Weathering the storm

Remember the aggravation I expressed over the delay in the hydro-mulch people shifting their Monday arrival to Friday (then showed up on Thursday)?  Oh?  You didn't.  Oh yeah, I spared you of that post.  We could have used the extra days they took from us.  A couple of days after the hydro-mulching, a storm blew into our area with intense rainfall (over two inches, five centimeters) and winds up to 40 mph (65 kph).  The landscaping blanket was blown off the slope of the main house, and a lot of the hydro-mulch effort is now somewhere in our forest.  The days we lost for "whatever" reason would have cut our losses significantly.

The pictures on this post give illustration of the impact of the storm.  Referring back to the previous post and comparing the pictures will illustrate our concerns about the loss of seed.  I have since purchased Bermuda Grass seed (25 pounds for $130! (12 kg for 120 euros)).  The coverage for such a bag is 10,000 square feet (~930 square meters).   Though a lot for that kind of coverage, it is less than 10% of the cost of hydro-mulching (though hydro-mulching also includes rye grass seed with the Bermuda seed, and is supposed to be more effective in establishing a lawn).   I could not afford to do the hydro-mulching twice, and as there are a lot of slopes and uneven ground (another place of excelling for hydro-mulching), I got out my hand broadcast spreader and seeded the entire yard.  I even threw some wildflower seeds in certain areas for good measure.

Here are the pictures:

This is the back 'platform', and the land mine-sized divots are places
where the ground gave way on me.  I had been walking on this area
for several days without a problem, but when the rains came, we
discovered how soft the built-up areas around the house really are.

The landscape blanket got blown off the slope, and took a lot of grass seed
with it.  One can see the rye grass poking through the places where the
blanket remained intact.  As the main purpose of the grass is erosion,
we are starting over in this area.  I will be bringing native grasses into play.

The natural drainage of the driveway/motor court comes right at the basketball
goal, and this storm incised a definitive cut into the slope behind the goal.

Another example of erosion off the slopes, this one caused by the drain pipe
we installed as part of our rain run-off management.  We will permit the erosion
for at least one more rain, then we will fill the incisions with landscape fabric
and rocks.  This will slow the velocity of the water and prevent further erosion.

It was green with the hydro-mulch stain before, but has now been re-seeded.

The rapid pouring of rain also eroded our edging before it could get established.
This will be filled-in again and compacted.  The grey you see in this picture
is from the wildflower seed which I sowed, and if you zoom on a large screen,
one can see the much smaller Bermuda seed as well.