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Gardening InformationGetting Rid of Standing Water in Your Yard
by:
Michael McGroarty
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HOW TO GET RID OF STANDING WATER IN YOUR YARD
Do you have one or more areas in your yard that hold water after a rainfall? This is a common problem, and sometimes difficult to solve. Over the years I’ve talked with dozens of folk trying to battle this problem, and on several occasions I have been hired to solve the problem. So what can be done?
Too often folk move to me asking what kind of a tree, or what kind of shrubs can be planted in a wet area to dry it up. This is the wrong approach. Most plants, and I mean simply about all plants are not going to survive in an area wherever
the soil is soggy for extended periods of time. The roots need to breath, and planting a tree or woody plant
in a water area wish kill it.
Another common approach is to try and fill the area with topsoil. Depending on a variety of variables, this can work, but many an times adding additional soil to a wet area wish only shift the water to another area simply a few feet away.
If you are lucky enough to have several natural fall to your property, or a evacuation ditch nearby, this problem is easy enough to solve. If you happen to live in an area that was developed over the past few years, there strength
even as be a system to move out storm water nearby. In many an new house developments I’ve seen stormwater catch basins already installed in backyards. Trust me, this is a nice thing. There is nothing worse than having a soggy yard all the time.
If you are fortunate to have several fall to your yard, or a stormwater system that you can drain water into, this problem is easy to solve. Do sure you check with your local officials before you do thing
at all with a storm drain.
All you have to do is go to your local building supply center and buy several 4” perforated plastic drain pipe. The better kind for this intention is the flexible kind that comes in 100’ rolls. This type of drain pipe has small slits all about the pipe. These slits allow water to enter the pipe so it can be carried away.
Just dig a trench from the center of the low area you are trying to drain, to the point that you intend to drain it to. Victimisation a simple line level you can set up a string over top of the trench to do sure that your pipe runs downhill all the way. A line level is a really small level that is designed to attach to a string. Any hardware stores sells them for simply a couple of dollars. Set the string up so it is level, then measure from the string to the bottom of your trench to do sure you have constant fall. You should have 6” fall for every 100’ of pipe.
The highest point is going to be the area that you are trying to drain, so you only want your pipe deep enough at this point so it can be covered with soil. Once the trench is dug simply lay the pipe in. At the highest end of the pipe you’ll need to insert a filter
into the end of the pipe to support soil from entering the pipe. Cover the pipe with several washed stone, and then backfill the trench with soil. The washed stone creates a void about the pipe so that the water can find its way into the pipe.
Washed stone is ordinarily bargain-priced stone that has been washed so it is clear and free of mud. The only part of the pipe that of necessity
to be exposed is the low end, wherever
the water exits the pipe. Do not put a filter
in that end.
If you do not have anyplace
that you can drain the water to, you still strength
be able to do something. But 1st consider what is happening, and why the water is standing wherever
it is. Even as if you have well drained soil, water cannot soak in fast enough during periods of heavy rain, and it runs across the top of the ground and eventually finds the lowest point, and either leaves the property, or gets trapped.
If you have well drained soil, the treed water ordinarily soaks in. If you have heavy clay soil, the water lays there, and the soil underneath becomes really compacted, and the problem compounds itself. The more water that stands, the worse the evacuation gets.
What I have done in areas like this, wherever
there is standing water, but obscurity
to drain it to, is to install a French drain system that really carries the water away from the low area, and allows it to feed into the ground over a larger distance, wherever
the soil is not quite so compacted. To install this French drain system you do everything exactly as explained above, except instead of exhausting the water to a lower area, you can send it in any direction you like. Even as in the direction from which it came, which is uphill.
When commencement this type of system, it’s a nice idea to dig a number of shorter trenches, all heading away from the area wherever
the water stands. Victimisation the line level, do sure your trenches fall away from their point of origin so once the water enters the pipes it wish flow away from the wet spot. What is going to happen is that during times of heavy rain the low area is still going to trap water, but more of that water is going to feed into the drain pipes and eventually leach into the soil under each trench.
Because this soil has not been compacted by the standing water and the baking sun, it wish accept the water. It won’t happen nearly as fast as if you could simply drain the water to a ditch, but at least you wish have a mechanism in place that wish eventually disperse the water back into the soil. It’s a lot easier to leach 200 gallons of water into a series of trenches that total 100 lineal feet, than it is to expect that water to leach into a 10’ by 10’ area that is hard and compact.
Simply about the author:
Archangel
J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most exciting website, http://www.freeplants.comand sign up for his superior
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