Originally Posted By: John F
That much rip rap would have almost doubled the cost of renovating the pond.

I have no pics of the rock and straw dams close enough to see them well enough. I built small rock and brick dams about four inches high at intermediate intervals in the potential gullies and tucked straw under and against them. There was a large amount of scrap brick and concrete block left around the place when we bought it. I also placed some of my fish structure rock and brick piles so they would catch silt as the pond filled and keep it out of the deeper basin. I sowed annual rye around the dam and basin in mid August and again in mid September. I also placed some loose hay and straw around the steeper parts of the banks on top of the seeds. Sowed 50 pounds of winter wheat around the upper part of the site two weeks ago after disposal of the brush and stumps and am now getting some germination of that. I want ground cover as heavy as I can get by spring. If you can get some old carpet, it makes good erosion control around a pond basin until you get vegetation going. Just leave it in the basin and let the waters and silt cover it.


Yep, the rip rap definitely added some cost. IIRC We used something like 160 yards at $16 or $17/yd delivered and spread. I am ok with it as the waterways where we put it are subject to a huge amount of water during any significant rainfall. Used it on the shoreline in high erosion areas and for habitat.

I planted a rye/fescue/bluegrass mix early October (good for Illinois, probably not good for Texas). The fescue germinates even faster than the rye. The original plan was to cover with straw for moisture retention but Ma Nature decided that would be a great time to give us several days of wind 20 to 40 mph so no straw (I figure it would mostly either blow away or into the pond).

Here is what it looked like a week or so ago.

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Last edited by Bill D.; 12/14/15 08:09 AM.
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