controlling mud

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NewToMini's

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I have an area in front of the barn that gets really muddy. It's an area about 4x4 feet, and the mud gets several inches deep. The Minis hate walking in it, but they have to go through it to get in and out of the barn.

I need ideas to help get rid of the mud. Last spring, I put a carpet section upside down on top of it, but it got slippery after a while and eventually just disappeared into the mud.

I was thinking about finding rocks around my property, and putting them where it gets muddy, and then buying pea gravel to put on top. It could potentially be expensive, though, depending on how much pea gravel I need to buy.

Another idea I just saw was to put cedar bedding on it. That would be cheaper, but would it actually work? Wouldn't it get all soggy and wet, or not?

Any other ideas?
 
Your rock idea is probably the best one and will likely end up the most economical in the long run.

Start adding the rocks when it's muddy (perhaps start gathering the rocks when it's not muddy and have a stock pile near by, so you can start adding them next muddy time), then add pea gravel as you can. You could excavate the area, lay down a geotextile that allows drainage, but not erosion, then add gravel; but this would be the most expensive.
 
Does it get muddy in that particular spot because it is a low spot and the water sits there ?? Or is it water that is running off your barn ?? I recently had a similar problem in front of my feed shed. i was able to fix it by leveling out the ground with a bob cat/earth moving machine.

Agree with the rocks Idea too, it would be a less expensive exercise than pea gravel.
 
Please don't do cedar bedding. I was pregnant the majority of last spring, and I could haul a wheelbarrow to clean stalls. I wound up making a muck pile just outside the stalls off the side of the drylot area. Now that I'm functional and able to muck I have to dig up that bedding and it is heck. It creates a thick interlocking layered mess that does nothing to stop the muck and moisture. If anything it's kept the ground wetter longer so we have more mud this year :/
 
Around here road base seems to be the way to go. Sand/gravel mixture. It packs down hard, drains well, and resists turning into that nasty soupy mud we all hate. Sometimes though, if the mud is really bad you have to wait for it to dry out a bit before trying to fix it. We had a deep muddy spot that would just "swallow" whatever we tried to put down. Once it dried out a bit we used the road base and it hasn't been a problem since. Good luck!
 
Ideally you would put down geotextile and then gravel, but for a 4x4 area, I would use weed barrier that you can easily purchase in small quantities at Home Depot or other garden centers. Either material keeps you gravel from disappearing into the muck.

If you have a pickup, you can get enough gravel for that size area -- you do want a thick layer. If you get it delivered, most of the cost will be for their time and mileage, so get enough to make it worthwhile.

Once you have it down, pick manure and mud daily.

We bought a load of 1/4-10 gravel for garden paths, so I also used it around our gates. In these cases I did not use weed barrier, as the lawn (such as it is) will benefit from the drainage as it sinks in and grass grows over.
 
I've learned that water either drains away or evaporates. ...in our climate, evaporation doesn't happen for much of the year. Plunking something down atop the water/mud just doesn't work. I think you have to do something to cause the water to drain away.

I do thank whoever it was here on the forums that suggested pea gravel. We dug drainage first. Then we put rocks (2-4 inches in size)about 3 foot or so down. And then topped off with pea gravel. We had a dump truck load delivered at the end of summer 2014 and placed it in an area sized about 20x30 ft (forget how much that was--probably a ton or so?) It's holding up fairly well; although, the girls like to pee right outside their stall door and we're going to have to dig that out and replace it.

I've read on the internet about the geotextile barriers. I just can't envision that working too well here; but, our climate is awfully soggy.
 
It's in a flat spot on the side of a hill, but the rest of the front of the barn isn't nearly as muddy. It's just extra muddy there from all the traffic and nearly constant rains in the spring and fall. The rest of the ground gets really soggy and squishy, too (and even the driveway last year), but the grass and less foot traffic keeps it from getting too muddy.

I have a pile of rocks next to my house, from tilling the garden. We should have quite a few rocks there (hopefully enough), because every year we find more and more rocks in that garden, lol
 
We "grow" rocks here too. If the wet spot is "flat" then the grade pooling water is your biggest problem. As others suggested, adding organic matter of any kind will just create more "fluff" that will stay soggy. Is there a lot of top soil in that area? If so, you could scrape/dig it out to expose hard dirt underneath and that will help. If the rocks that you have are flat, then laying them down as a "patio" of sorts will keep you from sinking, but may get slippery. If these are round rocks, then you may encounter difficulties walking on them and so could your horses. I like the wash sand mixture that my husband trucked in to put down in all of our round pens. It was cheap, it only cost 152.00 for a 36 yard dump truck load (well, we split it into 2 loads because of the weight). Putting pea gravel down to allow drainage while stiffening up the ground is probably your best bet. Does the runoff from the barn roof spill off there? I had that problem at the end of the cow barn, hung a gutter and my mud problem drastically improved. If it is only 4x4 you could buy a stall mat and put it over the spot, if it starts to sink into the ground, you could put your rock collection down first, then cover it with the mat.
 
The runoff goes to the sides of the barn, and the muddy spot is at the front corner. So some runoff could be moving into the muddy spot.

The barn is pretty worn down, though, I don't know if we could attach gutters XD

Thinking about building a shedrow type barn that I could close into stalls, but I'll likely be moving in a few years (21 year old still living with parents), so I don't know that I want to invest that much money into this property.

Would the stall mat get slippery if it gets mud on it? Also, I'd kinda like to build up the area, the minis have to step down quite a bit to leave the barn.
 
we had that problem in front of our barn entries and gate entries to the fields, we put down stone and then put the rubber stall mats (the thick ones) down and made a WORLD of difference and the mud was no more.
 
If you look at the mats before you buy them you can find ones with one smooth side and one rough side. I always install mine rough side up. I have never had anyone slip on one of ours, but I do give lessons to someone who ordered mats that are slick, feel more plastic than rubber. They are relatively cheap, like 40 bucks for a 3x5, and last forever (I moved mine from my parent's house when I got my own place.
 
The runoff goes to the sides of the barn ...[snip]

The barn is pretty worn down ... [snip]
Worn down or not, water at the foundation/footings might wear it down quicker?

I found my receipt for pea gravel; boy do I suck at dimensioning; it was 15 tons in our 20x30 foot area.
 

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