Self inflicted disaster..........again !

[Danie]

Just after I came back from work earlier this afternoon, I anctiosly open our back door - just to have a quick look at my hard work in our pool area during the past couple of evenings. And as I opened the door, I actually could'nt beleive my eyes ............disaster - again ! The concrete fencing above our swimming pool has collapsed  - probably due to a (self inflicted) mud slide !  

We bought our current house about 18 months ago, and unfortunately the previous owner has not been a keen gardener. When we moved into the house, the bank at the back of the pool area was covered with weeds, and just after we moved in, I started getting rid of the weeds. Then it started raining heavily - causing a mud slide - and half of the bank ended up in the swmming pool !

Since the previous disaster I was not very sure whether I should try again........but the temptation became too much to handle............. I started getting rid of the weeds, planted daisy lawn.........then it started raining heavily yesterday, and it is stll raining - causing another mudslide !

Now I am not too sure whether the insurance company will be very happy about the situation........

 

[Danie]

Sorry about the pic's quality - I suppose I was a bit shakey        

[Ed Miller]

That fence is concrete?  Wow.  

[suecanada]

Ouch!!! I guess you need to try some erosion control material which is impregnated with seeds for plants that have deep rooting characteristics. Grass is too short rooted. Rebar for erodeable slopes is some deep and intertwined roots.  Take a look at what shrubs and plants grow on the embankments of rivers for a hint in your part of the world. We liked the fast shrub willow or red osier dogwood.  The latter is nice in that the stems are a beautiful red colour.

[nhmaf]

In our area one can buy bags of wild flower and grass seeds called "Conservation Seed" - it is intended to be used on slopes and areas prone to erosion where one wants indigenous, fast rooting and thick growing plants to help take hold of the soil and prevent these sorts of things.   some of these contain "weeds" or wildflower type plants that are actually quite pretty when they blossom.   Maybe they have something similar to this sort of thing produced in your area ?

IT would probably break many international laws, but you could probably have some of our members from the southern half of the USA ship you a couple stalks of Kudzu plant - that stuff can take over a hillside within a couple weeks, I think, depending on your average amount of rainfall.   But, it could potentially take over your whole neighborhood, too!
 

[DeeG]

Wow, that sucks.  

What kind of drainage system did the previous owner install behind that nice brick wall?   That might be part of the problem.  Too much saturation and not enough drainage and it won't matter what you plant there.

[aussie]

I'm really sorry about the problems you're having Danie, but I'm a little confused (a common state of play I think).

How is is that your removing of the weeds caused the fence to collapse? I'm assuming the property above is not yours?

[Danie]

Thanks about all advice - I hope to adress all questions.

Firstly, I have contacted the Insurance company today, but unfortunately I am still in the dark - the insurance reprasentative did not seem to be 100% sure about the "fine print" of the contract. They were suppose to phone me back - but they never did. So hopefully I will get an answer tomorrow.

I am not aware of any proper drainage system on any side of the fence. The property on the other side of the fence belongs to my neighbour, and we still have to discuss the problem. My intention is to get all relative building plans from the local outhorities, in order to make a proper assesment. Fortunately both my youngest son, and son in law, are civil engineers by profession - so hopefully there will be a cheaper way to prevent similar future problems.

As far as the concrete fence is concerned - it consists of vertical concrete posts, with loose concrete blocks which slide in between the different posts. Unlike the US,  (where hardly any fences in residential areas can be seen) concrete, razorwire, and electic fences unfortunately became an absolute nessessaty in our country during the past couple of years - for security reasons.

Regarding shrubs and other bigger plants with a better root system which could help to stabilize the upper bank - these plants are becoming more and more unpopular in our area, also due to safety risks.  As said before on other threads, we do experience an extremely high crime rate in our country - and these plants often offer shelter to unwanted elements in residential areas. And for this very reason, I must admit - I unfortunately had to remove some shrubs from the bank as well.

Perhaps a better answer about  personal risks locally could be found somewhere in this report from abroad :

http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=4752.0.102.0

Regards

Danie

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

From reading the intro to that report (link), your mudslide is the least of your problems.
I am sorry that things in SA are in such a bad way...

[Danie]

Well, a lot of things can be said about this country, but fact is - I will stay here till I die.

