Getting Rid of Standing Water in Your Yard
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Article by: Michael J. McGroarty Do you have one or more areas in your yard , The Best Fertilizing Tips For A Green Healthy Lawn that hold water , Vegetable Gardening after a rainfall? This is a common problem, and sometimes difficult to solve. Over the years I've talked with dozens of people trying to battle this problem, and on several occasions I have been hired to solve the problem. So what can be done? Too often people come to me asking what kind of a tree, , Cyclamen or what kind of shrubs , Planting Bare Root Roses can be planted in a wet area to dry it up. This is the wrong approach. Most plants, , How to Choose Your Garden Furniture and Make It Last and I mean almost all plants , Seed Starting Tips are not going to survive in an area where the soil , This Fall, Give Your Trees Some TLC is soggy for extended periods of time. The roots , Earthworms in the Garden/Earthworm Facts need to breathe, and planting a tree , Lawn Mower Safety or shrub , Starting With Cuttings in a water , Annuals For Shade area will 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 times adding additional soil , Vermicomposting - Worm Composters For Eco-Friendly Waste Disposal and Recycling to a wet area will only shift the water , Lawn Mower Safety to another area just a few feet away. If you are lucky enough to have some natural , Tips For Cleaning Your Patio fall to your property, , Discover the Single Most Important Trick to Overwintering Pond Fish or a drainage 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 might even be a system to remove storm water , A Quick Guide To Yard Bridges nearby. In many new home , Ferns as Indoor Plants developments I've seen stormwater catch basins already installed in backyards. , Seed Starting Tips Trust me, this is a good thing. There is nothing worse than having a soggy yard , Garden Room Boundaries... all the time. If you are fortunate to have some fall , Cattleya Orchid Plant - Why They Are Not Popular to your yard, , The Flower Drying Game - Part 3: An Affordable Home Flower-Press or a stormwater system that you can drain water , Seed Starting Tips into, this problem is easy to solve. Make sure you check with your local , Garden for Birds #4 officials before you do anything at all with a storm drain. All you have to do is go to your local , Discover the Single Most Important Trick to Overwintering Pond Fish building supply center and buy some 4" perforated plastic , Do You Want to Have Concrete Balls? drain pipe. The best kind for this purpose is the flexible kind that comes in 100' rolls. This type of drain pipe has small slits all around the pipe. These slits allow water , Pond Liner Repair 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. Using a simple line level you can set up a string over top of the trench to make sure that your pipe runs downhill all the way. A line level is a very small level that is designed to attach to a string. Any hardware , BBQ Food is the Mental Cue that Summer is Here stores sells them for just a couple of dollars. Set the string up so it is level, then measure from the string to the bottom of your trench to make sure you have constant fall. , Cyclamen You should have 6" fall , Tips For Cleaning Your Patio 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. , Preformed Pond Liners Once the trench is dug just lay the pipe in. At the highest end of the pipe you'll need to insert a strainer into the end of the pipe to keep soil , Don't Forget the Birds this Winter from entering the pipe. Cover the pipe with some washed stone, , How to Choose Your Garden Furniture and Make It Last and then backfill the trench with soil. , Tips on Gardening The washed stone , Discover the Single Most Important Trick to Overwintering Pond Fish creates a void around the pipe so that the water , Do You Want to Have Concrete Balls? can find its way into the pipe. Washed stone , Don't Forget the Birds this Winter is usually inexpensive stone , Shade Gardening When You Have No Shade that has been washed so it is clean and free of mud. The only part of the pipe that needs to be exposed is the low end, where the water , Wise Gardening - The Basics Required to Create a WaterWise Garden exits the pipe. Do not put a strainer in that end. If you do not have anywhere that you can drain the water , Earthworms in the Garden/Earthworm Facts to, you still might be able to do something. But first consider what is happening, and why the water , A Quick Guide To Yard Bridges is standing where it is. Even if you have well drained soil, , WaterWise Gardening - The Basics Required to Create a WaterWise Garden water , A Creative Patio 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, , Shade Gardening When You Have No Shade or gets trapped. If you have well drained soil, , Cyclamen the trapped water , Ferns as Indoor Plants usually soaks in. If you have heavy clay soil, , The Flower Drying Game - Part 3: An Affordable Home Flower-Press the water , This Fall, Give Your Trees Some TLC lays there, and the soil , Cattleya Orchid Plant - Why They Are Not Popular underneath becomes very compacted, and the problem compounds itself. The more water , How To - Casting Decorative Concrete that stands, the worse the drainage gets. What I have done in areas like this, where there is standing water, , Sunflowers but nowhere to drain it to, is to install a French drain system that actually carries the water , Outdoor Kitchens: Attention All Cooks - You've Never Had It This Good! away from the low area, and allows it to seep into the ground over a larger distance, where the soil , Cattleya Orchid Plant - Why They Are Not Popular is not quite so compacted. To install this French drain system you do everything exactly as explained above, except instead of draining the water , How To Keep Birds Off Of Your Patio Furniture to a lower area, you can send it in any direction you like. Even in the direction from which it came, which is uphill. When installing this type of system, it's a good idea to dig a number of shorter trenches, all heading away from the area where the water , The Magic Plant Copier stands. Using the line level, make sure your trenches fall , Outdoor Kitchens: Attention All Cooks - You've Never Had It This Good! away from their point of origin so once the water , A Quick Guide To Yard Bridges enters the pipes it will 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, , Take the Blossom of Various Types of Flowering Trees but much of that water , Landscaping Lessons-Proper Placement Of Trees In Landscape Design is going to seep into the drain pipes and eventually leach into the soil , Planting Bare Root Roses under each trench. Because this soil , BBQ Food is the Mental Cue that Summer is Here has not been compacted by the standing water , Planting Bare Root Roses and the baking sun, , Garden for Birds #4 it will accept the water. , Take the Blossom of Various Types of Flowering Trees It won't happen nearly as fast as if you could just drain the water , This Fall, Give Your Trees Some TLC to a ditch, but at least you will have a mechanism in place , Annuals For Shade that will eventually disperse the water , Vermicomposting - Worm Composters For Eco-Friendly Waste Disposal and Recycling back into the soil. , Sunflowers It's a lot easier to leach 200 gallons of water , Outdoor Kitchens: Attention All Cooks - You've Never Had It This Good! into a series of trenches that total 100 lineal feet, than it is to expect that water , Annuals For Shade to leach into a 10' by 10' area that is hard and compact. Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com
Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most interesting website, www.freeplants.com and sign up for his excellent gardening , Garden for Birds #4 newsletter. Article provided by gardening-articles.com |
  
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