soil erosion

Today’s blog post is stimulated by yesterday’s visit to one of my client’s yards. Victoria Kidman is both my client and friend. In 2013 under my small business, Ahmad Hassan Landscape Services, we both designed and installed a beautiful new front and backyard at Victoria’s newly remodeled East Sac property. One of the first things I learned while working there was that this particular area suffers from very poor drainage. The soil is a clay loam, meaning it’s predominately clay in texture, and is very slow to percolate.

Could you eat ten grocery bags filled with oranges?

Because of this we ended up installing 2 sump pumps on the property in order to move and assist drainage efforts from the backyard, and underneath the house itself. It was helpful to perform the landscape renovations in the fall, which also happens to be the best time of year for landscaping in Northern California. The only plant growing in the backyard when we started was a beautiful mature orange tree with some of the tastiest and juicy oranges I’ve ever had. When I find a wonderful fruit tree such as this, I feel as excited as a miner striking gold. Vicky would bag up the oranges and share them with as many people as she could. This after all is what growing fruit trees and a garden is all about. It’s almost impossible to harness and utilize all of the fruit from a full size tree yourself. A single family would have to squeeze a whole lotta juice, and nearly make themselves sick with oranges in order to consume all 10 bags of oranges their tree produces each season. Whenever I begin a landscape renovation, the first thing I do is assess the space and determine what in my professional opinion is healthy, has vigor, and is worthy of maintaining and integrating into the new landscape.

The beautiful, healthy, orange tree in Vicky’s yard that served as my inspiration for her space!

This tree was it! There we’re a few other camellias that we’re recently planted by the contractor that remodeled the house, so these were shifted around, since it was fall, and a great time for transplanting. When we finished the yard we did what most folks here in Northern California do; we mulched all of the garden beds with a decorative 1/4″ fir bark. I say decorative because these days most folks merely choose a bark mulch based primarily on it’s aesthetic value or cost. What they may or may not realize is that different types of mulch do make a difference.

While I won’t get into the specifics during this post I will tell you that what is recommended for soil that is dense, tight, and clay based is a loose, very porous mulch. When the soil is sandy and fast draining, a shredded and/or finely ground tight knit mulch should be applied. In this way the mulch can assist the soil by helping to regulate temperature in both situations, and assist the soils in either draining and drying out, or retaining moisture; whichever is needed.

In almost all situations some type of mulch should be applied. The benefits of mulch can be found right here.
Because we’re in Northern California we employed the use of drip irrigation for the newly remodeled garden beds. Hunter Industry’s MP Rotators we’re used on the lawn spaces and all was well. That is, right up until Ahmad got busy and left the garden maintenance to other people. For a few years Vicky would seek out good and affordable help with maintaining her yard. Someone to manage the “mow and blow” weekly, as well as occasional pruning and other seasonal chores that arise. She found a local gardener from Angie’s List. While this site is a great resource for locating contract professionals in your area, it is still up to you, the homeowner, to thoroughly vet the contractor before they begin work. So Vicky hired this gardener to fix a supposed irrigation issue; and because the fir bark that I installed was thin in areas, he suggested reapplying a “better, longer lasting mulch”.

3 inches of mulch is recommended for most applications

Yet he failed to consider that when you’re applying mulch, you typically want to create about a 3″ mulch layer in order to reap the 3 main benefits of mulch. They are:
1. Soil Water Retention
2. Soil Erosion Protection
3. Weed Suppression.

This gardener actually had the nerve to bad mouth Ahmed Hassan, The Celebrity Landscaper and saying that I installed the wrong mulch, because it was fast to break down. In his opinion I was trying to simply make more money with by needing to reapply mulch on a frequent basis. Yeah buddy! There I am, The con artist landscaper, deep in thought on how I can juice my clients for more money when it comes to their yards. Wow!

While Mike assesses the situation, I contemplate “plan B”.

It truly saddens me that folks are simply uneducated in proper, solid horticultural practices. Yet here I am, doing all that I can to beautify and educate the masses on how to have better success with their outdoor spaces.
At this point the only thing I can do with the dead Citrus tree that’s sitting in my client’s yard is make lemonade outta lemons. Okay so orange juice outta oranges.

