Building a Pond: Planting Grass To Prevent Erosion

Today, I want to give you an update on our neighbor’s enormous pond project.  This picture is taken from his back yard, looking towards our woods.  The red you see in the distance is our tent currently set up in our back yard.

A little over a week ago, he raked, seeded and strawed the banks to get some grass growing.  Until the pond fills with water, there is a danger of erosion and the grass will help to keep the walls of the pond in place.  

They rented a machine (which you see above) to spread the straw.  For a project this large, spreading straw by hand would have taken a big chunk of time.  But with this machine, all they had to do was drop one bale at a time (minus the twine) into the blue “barrel”  and it chopped and blew the straw out the shoot.  The job went fast and the coverage was easy to control.  Plus, it was pretty fun to watch!  As long as you were up-wind!  Lol!  

Below, you can see the grass growing around the banks very nicely!  We still have lots of finish work to do on our side.  The recent rains and dense shade are keeping it too wet to do the finish grading and planting grass.  But we are anxious!  Once we get it graded so that the water drains towards the pond, it will be such a nice place to picnic and camp!  It is already a far cry from the swampy bog it was this time last year.   

Our neighbor still has a big job left to do on his side, too.  Somehow, he has to dispose of all that dirt which was dug from the pond basin.  In the mean time, anyone for a game of King of the Hill with my boys??   This ridge of dirt extends far beyond what my lens can capture!