Here are a couple pictures of the big hole that will be prepared as a patio at the front of the garage that will soon be my new studio. You can see the natural style french drain at the top of the picture. It is 22 feet long and about a foot wide. I laid two overlapping sheets of landscape fabric in the ditch, filled with progressively smaller rocks, and folded the landscape fabric over before covering with dirt. That will be the slow drain. There will also be a fast drain at a little bit higher level which will handle the freakishly heavy rains like we had the night before last. That will be a drain pipe with both ends accessible for cleaning and the ditch for it will be dug tomorrow by the same wonderful boys.
I have been lucky to have a couple different landscapers stop by and take a look at the work. Both said it looks like a good solution for drainage. One took a look at the other sides of the house and listen to my plans for the drainage there and it seems that waiting to do this work was the right thing because it gave me an opportunity to observe the ways the water moves across the property and work with it. The man I spoke with today helped me envision a way to incorporate the drain pipe which I had chosen not to include beacuse of concerns of being unable to access it to clean it out.
One bonus to clearing so many limbs and leaves and mulch is the creation of a new area of nearly flat land. A couple friends came by to collect some of the wonderful mulch we dug up and suggested the lawn extension. It was pretty easy to get established, especially with the dirt coming out of the area for the sunken patio, but grading it to flow down the mountain rather than into the patio is turning out to be a slow process. I’m considering planting it with grass or clover and I’d like to use the space for my old show canopy with some mosquito netting. That will make a nice overflow area during open studio events and parties and will make a nice picnic spot the rest of the time.
The retaining walls on the patio are coming along nicely. I took a day off the big stone work. It was quite a feat for me to move them all down to the site! The first course is all dug in and level and firm. Tomorrow I plan to complete them, fill the patio area with rocks,cover it with limestone base and move the landscaping rocks into the pathway behind the patio. The trench for the electrical cable is ready for me and the 2×4s are here. I am very eager to get this drainage work finished and move back to working on the studio itself. Not to mention IN the studio! I’ll post more pictures soon.
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