So here’s my list of 10 optimistic thoughts that come out of this whole experience for me.
1. Always and in everything give thanks!
2. Myself and so many others got to enjoy the wonderful fruit from the orange tree.
3. Myself and a few others got to enjoy the beauty of this lovely structural plant in nature.
4. I’ll chop up all of the dead branches and turn them into mulch and compost.
5. I’ll chop all of the larger wood into firewood size pieces so that it can be burned and used for heat.
6. This same location will be planted again, using the existing soil. It will be elevated on a small mound to aid drainage for the new fruit tree. This time… a Peach!
7. Both myself and this other gardener made money while working on site.
8. My client Vicky was likely tired of picking all those damn oranges.
9. The orange tree was a free gift that came with the house. Someone else planted it, and plenty of us got to benefit and enjoy it’s fruit.
10. Give thanks that we have an abundant earth and that she alone nurtures, feeds, and provides for us.

It lived a good life, now a peach tree will grow in it’s place.

Nothing lasts forever, except change.

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This post is stimulated from none other than fan and friend Patricia Herron!

Patricia: So they’re building a housing development near me. My daughter noticed that on the hills they have placed rolls of something that look like hay. They’re also spraying the hillside with some sort of greenish blue stuff. We couldn’t figure out why. I said to her it’s probably stuff to stop weeds or some kind of grass seeding system. Then I told her I’ll just ask my friend Celebrity Landscaper Ahmed Hassan. So… am I right?

Ahmed: You’re right, the greenish spray is what’s known as hydroseed. I would love to credit Ahmad Hassan Landscape Services as the inventor, but that simply is not the case. Yet I do know what the product is used for, and can give a little insight for you and your daughter to satisfy curiosities sake. Hydroseed is a slurry of grass seed that’s sprayed with a greenish paper pulp mulch, or sometimes, a finely ground wood of sorts. The mulch helps keep the seed moist until it germinates.

Celebrity Landscaper Ahemd Hassan - Erosion Control During New Construction

Hillside showing tiered layers of Hydroseed used for erosion prevention

The rolls of straw or hay are called “wattles” and they’re used for erosion control to keep run off, soil, and dirty water from going into gutters and storm drain systems; as well as protect clean water ways like streams, creeks, and brooks. Whenever there’s new development and we get into the rainy season, you’ll see these tools and practices used.

Celebrity Landscaper Ahmed Hassan- Straw Wattles

Straw Wattles placed in long rows on top of Hydroseed prevent drainage problems from silt

Construction and development requires excavation of soil. This bare, exposed soil doesn’t drain very fast. Instead, it washes away down hill. Both hydroseeding and straw wattles are used to limit this run off and keep it from contaminating drainage systems. The cleaner a drainage system is, the better it functions. The problem with run off is twofold. First, you have to deal with small landslides and/or erosion of a hillside sliding away and sloughing off which would cause a construction clean-up nightmare.

The second, and more severe problem runoff creates, is of primary concern though. If you’ve ever washed soil down your driveway and had it end up in the gutter, then you have met this unassuming beast. The last of the super fine remains of soil are heavy, and require a lot of time, water, and broom work to push. This thick sludge like stuff is known as silt. By definition Silt is literally the last remains of soil. It is the smallest, sand like, particulate matter and it’s extremely difficult to manage and wash away.

Because this material is difficult to move, municipalities do everything possible to avoid ever getting it in their drainage ways. I know my city of Sacramento is more than diligent about it. The reason? Silt collects more of itself. So not only is silt heavy and hard to move; it builds up on itself, and like a magnet, attracts more silt. This heavy silt begins clogging up pipes and drain lines with a type of sludge (bust out your smart phone and look up “silt trap”). Here in California we use the date of October 15th as the official rainy season date. Other states may have different different deadlines. This is the date you’d better have erosion and soil water runoff control measures in place, or pay fines upwards of $30k if a municipality shows up and your construction site isn’t properly managed.

One other thing I wanna mention is what’s known as a “silt sock”.
If you walk down to the storm drain that your gutters empty into, you’ll likely see what looks like landscape fabric underneath the gutter drain grate. This is the final means of control before dirty, silty water enters the main, piped underground system.

So to recap:

1. Hydroseed is a method of applying and starting grass from seed. This grass grows roots that are used to take up water and stabilize hillsides by aggregating soil and holding it together. The foliage intercepts rain water so that it doesn’t compact soil, but instead hits the grass blades and runs down slowly into the soil, preventing erosion during construction and development.

2. Straw wattles are a second line of defense to slow and dam up silty water that’s running down hill. The water passes through the straw and the silt is caught there. This lessens the impact and the momentum of erosion while allowing water to do what it does and travel downhill.

3.Silt socks and catch apparatuses are used directly under and around storm drains.
All of these practices are mandated and enforced by local governments to keep our waterways clean and our drain ways flowing. They help avoid avoid floods and back ups. It’s a group effort to prevent floods and keep our reservoirs clean. The more you know, the more you can help do your own part.

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