My backyard accumulates water during every rain. Of course it’s better here than my basement but looking for ideas on how to reduce the accumulation/quickly drain following storms. Thanks
Lean into it and create a pond 🤣 you could put a nice little dock there.
One-Web-2698
What is down hill from you?
According-Taro4835
Your grade is actually doing exactly what it should be doing by moving that water away from your patio and foundation. It is collecting in a natural low spot at the woodland edge. Do not waste money trying to fight this with french drains or catch basins unless you have a much lower exit point hidden back in those woods. Right now you are fighting nature by trying to keep a strip of turf grass alive in a spot that clearly wants to be a swamp. Turf has shallow roots and does practically zero work when it comes to absorbing standing water.
You need to lean into soft engineering and turn that flooded boundary into a working biological sponge. Stop mowing that depression and convert the entire wet strip into a continuous planted transition zone. You want sweeping masses of native plants that thrive with wet feet. Deep rooted native shrubs and perennials will shatter that heavy soil and drink up that standing water days faster than evaporation alone.
Right now your landscape is also missing its middle structural layer. You just have flat lawn crashing abruptly into tall canopy trees. By planting large connected drifts of Red Twig Dogwood, Winterberry, and Swamp Milkweed in that wet zone, you solve your drainage headache and fix your design problem at the exact same time. It softens that harsh woodland edge and turns a muddy eyesore into an intentional landscape feature.
NoctRob
Just have all the mosquitoes drink it up.
bucho80
Get a fishing pole!
Dry_Breakfast6755
does it just turn into a stagnant pond or do all of the backyards have a ditch/low spot running along the back that’s supposed to flow somewhere?
Don-Gunvalson
Does it puddle for more than 72 hours? If not then let it be, it’s percolating into your aquifer
Civil-Can-9765
I would dig a ditch that curves through the trees so that the water can spread out further (in a line) and hopefully sink down/evaporate. You can use river rock to make it look like a little creek.
8 Comments
Lean into it and create a pond 🤣 you could put a nice little dock there.
What is down hill from you?
Your grade is actually doing exactly what it should be doing by moving that water away from your patio and foundation. It is collecting in a natural low spot at the woodland edge. Do not waste money trying to fight this with french drains or catch basins unless you have a much lower exit point hidden back in those woods. Right now you are fighting nature by trying to keep a strip of turf grass alive in a spot that clearly wants to be a swamp. Turf has shallow roots and does practically zero work when it comes to absorbing standing water.
You need to lean into soft engineering and turn that flooded boundary into a working biological sponge. Stop mowing that depression and convert the entire wet strip into a continuous planted transition zone. You want sweeping masses of native plants that thrive with wet feet. Deep rooted native shrubs and perennials will shatter that heavy soil and drink up that standing water days faster than evaporation alone.
Right now your landscape is also missing its middle structural layer. You just have flat lawn crashing abruptly into tall canopy trees. By planting large connected drifts of Red Twig Dogwood, Winterberry, and Swamp Milkweed in that wet zone, you solve your drainage headache and fix your design problem at the exact same time. It softens that harsh woodland edge and turns a muddy eyesore into an intentional landscape feature.
Just have all the mosquitoes drink it up.
Get a fishing pole!
does it just turn into a stagnant pond or do all of the backyards have a ditch/low spot running along the back that’s supposed to flow somewhere?
Does it puddle for more than 72 hours? If not then let it be, it’s percolating into your aquifer
I would dig a ditch that curves through the trees so that the water can spread out further (in a line) and hopefully sink down/evaporate. You can use river rock to make it look like a little creek.