River Rock To Control Downspout Surface Drain Erosion - April 2024

Yesterday, I posted some photos showing how I used the "Lasagna Method" to smother some grass with cardboard and top-it with mulch to improve a foundation-adjacent garden bed on the side of our house.  The goal was to raise up the soil level, smother out grass and improve the area looks-wise.   But, that wasn't the only recent improvement that I completed over on that side of the house.  While I was using gravel and river rock to level-out the pizza oven site, I decided to take a couple of bags of the River Rock to put to work by the downspout surface drain outlet.  

I've been wrasslin' with surface water on this side of my house for years - here's a post from 2020 where I talk about 'floating mulch' due to the downspout release.  Over the years, I've seen the area erode and this Spring, I've attempted to address it in a few ways.  First, by hauling over some of the excavated material from the pizza oven project to 'fill in' some low spots.    Then, I completed the 'excavated turf' Lasagna Method project (with cardboard) I linked above/posted yesterday.  

Today, I'm including a photo showing how I've laid down a pair of bags of River Rock (1 cubic foot in total) around the surface drain.  You can see some of the larger rocks that I've tossed over there in previous seasons, but this is the first time I've used this much rock.  The goal...slow down the exit velocity of the water and (hopefully) help some of the erosion problems.  

You can see the newly laid mulch from the "Lasagna Method" on the right.  And one of my Limelight Hydrangeas right in the middle.

I'll be keeping an eye on this during our first hard rain.  Did I improve anything?  Or just 'move' the problem further downstream?