A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 How do you stop erosion??

I live on top of a hill and my drive way washes out terriably. I now have ruts every where. It could be because we built the house in a field... But I think that there is some way to correct the problem. Any suggestions?? I was thinking that maybe some sort of weeping tree that needs the water would help if planted down the drive. However, my husband thinks trees along the drive is asking for trouble in snow of winter..

Bringing this one back to the top!!!
Weezie

I actually have experience with this kinda.
! I watch HGTV on weekends.have proff.just show up on weekendWill hear me being yelled at for watching it or told to change to something else& I will totally ignore and keep watching
I

live on a hill is mud when rains

1st off haveing a tractor helps.we grade our hill for asseccabuility& we have what I call 2 trails a rain side a dry side.hill is clay.you slide on clay like is snow& ice.the rain side has tree roots used for traction.exceept for the very top part which is where we have fun at.
I imagine that some trees roots could not take damage of being driven over this is woods so imagine some of the roots are from trees that wer e cut 30 yrs ago for trail to property.you can plant plants in mass plantings like shrubs and have grouped together and will help hold soil so you have maybe less soil leaveing hill.are various ground covers and some would cover ground holding yet more soil in.you can terrance the hill along driveway and would help hold in.I actually just had my mom do front of her house this way around porch as soil is washing away from house.
ya might wanna park in front of TV on weekends and watch landscape solutions.thats the main one to see cause they have adressed your issue many times.other shows show that issue also.
gardengate is a magazine I recieve and they have adressed the issue of errosion.I searched the topic for mom and found under their search engine.you could search for errossion plantings probably as I have searched shade loveing herbs.you can search on here in our libarey archives for errosion and see what Bill has stashed in there.I've found stuff here also

sorry...my post left me while was typing...just looked up and said was takeing me back

you didn't mention what type of soil you have.you can see if maybe are laying low to a water table.I went to Topozone.com is a land survey place you can find yourself on their maps and if they have land surveyed your area can find yourself.I had to use this map for reasons of I'm not on a map you see a line for me for the ast 5 miles back then I'm on to a topo map..I was able to find my self n this map with the efforts of the firemans map hubby has for fire purposes and the topo map.your probably lucky enough to put in an address and have it actually show up.we have a natural spring at bottom of our hill and on 2 parts of the non rain side it keeps the ground wet even in a drought a natural bog garden in my woods
that will keep ya busy and let me know how it goes
ps....shingles make good traction for about 3 weeks

Thanks! I will do some more checking. Our soil is SAND.. it looks like we brought truck loads in here. We are on a hill with underground springs every where. the house is built on a rock ledge if one would try to say dig a basement.. you couldn't. Lots of underground caves and streams are in this area. The erosion is the drive way itself. I hate it. It is so rough you can hardly drive up it. I was thinking that maybe trees around out lining the drive on both sides would work. My husband however disagrees..

Moonstar,
Can you tell us what his idea was???
That might help us a bit more too??
Weezie

Weezie,
His ideal is NOTHING!
I don't know if it is because he doesn't want to do any thing or if it is because he is military he is only here 3 days a week. I am sure what ever I do it will be Me doing it! His only concern is winter snow and ice.. Other wise he really don't care what I do..

You are sort of lucky that he wants no
imput, I had to FIRE mine, he was putting
a little tooooooo much imput into it,
like weed whackin' everything.... so I had to
let him go, I let him play on the computer,
so he doesn't get in my way, snicker~snicker!!

I have to say, living on a hill has it's problems,
then when you add the likes of little springs... I grew up with those exact conditions, and clay for the ground...everywhere little springs leak water...
We had a dike bulldozed in all along the acreage, well, maybe 7/8...and even over time, the little moles like to dig and springs would spring..so, it was constant wet......
willows are supposed to be good for that, they love water, you have to watch the roots though,
if there's no water or not enough they will go
to your septic system...and they are BIG, and drop alot of branches.....I'm not sure of other's that are like that tree, hopefully someone will come through....Papito, Phil, Nikkal, Bill, someone....keep checking back!!!

Weezie

Thanks Weezie! I am not very smart when it comes to gardening. Just the want to be attitude!
I am open for any suggestions and ideals any one has. You are so correct... I even have moles. I like the ideal of native grasses and the wild life. Don't want any thing to disturb the wild life. In fact I like the quail and chukkers around. I just have to do something about this drive! Other than buying loads of rock which is expensive and gradually sinks down any way.

Sandy soil is porous and probably will not be able to hold the tree roots in place. In this regard, I tend to agree with the husband. It could be dangerous. You might want to consider shrubs or ground covers instead.

see site below:

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/hort/ext/Pubs/HO/HO_225.pdf

thanks papito.... At least you gave me a reason to think about.. He didn't... I will check it out. I am open for any thing that would help..
But I am told not many choices in things that grow well in sandy soil.

