On the Rocks

Back in 2020, I began what I didn't know would be a multi-year (and ultimately expensive) process of diverting rain and snowmelt runoff away from our house to prevent our basement from flooding.

With the help of lots of friends, I terraced the steepest part of the yard. I put drainage pipes on the gutter downspout and sump pump outlet to carry water away from the problem window well. I dug flow trenches for the drainage pipes to make sure the water would keep moving. I replaced the gutter. I had the corner of the house professionally lifted with epoxy columns and had foundation cracks sealed. I had the window well professionally replaced. In June, I finally finished sloping the ground away from the house and finished replacing all the cretejacking-displaced rocks. This month, I finally was able to afford a plumber to redo pipes below the basement that were forcibly relocated by expansion and contraction of clay beneath our foundation.

A friend helped me dig up all the weeds beneath the Chinese maple in the far corner of the yard and cover the former tulip and iris area below the tree with two layers of cardboard and a pretty thick tarp covering before mulching the entire bottom. Because weeds from the greenway took over the space, and deer eat the tulips because that's candy to them.

Then the bears dug up all that hard work less than a week later! And broke more even more tree branches...

Sigh... I tried to cover up the base of the tree as best I could for now without starting over from scratch.

But I think it's time for a complete redo...

My back is tired! A bunch of landscaping still needs to be done. But Lizard is thoroughly enjoying his mini lavender farm. And, hopefully, all the leaks are fixed! We've had a wetter-than-normal year (which I absolutely love!), and so far, the window well has flooded again only once, after a record-breaking three-day storm back in May.

Please, let there be no more leaks!

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