Friday, August 19, 2016

Dry Creek Bed Follow-Up (with rain!)

Many of you saw the dry creek bed that we added to our backyard garden area. The link to the previous post is here. Since then we have had little rain to speak of while I was home.  However, when I was in Minneapolis for the Garden Bloggers Fling a good amount of rain fell but I wasn't there to see how the garden fared.

When we had a small amount of rain I was able to make a few adjustments in the grass and pathways. This photo doesn't look like much but it is a slice cut into the low part of the grass area between the patio and the garden. I wanted to channel the run-off from the house to go around the garden. My husband wasn't happy with this, saying weeds will grow in the bare soil. Perhaps, but  I needed to try something.


Here is an overview from the porch to give you some perspective. See the channel in the grass?


Another spot that needed some adjustment was the pathway, the lower (right hand) pathway emptied to the grass on the far side of the creek bed. When there was rainfall the water ran down the path and the excess water pooled in the grassy area. I dug a small ditch and a berm on the far side of the ditch, forcing the water into the creek bed.


Well, yesterday we had enough rain to access my additional measures as well as getting to see, firsthand, how well the dry creek bed worked. I measured 1.58 inches over a 24 hour period. The video below shows it all.  I am narrating so you can listen or just watch. 


We have had some sand washout from the upper part of the creek bed where they put the french drain pipes which will need be removed.  I took the advice of fellow blogger Swimray about keeping the leaves out (and will continue to do so). So very glad we did this addition to the garden. It certainly channeled a lot of water without it creating its own new path.

©Copyright 2016 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Blogger Flings- Looking Forward While Looking Back

Spring house at Meadowlark
While I haven't written about this year's Fling in Minneapolis yet, I wanted to help tempt everyone for the Fling coming up next year in the Northern Virginia/Maryland/District of Columbia region. Our host, Tammy, put up a great overview for the Fling on her blog, Casa Mariposa. A couple of the places we are due to visit next year I have been to before. I was with the York County Master Gardeners on our spring study trip. Can't wait to see these gardens again. The dates are June 22-25th, will I see you there?
Here are the links to Brookside and Meadowlark from my point of view. Please check out the links both from here as well as the ones on Tammy's page to learn more about these gardens and all the others she has lined up. I was going to add more photos to help tempt you from my library of photos, but I wasn't as prolific a photographer in 2009!


©Copyright 2016 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.