A rainy day can be a perfect time to curl up with a cup of coffee and a good book, but if you have drainage issues, it becomes a worrying time of checking gutters, downspouts, and low spots, wondering if water is getting into your home and causing damage. Moldy crawlspaces can pose a thread to our personal health and the integrity of our home’s structure. Soil erosion is unsightly and can undermine the health of our plantings, or damage our lawns.
A client asked us to help her with drainage issues in her backyard. Her back lawn slopes to a low spot among some shade trees that also receives drainage from surrounding properties, with no easy outlet. When it rained, her backyard would erode, the mulch under her shade trees washed out, and the low spot would become water-logged, even pooling. This made it difficult to grow healthy turf and maintain an attractive area under the shade trees. As part of this project, she wanted to reuse the perennials she had planted under the shade trees, adding to them with natives whenever possible. She also had a back entrance with uneven pavers and poor drainage under her deck. To solve these issues, we proposed:
- several dry stream beds to catch and direct water from her yard and the surrounding properties
- a dry well at the end of the stream beds to store a certain amount of rainwater, allowing it to infiltrate in to the soil below surface level
- surface drains and swales under her deck to reroute water into her yard and the streambed/dry well system
- a new, solid, level patio at the back entrance that would tie into her existing walkway
- extending downpours at least 15′ away from her house
- lifting her existing plants, storing them during construction and replanting them, adding a good selection of new plantings to the restored beds under her shade trees and around the new patio
The beds under the shade trees now offer a lovely planting area that can be enjoyed from the new patio. The drainage system under her deck, the dry stream beds and dry well all seem to be working well. It’s important to have a back up plan for particularly heavy rains. This system does overflow into the surrounding low lawn areas, but the mulch and plantings under the trees stay in good condition, and now she is ready to further develop that planting area.
Developing a comprehensive drainage system for your property needs to begin with careful consideration of the topography, soil, and your goals for your property. The system may include elements like dry stream beds, dry wells, surface drains, and downspout extensions, but can also utilize regrading, french drains, and other infiltration strategies like rain gardens. Water is an important resource, and can help our yards flourish or cause damage, depending on how we shape our landscapes.
| Dry stream beds and dry well being installed: |
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