Trying to come up with a game plan for this next year with my neighbor. We share a drainage swell between our properties (2 acres each).

Both sides of our swell gets pretty eroded out after a year of rainfalls. Nothing concerning at this point. Neighbor does have his shop 20 feet from it, so that would be somewhat concerning to me. The swell is about 4-5' deep and probably close to 10' wide in some spots.

We are both motivated to see if we can get something growing in this other than the scrub brush and thorny trees. My suggestion to this point would be planting Buffalo grass but I do not have personal experience with it. Does anyone have any other native grass recommendations that would be close to no maintenance when it comes to watering? Located just south of Fort Worth along 35.

Post a pic. Seriously.

If there are shear walls involved, shaping is likely in your future. It may well be possible to encourage the native vegetation to do the job, but far and away the best stabilizing grass in those situations will be bermudagrass.

Need pics. Agree, sheer walls of clay are problematic. Bahia needs even less water than bermuda. Does better in shade, is more tolerant of wet areas, and needs less nutrients. In my limited experience it's harder to germinate but im liking it better for erosion control.

What is the length of the swale?

I had the same issue and my property is on the downhill side of the swale unfortunately. I ended up putting up a retaining wall. But the part that was an real issue is only about 60ft in length.cost me about $20K but I no longer have an issue with erosion.

I work for a 500 acre wholesale nursery. We have a creek that runs through the back half of the nursery. The county would occasionally clean the creek with their big backhoe. The soil is a sandy loam which erodes easily. After gaing permission from the county Commissioner, we planted many pallets of burmuda along both sides. The understanding was the county would no longer clean/dredge the sides of the creek. We set up irrigation lines along both sides. This section of the creek is a couple thousand feet long x 12' deep. The burmuda is now we'll established. The sides are to steep for mowing. The nursery occasionally sprayed herbicide to kill weeds until the grass was established. The bermuda has taken over. Much better situation now both for the nursery and for the Commissioner.

Better have a pH of 7 or less with Bahia. Not likely in that blackland area he's likely at.

Another option is Hydromulch and erosion mat. We usually have Hydromulch contractor put down a "park mix" of seed - has stuff that comes up fast and longer germinating seed for final cover. The mix varies by the time of year. The area you have is probably below a minimum charge but we can usually find someone that will make us a deal for small areas, hit it when they have extra mix coming of another job etc. Maybe not as good as putting down sod but definitely quicker and easier, and we have good luck with it.

As others have said if you have bad erosion trenches or walls you will need to regrade. If you have room to just cut existing to grade that is easy. If you have to add some material to fill in ruts or sheer slopes that can be more tricky. The right way is to "key" in the new material and compact it best you can. Build slope out past where you want it then cut it back to the final grade you want.

I had a huge gulley when I bought my property 25 years ago. NRCS gave me a heavy machinery plan for 35k. Didn't have 35k at the time. I talked to a couple tree trimmers I knew and offered them the gulley to unload brush. 25 years later the huge gulley is gone. Slow down water, stop erosion, organic to boot.

https://www.seedsource.com/catalog/detail.asp?product_id=2808
Dam Slope Mix

https://www.seedsource.com/catalog/detail.asp?product_id=2861
Drain field Mix

https://www.seedsource.com/catalog/detail.asp?product_id=7059
Net less erosion mats

Thanks all for the replies. I'll check out some of the links.

Will try to post pics, I always seem to fight trying to get them posted on here.

Does any entity have a drainage easement for that area? If so, you might want to check with them to make sure you can do what you're planning to do. Most won't care if you're just planting grass, but they may get concerned if you start changing grade or slopes.

HTownAg98 said:

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Does any entity have a drainage easement for that area? If so, you might want to check with them to make sure you can do what you're planning to do. Most won't care if you're just planting grass, but they may get concerned if you start changing grade or slopes.

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No. Property line runs straight through the bottom of the swell.

10andBOUNCE said:

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HTownAg98 said:

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Does any entity have a drainage easement for that area? If so, you might want to check with them to make sure you can do what you're planning to do. Most won't care if you're just planting grass, but they may get concerned if you start changing grade or slopes.

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No. Property line runs straight through the bottom of the swell.

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Your property line may run through the bottom of the swale, but there may be an easement that overlays it. If your property was platted for a subdivision, check the plat to be sure the developer didn't reserve an easement when it was platted.

Looks like it should be within an easement to me as well

Give the office a call…we can come out and give you a free consult on it.
Thanks.
Dale
D4 Land Services 9796761985

Thanks

Without hiring an engineer I'd say you'd benefit from a geogrid or geomat to line the ditch/swale with. The plastic grid helps to hold your slopes and you can seed seed plant in the mat directly to hide it. These are fairly straightforward to install yourself. Below is just one example but there are others similar and can be found by doing some Google. We use more "industrial" types for use around the 2:1 slopes of our bridges and they perform effectively.

https://www.geoproduct.pl/en/products/geosystem/

agree.......grass is key. erosion probably happened not long after it was initially cut, before grass was established.
It needs to be cut or graded and then seeded, sodded or hydromulched.

HTownAg98 said:

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Your property line may run through the bottom of the swale, but there may be an easement that overlays it. If your property was platted for a subdivision, check the plat to be sure the developer didn't reserve an easement when it was platted.

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This was my thought after seeing the picture. Could be an easement and someone else's responsibility to "fix it" for you.