Kanjini News
Posted 26th November 2017
Lake-side Landscaping
For those of you who have not been to lake-side for a while, things are looking very different there now.
Ian suggested to put some grass around the tarp to make it look a bit
more inviting and we all agreed. Problem was we already tried that
without any success. The area under and around the tarp is basically
broken up rock dug out of the lake when the previous owners were
creating a channel for the pump intake. So that very poor soil did not
grow grass even with daily watering.
We also had a problem with the area under the tarp flooding in even modest rains, so some serious landscaping was required.
First I spent a couple of weeks on our tractor removing 30-50 cm of
soil from around the tarp and used it to extend an area in front of the
tarp towards the lake (there used to be a huge drop-off right at the
edge of the tarp).
Then we got a truck and bobcat to cart over twelve truck-loads of top
soil from the edge of one of our fields to top-dress the area, whihc were spread and levelled by the bobcat.
When we switched on the sprinklers, we realised that the levels were
not very good and we had major puddles. Luckily the bobcat operatorcmae back to try and fix the problem with a few extra truck-loads of soil.
Alas there were still a few low-spots, but when the first big storm hit, we did not just have still one major puddle, but also some major erosion over the edge.
So with some help (thanks to Lil, Matt, Ralph and Simon) we created some drains down the slope and lined them with strips of a broken tarp, and created a raised bank along the edge to stop water from going over anywhere else, at the same time we re-levelled the area to eliminate the last puddle.
The tractor came in handy to drag and place quite a few big logs and rocks around the area as seats and to keep vehicles out.
Last not least a terraced garden bed towards the marquee should come in useful to plant a good hedge of native flowering bushes there, for the birds and butterflies to enjoy...We love the new looks!!!
Enjoy the pics!
 You can still see where the grass indicating established ground and how wide the new area is
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 digging up dirt and rocks, we got two huge piles of rocks now and a few nice big ones for the landscaping later
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After a fair few days of work, the area is ready for top-soil
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 lots of truck-loads of top-soil
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 which look a lot better nicely spread out
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 running sprinklers shows up the low spots
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 and a heavy downpour shows where best to place drains
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 first we had to dig trenches to bury the tarp strips in
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 and then lay the tarp strips and back-fill the trenches
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 place some big logs and rocks to sit on
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the grass is already seeding and growing by itself |
 a bit more tractor work and ten more tractor buckets of soil...
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 ...make for a nice terrace to plant native bushes
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 all in all a really nice addition to lake-side :-)
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