Woodland Garden Path - Louisville, KY

Our client had recently moved to Louisville and purchased a home in Persimmon Ridge. Not long after moving in they began to notice the hill along their property was eroding away. All the eroding soil deposited below the hill creating mucky conditions. Due to the constant erosion, vegetation wasn't able to take root leading to a cycle of more erosion and more muck.

 As an avid outdoorsman, the homeowner enjoys strolls along the property, with the family dog, down to Floyd's Fork below. The erosion and muck made it difficult for the homeowner to enjoy his property and created and eyesore for the whole neighborhood.

The software we use to design with, Vizterra, has GIS capabilities enabling us to download the terrain of the property we are providing a design for. When we were beginning the design processes for this project, the GIS ability was crucial to getting the land to form accurate to real life. With the landform accurate, we planned the path. The homeowner's main goal was to be able to access the creek below the hill from their garage or from the street.  During the design process, the homeowner requested to install their own plants but wanted guidance what to put and where. We included several types of plants, bushes and ground covers in the landscape design but you will not find them in the finished build as the homeowner opted to install the landscape themself.

Pictured above is the property from the bottom of the eroding hill. Notice the ripple marks carved away by surface run-off. This effect is caused by the hydrostatic pressure of surface run-off as it picks up speed going down the hill. Once sufficient speed is reached, the water has enough pressure to erode away soil. 

The hill had to be sculpted to fit the path. Notice the extra width of the dig to include the drainage system and boulder wall. The dirt removed to create the path was used to build a berm on the other side of the walkway. A berm downslope of the walkway will help retain the smaller pea gravel planned for the path. 

Set on a bed of gravel, each stone for the staircase weighed about 400 pounds, making the process to place them perfectly arduous. We accomplished this using the Dingo Mini Skid and some elbow grease. 

The drainage system will capture funneled run-off from the boulder wall, ground water coming through the soil from the hillside and water captured in the walkway. There was a gutter down spout from the garage that drains into a catch basin at the end of the drain line. Water captured in the drain exits through an exhaust closer to the creek.

With the drainage system installed, the boulder wall is next. A boulder wall is a great way to have a retainer system that blends into nature. The dry stack build process enables a French Drain to be hidden behind the wall but still function perfectly. If the drain system is overwhelmed the water can still exit the boulder wall without potentially collapsing it. Meticulously placing the boulders creates a masterpiece rivaling nature. 

The final build completion is not done proper justice in this picture. Stretching nearly 80 feet, the finished wall looked nearly identical to the rendered version. It is a wonderful thing when a plan comes together!