Anny ideas to cover up a mess?

9 years ago

We had a major house repair and right now I have a hill of dirt all around the foundation,to about 6 feet out from the wall.
It looks like the often seen picture of dug up lawns when there is a water line repair except we had the digging for 14 piers to stabilize a shifting slap house. It will be month bevore all will settle an I would like to camouflage it without slowing down the settling. Grass is out of the question because I could not mow there, too slanted for a mower. I would prefer seeds to plants for financial reasons. The repair was on the expensive side.
Thanks for any suggestions.

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Comments (3)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 years ago
i cant really conceptualize what your words mean ... any chance at some pix ...

and is this a winter project... or are you planning for next summer???

and what is the soil type ... something friable enough.. that you can rake some seeds in.. and somehow water the side of a hill ...

is it possible for you to start some seeds indoors... so you will have small plants to stick out.. after last frost????

i have a million ideas... but i would prefer for them to be realistic for you ...

ken
zen_man
9 years ago
Hi anneliese,

I agree with Ken that pictures of your situation would help us understand it better.

"...we had the digging for 14 piers to stabilize a shifting slab house."

Your local building code and the builder of the house are responsible for preventing a shifting or cracking slab. The concrete slab should have enough reinforcing steel bars in it to prevent cracking and the slab should be "floating" on a bed of sand to isolate it from shifts in the subsoil and/or rock formations on your site. If your house is relatively new, it might have been covered by a warranty against such foundation problems.

"It will be month before all will settle and I would like to camouflage it without slowing down the settling."

I'm not sure whether you mean it will take months to settle, or just one month. If just one month, seeding the open earth won't take effect soon enough to help. If you meant it will take months to settle, then filling the soil with a root structure might interfere with good settling of the earth.

Just out of curiosity, does your house have guttering to prevent rain runoff from the roof from falling on the open earth? And was there a foundation planting of shrubs, perennials and things in the foundation area that got excavated? If so, do you plan on making a new foundation planting? Maybe you should consider just raking the earth level and re-raking it to keep it level as settling occurs. Did the contractor who did the pier work have any suggestions as to how you should treat the disturbed earth?

Seeding the disturbed earth with a fast growing groundcover might conceal the earth, but could just create a nuisance in your landscaping plans. Pictures could help.

ZM
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anneliese_32
Original Author
9 years ago
Problem solved. I talked to a couple just a few blocks from our house who had the same problem 2 years ago. Just to clarify, we have clay in a formerly farm area, but our soil sits on top of a huge area of carst (southern Kentucky to middle Indiana, best known for Mammoth cave). Every once in a while something way down errodes or the water table changes and up here something shifts by a couple of inches. The best codes can't change that.
Well anyhow, the people used on their earth mounds sweet potato vines and petunias. They saved their tubers and are giving me some of theirs and I get wave petunia seed and start it at home.
Thanks for the help suggestions.
The earth is friable, I had foundation plantings and will again after things have settled. Racking is no option because the soil has to go back to original level,otherwise I have ditches.