The Driveway Project - Part 4

Okay, so in The Driveway Project - Part 3, I told you how we came back from a weekend away to a bit of a disaster on our hands. We'd been trying to back-fill along the edges of our new driveway, with limited success. The good news is that things have improved significantly since then, even with a few set-backs along the way.

After seeing the paper based erosion control blanket ripped apart by gushing water, we decided to abandon that technique and try something a bit more heavy-duty. I found rolls of "burlap" (also known as "hessian") at the hardware store. This is a much stronger fabric like blanket that we thought should hold the soil and seed in place in the event of more rain. Well, after spending the entire weekend moving literally tons of dirt and re-doing the washed-out sections along the driveway, we got to see first hand what happens when a thunder storm hits.

On Monday morning at about 7am, the storm came through. I heard the rain on the sky-lights, went to check the weather radar online, and found a big red splodge heading right for us. I was outside within minutes and the rain was getting harder. With crashes of thunder loud and all around, the heavy rain turned heavier. A blanket of water quickly appeared on the large expanse of asphalt near the house, and like one big monster, stared moving, down the hill.

At about this point, Erin returned from her run (which was no longer a run as the rain was so hard and heavy that she couldn't run). Let's just say, after we saw the torrents of water running down the side of the driveway, we where able to understand how they'd made a 1 foot deep trench. We scrambled with sand bags to stop the water making the already damaged driveway worse. We saw the nylon netting holding the seed blanket in place ripped apart and the blanket wash down the slope. We saw our fresh top-soil, seeds, and many hours of hard work, being washed down the storm drain at the bottom of the driveway. And within about 15 minutes, the storm had passed. Not a very good way to start the day, especially if it's your birthday.

After the storm had passed, we assessed the situation and determined that it could have been worse. The burlap we'd put down after the first storm, actually held up pretty well - there just wasn't enough of it. The seed roll that broke free, did so because it didn't have enough stakes holding it in. So we bought more burlap, moved yet more dirt, and re-seeded again.

The paving company came and made their repair which turned out pretty well:


We haven't had any more rain since, so the burlap, top-soil and seeds are all still in place:


And lots of regular watering with the hose, means the grass is starting to grow:


We even decided to put some sod/turf rolls down over the area that had the water damage and has since been repaired, so that's looking good too.


After the last two storms, things have gradually been improving. However, the next test is coming tonight. Thunderstorms are forecast, and there's an 80% chance of rain. I might be waiting up with my flashlight to see what happens next...