10 Tips to Make Your 2022 Drainage Landscaping Project a Success
If you’re looking for solutions to drainage issues in your yard, it’s probably because you’re tired of sopping-wet shoes, drowned garden plants, and the muddy paw prints your dog makes all over the house when he comes inside.
Yard drainage issues are no joke, especially in Nashville, TN, where we get so much rain. They’re inconvenient and could be causing structural damage to the foundations of your home or erosion of your yard. These unseen issues can be very expensive to fix if you ignore them for too long. Fortunately, there are several ways to incorporate effective drainage landscaping into your yard.
Solve Your Drainage Issues With These 10 Tips
Drainage landscaping is possible in just about every yard, but depending on your budget and the overall goal for your property, one solution may be better for you than all the rest. Take a look at these tips to see which solution would most benefit your yard and the steps you’ll need to take before getting started.
10 Tips for Proper Drainage Installation
1. Plan Your Drainage Installation in Advance
If excess water is routed the wrong way, the problem could get worse rather than better. Your property may sustain further damage and the whole drainage installation project might need to be completely redone. So before breaking ground, take some time to make sure you know where the water is coming from and in what direction you want to send it.
If possible, it’s best to reroute toward a drain. Avoid sending water toward your house or any other structures on your property, as that could cause erosion and foundation integrity problems over time. And from a neighborly care perspective, it’s best not to reroute excess water toward your neighbor’s property either!
2. Check With the Proper Authorities
Because there are systems underground like water pipes and electrical wires, Tennessee law requires that any person intending to excavate calls 811 at least three days prior to beginning such a project. Let the authorities know where you would like to dig and why, and they’ll check to find out if there are any underground systems that could be damaged by your drainage landscaping.
Don’t skip this step, because if you were to accidentally cause any damage, you would be liable for potentially expensive repairs. Save yourself that expense and frustration by making a quick call so you can be sure you’re safe before getting started. Once the proper authorities have looked into the area, they’ll either approve your plan or advise you of a better place to dig. Then you’ll be free to continue knowing that you aren’t endangering any underground hardware.
3. Consult With Your HOA
Some Nashville-area neighborhoods have homeowners’ associations with rules outlining what homeowners are allowed to do in their yards, including excavation. These rules are in place to keep the neighborhood looking nice for everyone, and breaking them can result in a hefty fine.
So, if you have a homeowners’ association, make sure you inform them how this drainage landscaping would help with the drainage issues in your yard, and any positive effects for the neighbors near you. Once they’re sure you have a good reason for incorporating landscaping drainage in your yard, they’ll most likely approve it right away.
4. Grade Your Land to Direct Water Flow
One way to address drainage issues in your yard is to change the slope of your yard by grading the land. This can smooth out lumps and bumps in your yard and also affect which way the water flows. Land should always slope down from a house or other structure, so that water will naturally flow away from the building.
Ideally, land is graded during construction, but sometimes grading isn’t done correctly and needs to be redone again later on. Even if grading was done properly, earth erosion is a natural by-product of frequent rainfall and building construction, so additional grading may need to be done to change the angle of the slopes and send excess water in a different direction.
5. Install a French Drain
Another way to redirect water flow is to install a French drain. A French drain is a type of yard drainage system that relies on gravity, perforated materials, and gravel to direct underground water flow away from buildings to prevent water-related damage.
French drain explained
The drainage landscaping process for a French drain is somewhat complicated, but in essence, it is a trench running downhill that directs water to the best place for it to drain. This can be one of the more expensive drainage options, but it’s easier to hide since most of it goes underground.
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6. Build a Retaining Wall
Retaining walls are a fantastic yard drainage choice because they solve so many problems and look great while they do it. If installed properly, a retaining wall can redirect water flow, stop erosion in your yard, and provide more leveled surface area for landscaping or entertaining.
In Nashville, with its ubiquitous rolling hills, retaining walls are especially useful for solving yard drainage issues because they are able to hold a slope in place even when it rains for days. Retaining walls work very well when combined with swales or French drains to solve all the drainage issues in a yard.
7. Consider a Swale
While French drains redirect the flow of underground water very quickly, swales are used to redirect surface water, allowing it to seep into the ground slowly rather than to send it to another part of the yard.
When it comes to drainage landscaping, a swale is more affordable than a French drain, and it’s a good drainage solution if your yard is sufficiently spacious. Swales are also fairly easy to disguise with softscaping like plants.
8. Plant a Rain Garden
Think of a rain garden as a rounded swale-like structure with lots of plants – so many plants that it just looks like a garden. A rain garden is a drainage solution with extra attention to the aesthetic appeal of greenery and color.
Plants that tolerate fairly wet soil are planted around the outside where there won’t often be standing water, while plants that can withstand standing water for long periods of time are planted in the center. The center is where water will stand the longest in the rain garden as it slowly percolates into the soil.
9. Combine Multiple Solutions
If you, like many of us who live in Nashville, have a big slope in your yard and your house gets some runoff from it, then paring a retaining wall with a French drain or swale might be the answer to your yard drainage issues.
Or maybe your goal is not only to stop the drainage issues but also to make your yard look nicer. With the exception of a French drain, which remains mostly underground, all of these drainage solutions can add visual appeal as they solve the drainage issues in your yard. For example, a retaining wall and a rain garden could work together to redirect the water flow, while giving you more opportunities to use plants in your landscaping drainage for you and your family to enjoy.
10. Get Help From Professionals
Installing effective drainage solutions is often more expensive and time-consuming than people assume it will be, especially if you’ve never done it before. You may end up making endless trips to the home improvement or garden store to grab a tool you forget to pick up, spending long hours researching various techniques, or you could make a mistake that could result in the whole thing having to be redone.
If you’re inexperienced with landscaping drainage, why not save yourself some time and frustration by hiring a drainage landscaping professional the first time around? With help from a qualified professional, your yard drainage project will go much more smoothly, and you’ll have peace of mind that it’s been done properly.
professional drainage installation
Need Help With Drainage Landscaping in Nashville?
Are you ready to tackle the drainage issues in your yard and turn your property into a well-drained, attractive landscape? At Greenway of Nashville, we’ve got more than ten years of experience in drainage landscaping. Contact us today to talk to a qualified landscaping drainage professional about how we can help make your dream project a reality.
