Bad storm - tested our erosion control

It was a relative success, but the small terraces I built were not adequate.

Early last week we had tornado sirens, high winds and 5 inches of rain - all in a few hours! Jeremy and I watched literal waterfalls pour over the retaining wall near the front porch. And the "dry" creek bed was a fast-running, full creek.

All of that water ran right into the rain garden in the front yard. I had recognized a need to shore up the edge of the rain garden and had purchased and placed new rock on the lower perimeter. This excessive amount of water exposed the low spots in my effort. In two spots there were rivers of water cutting through to run down the hill.

I had also created a terrace below the blueberry bushes with the new rock. This torrent of rain succeeded in tumbling one of the rocks down the hill. And I felt lucky that none of the actual bushes were washed out.

Below the blueberry hedge the water washed dirt all the way across our gravel drive.

The force of the water was amazing to watch and the damage to the gravel road that we live on was significant. There were several deep gullies cut along and into the edges of the road, including this wash out in front of our South entrance.

The good news is that this gully exposed a couple of nice compass plants! They have a tremendous taproot. So this made digging them out of the gravel pretty easy. Now these plants, rather than being destroyed by the truck that came to grade the road, are struggling to adapt to their new home in our garden :-)

We had more rain through the week. So, after purchasing more rocks, I made some emergency repairs to the rain garden edge, the blueberry bush terrace, and one area on the East part of the driveway. But it was too wet to get a gravel truck onto our property.

Next week - more gravel and Dingo work! And, this time, I will focus on repairing the washed areas of the driveway and the dirt that's washed away from the barn.

This storm was a good test of our swales and terraces. It was an extreme amount of water and, although we had some washout, the damage was relatively minor.

I'm beginning to think a gravel quarry might be a good investment :-P