We pushed to get the pond at The Place built as early as possible in the year (we purchased the property in late spring) so that we could get as much grass cover growing before winter for erosion control purposes.
This is Part 2 of a series (see Part 1 by clicking here) on the site selection, design, construction, finishing & stocking a pond to hold fish and non-polluted water for emergency use. If you missed the first part, you can find it by clicking here. You can find the accompanying podcast by clicking here.
Erosion was an issue that needed immediate attention at the pond
Since the pond filled basically overnight, our biggest priority was to get the area seeded down with a very fast growing cover. We went with perennial rye grass, as it has a reputation for tolerating bad soil (with the topsoil scraped off, what it was going to get was clay) and being dry (water would drain off the steep hillsides rapidly), and develops good root systems.
The dam sides, shown and below from opposite angles, were the low-hanging fruit: Easy to get to and the least steep.
The other sides were too steep to drive anything over and had no roads to them, so there was a lot of carrying loads by hand over very sketchy ground.
The first step was to broadcast the seed (grab a handful, throw it in an arc by swinging your arm and releasing, take a step forward, repeat), aiming to get an even dispersal.
With the sides being so steep, our concern was the first rain would immediately wash all the seed into the pond.
Reducing the risk of erosion into the pond
To reduce that risk and limit the inevitable erosion, we spread straw over the seed. Straw wasn’t the most effective solution: landscaping fabric made for the purpose and tacked in place would have been better. But it would have cost an arm and a leg, and trying to do the rest of the work on just one arm and leg left sounded too difficult.
Again, we were working on the clock, with a big rainstorm forecast, so there I am on a 101 F day with my bag of seed and bale of straw to take on the steeper slopes.
Time passes… two months later…
The pic below was taken about two months after the seeding. The steep sides didn’t take nearly so well. We had deep erosion gullies in a place or two. A bale of straw in the worst of them, stabilized with a metal fence post, staunched the bleeding. Wooden stakes supporting packed handfulls of straw placed periodically along the length of the other gullies to slow the rush of water helped.
The back side of the dam grew grass nicely. Every spring I walk it and clip off any trees or deep-rooted shrubs that attempt to take root. Big roots can run through a dam, and when the plant dies and the roots rot, the dam leaks through the channel.
Here it was by October the first year after seeding. The worst areas got reseeded with prairie seeds (which, it turns out, don’t approve of straight clay), and then clover (on which the jury is still out).
The first foot or so of water near the edges is notably shallower due to erosion collection, particularly on the dam side. That’s not a bad thing; it makes more kinds of habitat so will support more species. Those spots are now getting some cattails and other water plants. The erosion ditches have quit growing and there are plants holding the soil in most places.
Did you ever manage to place the rocks for fish shelters?
The pond story fascinates me. I am a tropical aquarist from way back.
By the time I could have moved the blocks, they were no longer necessary. Their purpose was to sink the cedars, which would have floated off. By the time the water was warm enough to move the trees, they were so waterlogged the only trick was to keep them at the surface long enough to swim them to where they would sink and still end up just a foot or two under the surface. I thought of using rock pile shelters, but in a clay bottom I didn’t think they’d stay exposed. We’ll just add more cedars when those decay. The needles have come off, but now the branches are shrouded with algae, which also works.
Can I ask for an update on the erosion control and esp. the clover results? Ponds are so cool. What kid of fish and what successes or lesson learned can you pass on?
Thanks
Sure, I’ll do an article after we do the hosting switch over in a couple of days, thanks for asking!
Salty have you or Spice ever read Farmers of Forty Centuries: Or Permanent Agriculture by King, F. H ? Published in 1911 covers permanent agriculture in China, Korea and Japan. As Spice is a Biologist she may have read it. Two special points is the use of duckweed as a massive fertilizer benefit to crops and the use of hub and spoke pond construction where a deep mother pond is surrounded by daughter ponds that are filled and drained yearly. If Mother pond was Zero and daughters numbered #1 would be fish this year, harvested in fall with breeders returned to Mother pond rest eaten. #2 would be planted in crops that love high nitrogen #3 planted in cabbage etc. #4 in wheat. NEXT Year #4 I is fish as they love to clean up wheat and #1 is the high nitrogen crops and so forth.
Long term Intensive farming to support a large population with human labor, and with out use chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Book is available in Kindle form for free. Interesting reading.