This weekend our goal was to place more rocks and sandbags around the pipe head, particularly on the house side. On inspection last week we found that there was significant erosion around the top of the pipe under the road bridge, which could potentially cause sinking or even collapse of the driveway. I also wanted to try and get some more native seedlings in on the creek banks, particularly in the muddy areas further down where there is minimal vegetation.
The weather was nice today, which made the prospect of getting wet slightly less daunting. First we pulled up some of the monstera, to allow a safe path to cart the sandbags down. We didn't want anyone tripping on a root and diving headfirst into the water!
Samwise came down to supervise, for moral support and company throughout the operation.
Trinity and Tristan doing a fantastic job carting rocks and sandbags, while I am telling Darrell to be careful not to step on my Silver lady fern :) The area we are filling is directly behind me - once we got in there we realised the eroded area was much bigger than we anticipated. We were filling with a combination of rocks from the creek bed, and moulding sandbags around them, to try and create a strong , interlocking support that won't shift once the heavy water flow starts coming through.
The finished job! It doesn't look too pretty at the moment, but the priority is to make sure it is strong and solid. After winter I will try and establish some rock clinging ferns and grasses over this area, to beautify and further stabilise it.
Since we had some sandbags left, we decided to fill in this area underneath the foot bridge as well. There was quite a deep cave under where all these fishbone ferns are growing. We will eventually try and get rid of the fishbone, as they are quite invasive and considered a weed in WA, but at the moment they are providing much needed bank stability. We will have to remove and replace small sections at a time, and let the new plants grow in as we go.
A good excuse for another trip to the nursery :) I purchased some more sedge grasses, plus a couple of shrubs that are suitable for moist, shady areas to place in higher up the bank.
I had a visitor in the afternoon while I was putting my plants in :)
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