On Wed, 21 May 2003 22:16:35 +0000, Geoff Cashman wrote:

Greetings,

Of course it's spring in the Northern hemisphere, and with it for this
area of the world (Midwest, US) comes quite a bit of rain. With the rain
comes a muddy, soft area of my lawn that my lawnmower slithers through,
I slide through, and the mosquitos lay eggs in.

The area in question is roughly oval, 10' x 15'. The yard is slightly
inclined from one side (neighbor to left) to the other (neighbor to
right). I believe water is draining into my yard, then slowly passing
through to the neighbor to my right's yard. I do not want to increase
rate of drainage to my neighbor, as this would probably incite some not
to nice feelings

Opinions on how to rectify this problem? My wife and I are considering
putting a pond there, but I don't think it would solve the drainage
problems if it's a sealed-bottom pool.

I'm not a landscaper. I don't even play one on Usenet I've got crazy
ideas on how to solve this, such as stripping the lawn in the whole area
down a foot, layering in some crushed stone, and putting soil back on
top of it. But, as I have no experience with such matters, I have no
confidence this would work. I've also thought of putting a bunch of
soggy-soil loving plants there, but the area only gets about 3-4 hours
of sunlight a day, if that. Soggy soil and not a bunch of light seems a
contradiction for a plant to survive in?

-Geoff

It would be best to source your water intrustion and to deal with it from
the source. It could be coming for a bad street grade or a mis-directed
downspout(s) from a neighbor. The type of 'seepage' you have sounds a lot
like sheeting. Sheeting is when water travels down through the soil collum
and hits rock/clay. The it travels along the rock/clay and pools or
possibly springs up somewhere lower down the grade.

But no matter how the water got there, you have to figure out how to
remove it. Depending on your grade and access to a drain, your options may
be limited. If you have a drain access to a street or a safe low area out
of the way, then you can do a french drain system. This would mean you
would need to trench from your wet area to your drain area. Generally
about a foot to a foot and a half deep. ***Line your trench with weed
fabric and leave enough fabric to cover a foot or so of gravel and pipe.
Fill with 4 to 6 inches deep with gravel, lay your french tile (holes side
down!!), cover with rock, cover with weed fabric and dirt.

If your not lucky enough to have a drain area access, you can still do
something to lessen the water. You could dig dry wells in the areas with
the most water. Dig holes 2 or 3 feet across and as deep as you can safely
dig them. Fill them with crushed rock and top with dirt. These will fill
during the flood. Hopefuly the area in question would be useable a little
sooner in the season.

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