Shaping the Landscape

We have had nine consecutive days of rain with more forecast. I managed to mow the yard yesterday. This morning I observed rain runoff patterns etched in the gravel. I discovered that the conditions are excellent to grade and contour the gravel screening patio base. So I set to improving the grade in this area. There is a gentle slope down from the gate to the grill. The area was high to the inside so I worked on establishing a path from the gate to the grill by cutting down the high side and spreading the material to the outside by the fence. This created a flat berm which is slightly sloped away from the fence, sort of down the middle. This will keep the runoff water away from the fence and moving past the grill. The area past the grill is way low. The runoff should flow down there and gradually migrate out of the yard along the back fence. Eventually I hope to have a drain path which will move all the runoff water to funnel out of the yard under the gates in back.

The top photo is my start to re-shape this area from the gate along the fence. The bottom photo is how I left the area. The material was easy to loosen with the spike sandals and easy to rake. Breaking up the material like this, with it wet, keeps the fine material from separating from the coarse. I raked a rough grade and then soaked it with a hose. Then I better shaped the area, according to the water patterns, with the steel rake. I soaked the area again and repeated raking and shaping, then soaking again four or five times until I got as good a slope as I could get for the time being. This process evens and settles the very fine material and leaves a thin layer of coarse material, which is fine gravel, on the top. By then the gravel on top is clean and crunchy.

I had the fence put up a little high along this line. The gravel creates a dam under and along the fence three to eight inches tall with a twenty inch wide base to buttress our yard against the low area in the lot on the other side of the fence. This is the high baseline. From this baseline it appears that I may be able to remove, or reclaim, two inches of material off the top of the patio to form a good overall contour. It was my intent to have extra material on the patio which I could later reclaim for other projects, like a path in the front yard, when the time comes. I had to get all the gravel material I was getting into the back yard before the fence went up.