QUESTION: “We live in a small neighborhood of stone houses built in
the late 1920's. Moving into a stone house was a dream come true.
However, we quickly found out that the water table in the area is
quite high, and the soil is mostly clay.

”Fortunately, the house already had a sump pump system that drains out
into the front lawn. Unfortunately, it runs every 10 to 15 minutes
and because the soil in this area is clay, it was creating an un-
mowable bog in the front yard. We have added to the drainage hose so
that it now goes all the way down to the storm water ditch that runs
across the front of the property. Now all that water sits across the
front of the lawn next to the street. It still doesn't drain back
into the ground, and is starting to creep into the neighbor's property
(making him not so happy with us.)

”I've looked at installing a rain garden or bog garden along the side
of the ditch, but I'm not sure it will look nice enough for the
neighborhood since this would be along the front of the house. We've
also considered pulling the water to the other side of the basement,
collecting it in a rain barrel, and creating a water garden in the
back yard. The engineering of that would be tricky and I'm not sure
the water wouldn't just overflow and come back into the basement
(causing more problems). Also, I am unclear as to whether either of
these options would actually move the water far enough under ground to
keep it from just coming back up in the sump pump.

”Do you have any suggestions or creative ideas on how to turn our
extra 75gal/hour of water into an attractive part of this home?” --
Jessica

ANSWER: That is quite a problem. From the high water table (and maybe
also from wet weather springs) it sounds as though your lawn is
completely saturated. Because you do live in a suburb area and are
most likely under building and hardscape code limitations, I would
recommend talking with someone in your local building codes office.
They should be able to discuss possibilities with you within the
neighborhood restrictions.

The easiest solution would be for the city to allow you to pump the
water up to the street level to run into the storm drains. But, some
cities have restrictions against that. This is something that does
need to be handled so that it doesn't create damage to the structure
of your home (or create interior mold problems) and put further strain
on the relationship with surrounding neighbors. Here is a link to the
Brooklyn Botanic Garden with an article on creating a bog garden. a
href="http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/design/handbooks/watergarden/
8.html"http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/desig...s/watergarden/
8.html/a

QUESTION: “I have a question about what kind of worm this is and how
to get rid of it. It is green worm that lives in trees and eats the
leaves. It produces rat-like feces on the ground below where it eats
and it sticks to the tree. We have tried to get rid of it and spray
the tree but they still keep coming back. Can you please tell me what
this is and how to get rid of it? Thanks!” – John M. Engrisch

ANSWER: From what you tell me, I am not sure what the worms are or
the type of tree they are feasting on. I think they might be
pearslugs, sometimes known as cherry slugs (Caliroa cerasi).
According to the Integrated Pest Management Program at the University
of California, almost immediately after hatching, a pearslug exudes a
slimy green coating that covers its entire body and gives the
appearance of a slug, although in reality it is a sawfly wasp.

The UC site suggests that a pesticide called Spinosad could be
effective. You can read more about pearslugs and other garden pests
at a href="http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FRUIT/PESTS/
pearslug.html"http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FRUIT/PESTS/
pearslug.html/a
As it is a long URL, you can click on a direct link when you find this
column at my Web site, a
href="www.landsteward.org"www.landsteward.org/a

I suggest that you make a point to spray the soil underneath the tree
that is encircled by the drip line. I would do this every time you
spray in order to break the cycle.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs
and landscaping to a href=
rg/a and for
resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free
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www.landsteward.org"www.landsteward.org/a