nick bramlett

When i get to work on this project, should i post pictures here on this thread or start a new thread?

Oh yes this is right outside atl, ga.Zone 7b-80

Thanks everybody! Solid points all around. Two ideas, a) what about planting the whole berm with some kind of large bamboo? That way ill get blocking higher up and ill get a building material out of it. I would of course but some kind of root barrier on either side to keep the bamboo contained. Or, b) what about planting super densely loads of trees that recover well from coppicing, and letting goats rotate through once in a while? Thatll keep the trees small enough from toppling and ill get a dairy yield out of it. My main concern here would be the goats causing erosion by running all over it. Your thoughts?

Ground here is nearly flat so i wont have to worry about it washing away.

My property starts from the rd at only 30ft wide for a driveway and thenopens up to 200 ft wide behind the neighbor in front of me. Id like to make a 15ft to 20ft tall berm to block the site and sound of my neighbor and rd. Problem is, its within 200ft of a creek which means id have to pull a permit and submit an erosion control plan and get a civil engineer involved if i were to do this with dirt. I may or may not be doing other thimgs on site that the department of making you sad may or may not frown on, and so for this reason as well as my repugnancy towards the state, id rather find another way... also i cant get free dirt and that would cost me a fortune. However, i can get all the free mulch i wanted delivered by the dumptruck load for free bc theres a lot of tree services in the area looking for places to dump.  My thought is to just pile the mulch up into a berm, as it decays ill add to it, and when it seems like its tall enough that after its full decomposition itll be sbout 15 ft, then ill plant it with trees adding topsoil to each of the tree holes. With it being as tall as i want it to be, id expect it would be upwards of 60ft wide. Ill have to be able to drive my tractor along its ridge as in order to continue adding mulch while it decays. With mulch so deep, will it ever become firm enough to drive a tractor on top? Also what are your other thoughts on the idea, does it sound feasible or unrealistic?

I think you're right about the clay. Practically none there. What clay there was, it stayed suspended in the water. After 4 days I finally dumped it out bc the water wasn't getting clear. Surprising that there's no clay considering I live in ga where he red clay is everywhere. I found some where the driveway and house use to be, but I think that must've been trucked in.

Pics

My property is low in the middle where a creek runs and is high on all the property lines. Took two samples. The gray one taken from the lowest elevation w/o actually being in the creek or creek bank but where ground is always wet. The other taken from middle to high ground (any higher and the ground becomes a lot of rock. Thinking if I use the soil from high ground and add a little from the low ground, then that would make a good mix for earth bags and other earthen type building. Does that look about right? First pics are prior to adding water, seconds are a few minutes after adding water and shaking, and thirds are 48 hrs later. Also what explains the difference in color between the two?

If hate to bury such prettiness.

Yeah. That's a good idea too. Only reason for putting the stone up top is bc it's prettier. But practically speaking, putting it below makes more sense.