On a positive note, there are still millions of people with high moral values locally, and we are also facing an election - hopefully during the first half of this year. Many citizens are simply sick and tired of the current mess in this country - which started the day when the great Nelson Mandela left our political scene just over eight years ago. Mr, Mandela's moral legacy has simply been destroyed by most of the political leaders in our goverment during the past couple of years.

The recent split in the ruling political party (ANC) is causing a lot of excitement locally - many prominent leaders in the ANC started jumping off the bandwagon.  The sence of despair (to many citizens) has been replaced with a sence of "yes, we can too".

I prefer not to say much more about this issue, but I have added a few pics to my Photobucket album - perhaps those pics tell a better story about why so many local citizens are so concerned (and furious) about the current condition of this beloved country.

The pics have been taken by myself when I visited my mother in the western Free State - just after the past Chrismas period . My children went to this school untill it became a "full blown" goverment school back in 1995. Untill that time that school was a semi-private school - and in perfect condition.

While I visited the school (perhaps unlawfully) which accomodates more than 1000 pupils each year during the school holiday, I found almost complete chaos -doors and windows has simply been left open, and it was clear that nature already took a toll on the buildings itself. It was hard to find any classroom without broken windows - door locks has been destroyed, toilets were in a disgusting condition, etc. :

http://s259.photobucket.com/albums/hh288/DaniesR65/

I do apologize about this disgusting pic from the school toilets, but perhaps it says a lot about dropping standards in our country:

[DeeG]

Danie,

I understand the concerns about the shrubs.  Perhaps you can find something that isn't so pleasant to hide amongst?  The spouses dad propagated a beautiful rose bush that he had at a Skelly fuel station he owned back in 1948.  He brought some of it to the house, about 13 years ago.  This rose has the most thorns on it that I have ever seen on any plant, anywhere.  When I trimmed it back last summer, I was wearing some very thick leather gloves.  Even though I was being very careful, sometimes the thorns went through the gloves like they were thin silk.  ouch!!!

We also have some raspberries and wild roses that are pretty nasty, too.  And the root system on these things go extremely deep.  I've got some of the roses growing on the embankment between the house and the street.  No one is going to be doing any hiding there, unless they're wearing a suit of armor.   The quail like it though......coyotes can't get to them there.  

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

Good stuff Dee!  I hope Danie is able to use them!

[nhmaf]

Around here in New England, people with nice "estate" type homes often grow a particular variety of holly shrub as a hedge around their house.  It is very, very dense, and the leaves on the thing (which stay on even through much of the winter)  are basically like thick, 8 edged razor blades.   The stuff is impossible to get through without a suit of armor and its roots go deep into the soil, I don't think that it would tolerate the hotter/drier climates so well, though.   The birds of course like the berries, and it is quite ornamental besides beign a good deterrent against intruders.

[Altritter]

I understand the concerns about the shrubs.  Perhaps you can find something that isn't so pleasant to hide amongst?  The spouses dad propagated a beautiful rose bush that he had at a Skelly fuel station he owned back in 1948.  He brought some of it to the house, about 13 years ago.  

We also have some raspberries and wild roses that are pretty nasty, too.  And the root system on these things go extremely deep.  I've got some of the roses growing on the embankment between the house and the street.  No one is going to be doing any hiding there, unless they're wearing a suit of armor.   The quail like it though......coyotes can't get to them there.  

Another good possibility is Pyracantha. Not only are the thorns viciously sticky, but they also seem to have something on them that burns like an insect sting. (Hence a partial reason for the name.) A bonus is that the berries are a very pretty red (another explanation of the name). See the www.wikipedia.com item about the security aspects.

JT

[msbuck]

Around here in New England, people with nice "estate" type homes often grow a particular variety of holly shrub as a hedge around their house.  It is very, very dense, and the leaves on the thing (which stay on even through much of the winter)  are basically like thick, 8 edged razor blades.   The stuff is impossible to get through without a suit of armor and its roots go deep into the soil, I don't think that it would tolerate the hotter/drier climates so well, though.   The birds of course like the berries, and it is quite ornamental besides beign a good deterrent against intruders.

Well, we have a couple of different varieties of the holly bush/tree around here in the south.  It gets pretty hot here and it survives really well.  You cut it down and it comes right back!  The birds love nesting in them as well.  Those leaves can really bite!  But I like to use sprigs for decorations at Christmas time.