where they go much easier. Pretty smart, so you don't have to shovel it more than once, or twice or so.
He buried several feet of this black flexible tubing with slits in it so the water will seep out into the ditch that has gravel all in it, plus flow on out to our drainage ditches.
So he dug the ditch by hand, and unloaded the gravel by hand and then buried it all.....by hand.
This drainage ditch he filled in with gravel about two feet deep. We were losing soil like crazy. But remember we also got six inches of rain in two days, three days apart. So the erosion was horrible. We are hoping the river rock will fix the run off problem and look more natural.
Here is the drainage ditch in the front yard that I use as my little "creek" when we have rain. The plan is to make it a constant flowing creek by making a fish pond and using a pump system to run the water back up stream etc. I will let you now when we start that project and how it turns out. With his brains, and his brawn's, and my eye for detail, plus my creativeness we make a really good team. (well at least I think so.)
Scott tilled the dirt to lay back over the piping. Problem is we are getting ready for a huge storm and if it rains hard, we will lose a lot of this dirt. We need to get grass growing over it soon as possible, but I can't do that over night, I am not THAT GOOD.
Here is the ditch with the gravel over the pipe waiting to be buried with dirt. He banked the dirt to reroute the water flow and I am hoping tonight we will give it a test run. I will let you know how it does, if it works or not. We just have to pray it is not a gully washer that comes through. Plus there are tons of tornadoes right now. People from all over the country (and world) come here to chase them. They pay good money to come see them. Good grief! Watch out Arkansas and Missouri, you're next!
So because our backyard seems to always have water, a lot of just seepage we decided to make a ditch and put in like french drains. We (we being Scott doing the work and me being the supervisor!) planned to make an area in the back where we can put bricks and make a pretty terrace and reroute the water flow. I can not tell you how lucky I am to have a husband that will do any and everything. He is the most talented man I have ever met. Even though he makes me madder than a wet hen at times, and his talking can drive me crazy (do I hear an Amen from someone?) he is the best man to help everyone. so we are making the backyard more enjoyable and usable for family outings. 
Here is another shot of the iris' that just grow everywhere.
And a yellow batch of them as well.
Of course you need heavy duty equipment to do all your hard labor. He has unloaded about 2 tons of gravel by hand using this lawn tractor and loading the rocks in the trashcans so he can direct where they go much easier. Pretty smart, so you don't have to shovel it more than once, or twice or so.
So he dug the ditch by hand, and unloaded the gravel by hand and then buried it all.....by hand.
This drainage ditch he filled in with gravel about two feet deep. We were losing soil like crazy. But remember we also got six inches of rain in two days, three days apart. So the erosion was horrible. We are hoping the river rock will fix the run off problem and look more natural.
Here is the drainage ditch in the front yard that I use as my little "creek" when we have rain. The plan is to make it a constant flowing creek by making a fish pond and using a pump system to run the water back up stream etc. I will let you now when we start that project and how it turns out. With his brains, and his brawn's, and my eye for detail, plus my creativeness we make a really good team. (well at least I think so.)
Scott tilled the dirt to lay back over the piping. Problem is we are getting ready for a huge storm and if it rains hard, we will lose a lot of this dirt. We need to get grass growing over it soon as possible, but I can't do that over night, I am not THAT GOOD.
3 comments:
That looks like a lot of work. I thought we have had a lot of rain lately but not even close to 6 inches - wow!
I hope it does the trick.
What a lot of hard work. I hope it all works just like you want it to.
It's cloudy here and when I look at the radar, I think we'll get some storms around lunch or just before.
I sometimes wish those storm chasers would chase them away from here.
Have you checked out Chicken's in the Road's blog? She's a romance author who has moved her family from the burbs to the country and is raising chickens. I don't read her genre of books, but I like her blog. Thought you might too.
Can I hire your hubby to work on my creek mess? He looks like a very hard worker and one that finishes one project before starting another. I wish I was that way!
Looks great and I know how much work it is....hope it does the trick!!
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