Drainage

I have a small back yard that floods due to fast moving fronts. There was a natural creek bed behind me when I bought my house and development of subdivision has created this problem. City will not address it and I was told by engineer I needed a "Swale". I need help with ideas for construction.
dayg246

Well, in a back yard I would avoid a swale. A swale is usually nothing more than a ditch to carry/hold water temporarily until it drains and not particularly attractive. It has both ends closed. You can make it look like a dry river bed I suppose but if I were you I'd do another option, which I'll tell a bit. Here's a story about swale in my area. A construction company purchased 7 lots for houses on a hill. Due to drainage issues they turned the bottom lot into a swale to hold water temporarily and to take the runoff of the other lots while they built until drainage could be established. Once done and drainage taken care of they could then fill in that temporary swale and build a house on its lot. The swale was working very well, what they didn't know was that they inadvertently created an ideal place for one of the rarest plants to grow in said swale. When they went to get the permit to fill it in and build another lot, the person sent to inspect the lot and approve it for building identified the extremely rare and protected plants now growing in the swale, which immediately made the lot a protected site and the construction company powerless to touch or alter anything in anyway. Hence, they lost the lot for building.

Now, in your back yard put in a "raingarden". Take advantage of the water/situation. Go go to this site http://clean-water.uwex.edu/pubs/pdf/home.rgmanual.pdf and read all about the math, building, things like that. They talk about water runoff but you can apply it to your situation as well. Rainwater gardens are amazing! You will have the largest, healthiest, most beautiful plants and it will be full of dragon flies, birds, butterflies, bees, I love watching them they're so full of beauty and life and you're doing your part by helping filter the water. I wouldn't think of this as being a pain, I think you have a great opportunity here. You can google "Raingarden" to see other articles.

This message was edited May 25, 2007 10:27 AM

I like Marshmellow's suggestion of a raingarden. But if you do decide to put in drainage of some sort, my first question is where are you going to send the water? If solving your drainage problem will involve routing water into a neighbor's yard you can get yourself in trouble. I wonder though if you can hold the developer responsible--just like you're not allowed to change drainage patterns so that they end up causing problems for your neighbors, the developer should have to do something if their construction changed things so that your property now floods when it didn't used to. So in my mind they have some responsibility to fix your problem since they're the ones that caused it.

I was glad to see info on rain gardens, as this is what I want to do in my yard but couldn't find much info on them. I've read the attached article and it helped a lot, but I have some questions on individual plantings. I think I'll do a new post in Beginner Landscaping.

Hi Dayg246, Im with Mashmallow and try work with what you have rather than try work against it, you will always have rain, but you may have bigger probs trying to change things, but Ecrane's point is also worth an investigation to the developer, he has a responsibility by law, to make sure where any water discharge issues occur, cant/wont cause problems to purchasers or others. Back to your wet garden, if it is constantly wet, go for things like Hostas, Rogersia, Astilbe, Iris, primulas, arum lily, Cornus like dogwoods, solomons seal, andif you have the space and the nerve, grow a Gunnera, these grow to about 6/8 feet with huge umbrella like leaves, (like jurasic park) but they die down in winter and come back again in spring, they will give a bit of shade to the Hostas, just to name a few, if it floods only sometimes, you can always water in prolonged dry spells, but to make sure that the soil cant be washed away from the roots, place attractive large and med stones arround the roots to help retain the soil, place these in a natural fashion like they always were there. It will look real attractive, you will have to add plenty humus/comost to the soil as all the neutriants will get leeched out of the soil when it floods, sounds like a huge task, but in actual fact, once planted and the roots take hold, it will settle down as you are giving the plants the conditions that they naturaly grow in. Hope this helps you get started, when seeking your plants, remember that only some of these I have mentioned like damp and others of the same family thrive in drier areas, so choose ones for wet/damp regions, good luck whichever way you go, WeeNel.