The Art of Rock Work

I went back to work with Sonya at the community water harvesting project. We still had some areas to line with rock and then she wanted to fill the entire channel with mulch to decrease the evaporation. The rock work was very important in this project. Because the channel was on public land, Sonya wanted the rocks to be completely stable so the sides of the channel would not collapse should someone step on them. We did not line the bottom of the channel with rocks, but rather built up the sides with layers of rocks that were carefully placed under Sonya's guidance.



The first layer of rocks, packed tightly with dirt.



The rocks were placed in a way that resembed a retaining wall. We packed dirt around the rocks to fill any voids. In low spots in the channel we placed smaller rocks.

We also filled the channel with mulch. The mulch will help to hold the moisture into the ground and slow the evaportion rates.

The channel before we filled it with mulch.

The channel after it has been mulched. The channel leads up to the curb where the curb cut will be to drain runoff from the street.