Pot Holes

By Skeeter

(Above photo borrowed from the Internet)

I like Wikipedia's explanation of a pot hole:

A pothole (sometimes called kettle and known in parts of the Western United States as a chuckhole) is a type of disruption in the surface of a roadway where a portion of the road material has broken away, leaving a hole. Most potholes are formed due to fatigue of the pavement surface. As fatigue cracks develop they typically interlock in a pattern known as "alligator cracking". The chunks of pavement between fatigue cracks are worked loose and may eventually be picked out of the surface by continued wheel loads, thus forming a pothole. The formation of potholes is exacerbated by cold temperatures, as water expands when it freezes and puts more stress on cracked pavement. Once a pothole forms, it grows through continued removal of broken chunks of pavement. If a pothole fills with water the growth may be accelerated, as the water 'washes away' loose particles of road surface as vehicles pass. In temperate climates, potholes tend to form most often during spring months when the subgrade is weak due to high moisture content. However, potholes are a frequent occurrence anywhere in the world, including in the tropics.
Potholes can grow to feet in width, though they usually only become a few inches deep, at most. If they become large enough, damage to tires and vehicle suspensions occurs.

I think we can all relate to that last line about damaging our vehicles suspension. And just what does a pot hole have to do with a garden you may ask? Well, I have pot holes in my Georgia Garden! I call them pot holes as I don't know what else to call them.
Our potholes are formed from trees that were cut down years ago. Even though the trees are long gone and the stump ground up by a machine, the roots are still there. Over time, they rot forming a concave in the ground. Some may form into trenches such as the one above. We have to dig out the dirt over the hole and follow the trench until no more soft ground or roots are to be found.
This occurs in our yard often as we have removed many trees over the years. The Spring rains really get things to rotting for us. Each Spring and Fall we are out filling holes so we don't fall into them and twist or worse, break an ankle! So the ankle would be our human Suspension!
While digging out the grass, we are careful to turn it over as sod and put it back into place once the hole is filled with fresh dirt.
Then the Water Sprinkler is out doing its job of keeping the sod moist. We were lucky to have a nice rain fall the following day of this project so Mother Nature was helping us out a bit.

The only problem we have with this rehab, is finding good Top Soil. Most of the bags labeled "Top Soil" are nothing more then compost which will break down over time as well. We had to mix some dirt we had left from a recent project with the top soil in hopes it will do the trick and keep this hole filled. Ah, the joys of filling POT HOLES, In the Garden...