TMDAPR1

These rains keep washing out my yard.  What can I plant to keep that from happening.

Whether it be in your yard, your hay meadow or any place else, if you have bare soil, these spring rains will give you trouble until you get something established.  Most of your washes occur on sides of hills or sloped areas.  To keep this from happening over and over again try a few of the following suggestions.

When planting seed, water the hill or sloped area until it is soaked.  Then come in and plant.  If you cannot get water to it, wait until you have a rain, then go in and plant.  If you plant while it is dry, there will probably not be enough soil moisture to germinate the seed and the seed will not produce enough of a root system to hold it and the soil before the next big rain.

Plant grass from pallets instead of seed.  The root systems are already established and the turf is thick.  Most heavy rains will have a hard time penetrating pallets of grass.

Try using hay to keep it from eroding.  Square bales can be placed across the hill to detour the water.  If you place them every 5-10 feet, water will usually not generate enough force to erode the soil.  You can also use round bales and unroll them.  This acts like a cover and shields the soil from much of the running water.  It still lets enough rain in to get moisture to the soil though.  

My quote of the week comes from M Scott Peck.  It reads, "Until you value yourself, you won't value your time.  Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it."