HELP! My yard is eroding away!

[teacherloco]

I need some advice with my “dry creek bed”. I live at the bottom end of a fairly large neighborhood and my back yard serves as the natural drainage for the entire neighborhood. From my property the water drains under a road in a culvert to a “neighborhood commons area flood plain”, then to the lake. Most people in the neighborhood have a nice little dry creek bed that flows slightly, however by the time the water reaches my yard it is a raging river. My dry creek bed continues to erode after every hard rain. It has little vegetation in it. I have tried to place small to medium size rocks in it to give it that natural look, but everything gets washed away. Now I am not so concerned with the look as much as I am the erosion. It is pretty much a straight creek bed (only one curve on the end) that is about 40 yards long. It is about 2-3 feet wide and about 2 feet deep, but getting deeper and wider every year. Any suggestions?

[hackitdown]

Bigger rocks?

[teacherloco]

How will bigger rocks prevent erosion? Won't the water just go around the big rocks and erode the sides of the creek bed anyway? It is about 2 feet + deep. Thanks

[JDiepstra]

Dig it out to a square trech and put some railroad ties (spelling?) along the sides and some plastic behind them. Kinda like a retaining wall.

[teacherloco]

What about the bottom?

[JDiepstra]

I like the rock idea for the bottom. And by rock, I mean softball size or bigger. It will be easy to spray Roundup in there if weeds start growing too.

[pitrack]

What about a couple drains then route the piping underground and have it come out on the lower side?

[TwinTurbo]

How will bigger rocks prevent erosion?

It is pretty much a straight creek bed (only one curve on the end) that is about 40 yards long.

I'm no expert but I have some experience dealing with similar drainage ditches. The bigger rocks will slow the water down. Your biggest problem is water speed. It's straight and long and that allows the water to gain speed and power. Fill the trench with 1-2ft rocks with angular faces and it will slow down the flow. The larger rocks will also take much longer to silt up so you don't have to revisit the job anytime soon. Most recently, a friend bought a camp with a major drainage problem. The water was raging down the hill towards the lake and about to undercut the foundation. We put a swale and berm in to direct the water around and filled the entire trench with 2-3ft sized rocks. Viola! no more erosion. The trench does need to have the capacity to hold the increased water amount due to slowing it down so figure that into the equation. You may need to increase the depth if the trench is full during the max flow you have now. Anyway, my double lincolns...

edit: I should have added that you should size the rocks based on your situation. They need to be large enough to impede the water flow. It depends on the amount and speed of the water as to how large you need to go to be useful.