Not Gardening OR Edible!

culverts in the creek, before

So as the title of this post suggests today's work has nothing to do with the garden, nor is it in any way edible.

I have a creek, really a dry wash that fills with water during rainstorms, that runs through my property. Since my house sits in the bottom of the canyon, with steep hills on each side there is not much flat space for things like gardens, pasture, animal corrals or barns.

My son and some friends installed these culverts so we could drive across to the other side of the creek to a nice size flat area. We almost lost them in the storm July 4th, but they are hanging in there. 

culverts in the creek, after

Yesterday my son brought me the cement mixer from my mom's place and this morning I went and bought some ready mix. I managed to haul and mix three 80 pound bags before I needed to quit. I dug a little trench in front of the culverts and pulled some of the rocks down that are on each side of them. Then poured a little concrete apron along in front of them, to prevent water from washing under them and taking the whole crossing out. I poured a little cement on the sides of the culverts and reset some of the rocks.

It's going to take a lot of cement and rocks to build up around this area to prevent wash outs. Hot, heavy and exhausting work. What I got done today took about 2 hours, what with having to deal with the cranky mixer. BTW dear son if you are reading this, can we rig a safety switch on that motor? I hate having to plug and unplug it to turn it off and on, especially when my gloves are wet.

Next I'll be working on building up the walls along the creek sides to prevent more soil washing out. I do love building walls and working with rocks. It is heavy tiring work, but it is also fun and satisfying, yeah I know, I'm weird.

John Vivian has written a very good manual about building stone walls, mostly about laying them up without mortar or cement and without using forms.










Mike Lawerence will show you how to use brick or stone to build walls, steps, patios and paths. A handy reference book for folks new to the craft, with lovely color photographs of different garden features.







Of course people have been building with stone for as long as they have been building their own shelter. Perhaps you'd like to have a go at building your own stone house. I intend to do so in the future.