This is part 3 of a 4 - part series of how I fixed drainage problems in my pace . Part 1.How I resolve drain Problems In My YardPart 2.How to Combat Erosion in Your Yard
Three of the four downspouts on my home are buried near the corners of the foundation and pass about 10 feet from the house . There , they drain onto the lawn . This is a corking setup for pulling water system away from the foundation of the theatre , as long as the sassing of each drain pipe is kept open .
But it reverse out the previous owners of my new home had n’t maintained two of the waste pipe pipes . These gutters drain at the same point ( see photo ) , and they were so overgrown with mourning band and grease that they were completely hidden from view . I had walked over it plausibly a hundred times and never recognize it was there .
Because of this , each time we had significant rainfall , something consanguine to a lake collected in the rear corner of my grounds . As it was on the downside of a hill , I assumed that the lake was being created by hill runoff . Logical , right ? Nope . It was the submerged gutter drainpipe pipes and run over gutter on the house .
Water running down the outside walls told me I had a rain gutter problem.
Early in the first outflow after buying my menage we were hammered by a twine of rainstorm . Water was everywhere , and when I visualise it coursing down the international wall on the back of my house , I knew there was a gutter problem . Braving the driving rain , I stepped outside to have a flavour . Sure enough , water was spilling over the top of the toilet . From where the trough drainage pipe entered the flat coat , I walk nine to ten invertebrate foot in every direction , but for the aliveness of me I could n’t figure out where the opening of that pipe was . But I was sure that was the perpetrator . It had to be cleared .
Then I saw it : Mud was bubbling like a pot of blistering chocolate with bits of green goddess in it .
I ran to thegarden shed , grabbed my shovel , plunged it into the babble mud , and eureka ! Water came jet out like a dam had broken ( because in fact it had … ) . With the piss came filth , those maple tree seed , bug , shuttlecock plume , small stones , bits of ceiling shake , and various other unidentifiable things – a roof and gutter rain soup . ikon what would collect in your rainfall gutters after a year or two of them draining at a escargot ’s pace . And now it was running at my ft directly into the “ lake ” . But at least it was n’t come down the bulwark any longer .
So now I have it off the reference of the job . The gutterhadbeen draining but below ground , with the subterranean rainwater wind its way to the lake - yarea . It was the abject spot in my backyard , so by nature , water system would collect there if it could n’t dissipate elsewhere .
First, I tried diverting the water with new grass.
After things dry out out , I attempt to use the same technique I used in Part 2,How to Combat Erosion in Your Yardto regenerate the decimated lawn between the gutter drain and the “ lake ” . But the dope seed I plant , even though cover in burlap , washed away to the base of my quince bush trees , just beyond the “ lake ” . Submitted as grounds : a profoundly voluptuary tussock of new lawn from the base of the Quince trees out two feet , while the part I actually planted was eroded , bare patches interspersed with weakling weeds and grass , the roots of which ( I found later ) were being consumed byJapanese Beetle chuck .
A simple gravel drain offered the cheapest solution
I read up on grading and diverting water menses and guessed that the simplest and least expensive thing to do was to install a shortsighted crushed rock drain . This is not as complex as aFrench drainwhich involves burying tobacco pipe or drain tile .
Steps to build my gravel drain
That was it . Now I just had to wait for rain .
When the next hard rain came , I ran alfresco , take a aspect , and declare the new gravel drain a success . I was astonished by how well it work . What had once spirt with wildness was now a timid trickle that dissipated harmlessly in the lawn . And would n’t you know it ? NO MORE LAKE . The piddle never had a chance to get to the back of the grand .
cut the menstruation and volume of the water made renewing the lawn much easier . The grime had been water - excruciate for year , soI had to aerate itevery drop and Spring for three seasons , but that was simple . I also added finely ground compost andpeat mossover top of the grass seed and covered it with burlap until sprouting .
Now , this domain of my backyard is full of life force , with new shrubs of various kind , aRiver Birch tree , some ferns , and mickle of grass . I ’m turn it into ashade gardenwhere I ’ll be able to loosen on hot summer days after work in the vegetable garden .
