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Muddy area in lawn: rectification?
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 |
#2
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Muddy area in lawn: rectification?
Geoff,
I once installed a "french drain"...much like your idea of rock. Dig a 12" wide ditch the length of the soggy area and continue the ditch to the curb or drive (assuming the street is lower). Slope the ditch to the curb or drive or a good discharge spot. Place 6" of large rock in the bottom of the ditch, then 4" perforated PVC pipe, then another 6" of rock. Then fill in the ditch and replace the sod. My yard just happended to have a storm sewer manhole in it...so, I ran the 4" PVC into the manhole. Regards, "Geoff Cashman" wrote in message ... 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 |
#3
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Muddy area in lawn: rectification?
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. -- http://yard-works.netfirms.com |
#4
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Muddy area in lawn: rectification?
Peat bogs are efficient water reduction agents and can support shade
oriented plants: http://www.plantideas.com/bog/index.html http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/desig...rgarden/8.html http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/bogs.html http://www.plantanswers.com/bog.htm http://splash.metrokc.gov/wlr/pi/wetlands.htm J. Kolenovsky http://www.celestialhabitats.com 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 -- = J. Kolenovsky, A+, Network +, MCP =F4=BF=F4 - http://www.celestialhabitats.com - commercial =F4=BF=F4 - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/personal.html - personal webpag= es |
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