Many yards feature areas with slow drainage or standing water. In some yards, issues are fleeting and only occur after storms or over-irrigation. In others, a higher water table or wet climate means the areas are always wet. Fortunately, using one or more of the following strategies can mitigate moisture and ensure your landscaping is beautiful.
1. Improve Aeration
Water sometimes pools up on soil because the soil texture is too dense to absorb it quickly. Improving aeration so the soil is looser can solve the issue. A landscaper can perform core aeration to open up the soil, and then remove the dense thatch layer on top of the soil to improve absorption. Adding organic matter in the form of compost to dense areas will also help loosen them.
2. Raise the Soil
If poor drainage affects an area where you would like some small shrubs or flowers, then a raised bed can be the answer. The beds can be designed with a layer of drainage material beneath the higher soil level. The addition of drainage materials and soil depth provides room for slow drainage to occur without the surface becoming marshy.
3. Build a Rock Garden
In areas that tend to stay wet for a long time, such as low areas prone to wetness all spring or longer, a rock garden can be the answer. It can simply be a rock drainage feature, such as a dry creek bed lined with decorative gravel and stones. In areas that dry out enough for part of the year, plants can be added to the rock garden. Succulent varieties that tolerate periods of wetness and drought work especially well.
4. Install Drainage
Poor drainage can sometimes be more than just a landscaping problem, particularly if the wet soil is putting pressure on your home's foundation walls. In this case, installing underground drains, such as a French drain system or drain tiles, can help route the excess water out of your landscaping and away from your home. You can usually plant grass or annual flowers safely over these drain systems.
5. Plant Appropriately
For mild drainage problems, you may be able to mitigate the moisture simply by using the right kind of plants. There are native grasses well suited to seasonally wet areas, for example. In exceptionally wet areas, marsh plants like cattails may be the solution.
Contact a landscaping business for more ideas on handling wet areas in your yard.
Share17 October 2022
About a year ago, I realized that part of the reason the plants in my yard kept dying was the fact that they were planted in the wrong places. I didn't pay much attention to which plants needed certain amounts of light, and it was costing them their lives. Several of the plants were really struggling to live, and it was really hard to see. I realized that if I ever wanted to make things right, I would need to create a landscaping plan that would work well for the natural landscape of my yard. This blog is all about understanding landscaping.
