Dave Sullivan

Hi Topher,

The area in question is not at all wet or marshy and the yard does drain well....perhaps to well....! It is probably one of the dryer areas of my property as it sits very slightly above the rest of my yard.

My concern is related to holding soil in place (between the driveway & flower garden) during the the rainy season & heavy run off from the Spring thaw.

Basically the area takes a pretty good hit from water flow several times a year washing away both soil & driveway. I also want the cover to be low in height, attractive, low maintenance and possibly be a food source for chickens.

The soil is certainly acidic.....something I want to change...

Dave

Thanks John...

I didn't specity but I was thinking plants that were/are low to the ground......green carpeting sort of idea.....

Mint would fit that nicely I think.

Any other suggestions out there.....?

Hey Folks,

Need some help with a problem I am having....

I have a portion (60% or so) of my front yard that receives a great deal of water run off & drainage from the road running in front of my home. One particular area sits right in between my paved driveway and a large heavily mulched flower garden. The driveway sits higher than the rest of then yard and the aforementioned flower garden.

The 'problem' is as follows.... I had my property logged to remove the over abundant number of white pine from my property. This was done to increase my growing area, allow my home to receive more sun light and help out the oaks, sugar maples and other hardwoods on my land. What the &$#@ loggers did is to drop some trees across the driveway which naturally broke up some of the pavement. So what is happening is that the soil which is supporting the hard top of the driveway is falling away due to the great water flow we receive here in New Hampshire (around 54 inches per year).

What I want to do is prep the areas that are subject to the worst water flows and plant a good 'permie' approved ground cover to protect the soil and possibly help feed chickens.

What do you think...? All suggestions appreciated.

I am in zone 5b in southern New Hampshire.

Best Regards,
Dave

Great lists & comments..!

I am sure Craigslist & the like is up on peoples short list for picking up good quality tools & homestead items cheap……..

However, one of the things I am discovering for really REALLY great stuff is estate sales. I have been surprised at the high quality and low prices for good used stuff.
From hand tools to farm tool as well as many other house hold items. Lots of good stuff & worth the effort if you are in the market.

Another added bonus to the low price is that I find the 'old school' quality (materials, design, steels, wood etc) of tools made in the past is often FAR superior to the more expensive and much lower quality new items coming out of China. Talk about a no brainer at least to my way of thinking. I love the idea of getting something I need for short money which is of higher quality than a similar large corporation product. Furthermore it ends up in my hands rather than a landfill….

It is clear to me that one way the large corps are trying to increase profit is to produce pure junk with a very short work life to it…so garbagy in fact that you can’t repair it and are forced to do business with them again and purchase another piece of junk….

I don't buy much off the shelf unless I have first checked other sources for cheaper & better quality….. then if that option is exhausted I will look for high quality tools new coming from *small family owned US companies*

Best Regards,
Dave