Improved terraces for the blueberries

Ok, so I know it's been quite a while since I wrote the post about the torrential rain. But shortly after the rainstorm just about washed away the blueberry bushes, I improved the terracing.

I've added rock to the original terrace and built a
second terrace above the plants to stop water washing onto the plants.

The new terrace is finished with mulch and gravel.

The second terrace is intended to allow water to seep, rather than flow. The line of gravel that you see in the lower photo will help the water flow across the upper terrace. That should help distribute the water more evenly to all six plants.

Yesterday, which is several weeks after those photos were taken, I decided to create a gravel lined drain. I noticed that dirt was still washing onto the mulch surrounding the two plants closest to the house. So I've dug a "ditch" to extend the gravel in front of those two plants. Then the ditch switches back to travel up the hill ending just below the lip of the rain garden.

We'll need to check things out tomorrow morning to see how well that new feature held up to the 2.5" of rain we got today. Of course, it's not very pretty since it's just dirt and gravel. But, if that held, we will know we've solved the issue. I'll make sure to take a picture :-)

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