Happy Father’s Day..

Hubby said he wanted to make the dry (most of the time) creek bed on father’s day as his big project..  So that is what happened..

First we needed to create the outline.. then the deepest area was dug 6 inches deep, the outer wider area’s are four inches deep and the widest edges are 2 inches deep..  Dig, Dig Dig!

Roots needed to be dug out and removed and the ground flattened on the bottom of the “creek” then doubled layers of weed barrier fabric was laid in.. the biggest rocks went in first and to help hold it in place (as the wind was moving it around) this will help slow down any plant growth in the river while still allowing the water to move freely though it.

More Big rocks and then came the river stones..  about half a ton of them give or take 🙂 This leaves us with another half ton of the river rocks to use in a different spot to collect the water from and move it to the pond at a later point from the other side.

This creek collects from one side the house, from the driveway and from across the pasture.. it leads down and around the rain garden and then moves from the rain gardn to the overflow which takes it directly into the pond itself..  which has a overflow on the back of it that leads to the wetland area in the food forest.

Did the math on the pond and it can hold just shy of 7000 gallons, the rain garden can hold 1500 gallons and the creek can hold 300 gallons before would overflow its banks.. If I got my slopes right and the grades right.. it will never overflow its banks, it will move down and fill the rain garden, and when that hits the full second level, it will move into the pond and if the pond is full It will move from the pond into the wetland.

I will admit to putting the hose one and trying it out.. worked well on the test run..  and its a nice feature in the year for sure..  The banks will be cleaned up and then planted into a assortment of plants that will focus on feeding the pollinators and very much also encourage dragonflies to come and breed in the yard.. the more Dragonflies.. the less mini-vampires..

Hubby seemed pleased with what got done.. I am looking forward to seeing how looks once it gets its banks done.