I once dated a girl who lived on a farm, and I lived with her family for three months.
They had a very steep hill with erosion problems and so they turned it into a "christmas tree hill", growing lots of pine trees on it helped stop the erosion, plus they can sell about 20 trees every year for some extra income.

If you did something like that, you could keep the trees from getting so big that they are dangerous.

Hi Hon!
(I'm near enough to Baltimore to be able to say that)

Another idea might be to check your local soil and water conservation department. Run a search including your county and state.

I just happened to be checking out my local soil conservation district site, and I noticed a very helpful offer... they give out free seeds of plants that control erosion (and feed wildlife) to county residents! They sound like wiry grasses and shrubs and clover, maybe not the prettiest selection, but for free! The deadline for pickup is in early March, so you can sow them as the ground freezes and thaws, which helps work the seeds in. Check it out.

HMMMM...
I never thought of Pine trees. There are not many pine tress in my part of the country. Do they grow well in Sandy Soil? that is a thought. I will run it past my husband and see his reaction!
Thanks for the suggestion!! <img border="0" alt="[clappy]" title="" src="graemlins/clappy.gif" />

pine trees grow very well in sandy soil, and the root grows almost straight down so they aren't as likely to topple in a storm.

Mine has pine trees growing along it and is likely what most the roots are we drive over durring rain weather.and sumac trees.
we have rain in area for next few days so will get to have some fun soon.We will be doing a culvert at bottom of hill cause have a good spring going on there.hopefully he got a good enough cut on the rain saide at top that i won't have as much angle to slide with.
your right would be expensive to gravel the hill and would have to use cleachee that was 9 inches deep to do any good on my hill.Maybe if I hit the lottery.sure glad we got a tractor cause before that tractor we needed a helecopter at times& were paying $200 everytime we needed it fixed to get in& out

Here's a site about trees for sandy soils! There are some pines listed.

http://www.backyardgardener.com/tree/indexlist5.html

If this hasn't been posted on the "sandy soils" message, I'll put it there, too.

Oh Bess, I will check out the site. Every one is so helpful! You know, being from the south, we can call people honey, sugah and hon. In fact we laugh about even when one critises someone it doesn't sound near as bad when you end it with "Bless their heart!" In Valdosta, Ga. we had alot of Pine trees. I miss the deep south. I guess I am a true GRITS ~ Girl raised in the south!
Being Native American- the wild life is important to me. And I can't have something that may be toxic to my buffalo.

Okay, I gotta ask!!!
What do you do with the Buffalo?
Or don't I wanna know????

And how many do you have??
And how much fun are they??

We have a big huge ranch of them
south of us, we take the boys and mother,
and any body else that wants to go with us..
We drive over and just watch them...
It's so neat to think about them and how
they were in abundance here long ago!!!!
B & B Buffalo Ranch

Weezie

Weezie,
I just bought 2 heifer buffalo. They are young only 1.5 years old. They have to be 3 before you can breed them you know. Then the calfs are only about 35 pounds when they are born. Alot smaller then cattle.. I am going to raise them to eat.. But not until I get my herd up some. I think that they are a majestic animal. I can feed mine with them maybe about a foot from me. They are not a pet for sure. They are wild animals. But I can call mine by name and they come running to the barn.
We eat alot of wild game. My son Lakota is quite a little hunter.
We take the hides and tan them to make things out of..

moonstar, how do you tan the hides? my son really wants to start doing that with the animals we eat. mostly deer, but some squirrels, rabbits, etc.

I'd like to know how to tan a hide also.may be a thing for craft area huh Weezie

I've ate buffalo meat before...was beefalo..a blend.makes very good chili meat& hamburger steaks.It has good flavor.
What would it cost to raise a pair of calves for breeding for 1 year?and what do you feed? have your composted their manure?(yes I had to ask!)

I wonder if hay would do anything for my hill?they make houses out of mud& clay and bake in sun..hasn't rained much yet so hill is fine so far most rain seems to be missing us in my part of TX

I dont' know the complete process,
but I do know you have to skin the animal yourselves, have an area that's large enough for the animal you're working on, to lay the skin down (on like newspaper) (my father always did it in a cool, actually unheated room on the floor)
but, then you have to have about (what seems like)
20lbs of salt, I think it was just regular salt,
don't think it was kosher*larger* salt??
And then you have to leave it on for,
I'm not sure but about 2, 4, 5, 6 ??? weeks!!!
After that, we pkged them up and sent them somewheres, I'd have to ask my mommy, where they sent them off to!!!! But they take the hair off and come back with a soft, skin...
Hope that info helps a bit, to get you started....

Weezie

matthew doesn't want the hair off, he wants the furs... at least most of the time...

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.../???

Don't know!!! <img border="0" alt="[perplexed]" title="" src="graemlins/confused.gif" />

Still have to ask my mom.

Weezie