Have you ever thought about what it takes to make your garden look pristine? You may have worked so hard on your garden only to realise all this effort can be undone with a hint of heavy rain. Garden conditions can take a toll when standing water slowly kills your lawn and breeds mosquitoes.
We have tried to put together this handy guide that will help you, hopefully, to deal with standing water in your yard. Try these best ways on how to soak up water in the backyard or garden and with a bit of luck, completely get rid of it from your home.
If you are short on time and cant take all nuggets from the article, to effectively soak up water in your backyard, follow these steps:
1. Identify the problem areas prone to pooling or flooding. 2. Fill in low spots with topsoil or sand to improve drainage. 3. Install a French drain system to redirect excess water away from the yard. 4. Consider creating a rain garden or utilizing permeable surfaces. These measures will help prevent water accumulation and maintain a dry backyard.
Ways to Fix Standing Water In Your Yard
Have you ever gone out to the yard to find standing water? A backyard that’s waterlogged can be very frustrating and upsetting. You would end up wondering how water ended up soaking your entire yard. However, there are options that you can take including landscaping and using water-thirsty plants to remove excessive water.
Although it can take some time and a lot of effort to get water out of your yard, it can recover and once again thrive. Here’s what you can do to help resolve your garden flooding issues:
Give Your Garden Less Water
Did you know overwatering your garden can lead to soaking it up? Watering systems can sometimes cause the yard to get all soaked up. The simple solution for how to soak up water in backyard is to cut back on the amount of water you give your garden including your plants.
Take note that as soon as grasses and plants have already reached their full nutrients capacity, they won’t be able to absorb any water. This is when overwatering becomes a problem especially when you just let your water system go on unstopped.
Finding Split Beds in the Garden
What’s the main cause of water pools in your garden? This should be what you’re thinking about the moment you find water pools around your plants. Finding out what causes this can address the issues about having water around your plant bed or set areas.
The natural flow of water can be disrupted causing water pools. This is because of the barriers you put when you make split beds. Small walls installed on your garden or even your landscape path can also cause natural water flow to get disrupted and eventually overflow.
You can have this resolved if you start making small drainage holes. You can build this around the pathway or you can keep direct water away from areas where it can eventually accumulate and result into a pool of water.
Planting More Greenery
Are you tired of that swampy yard? If you’re getting your cool off in that swampy yard then the best way to manage it is to plant more greenery. You can make use of thirsty plants such as willow trees, shrubs and other water-loving trees.
Once it starts to get rainy, the water levels in your garden will surely rise. This is when thirsty plants come in handy because they will be absorbing the water from the rainy aftermath.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Do You Fix Low Spot in Yard That Collects Water?
Ponding is the result after a heavy rain. This is when garden low spots can rise resulting from compact yard soils. This can also happen when your yard has not been graded correctly.
If you cannot get ponding water in your garden fixed, then this can cause foundations to leak as well as basements. In return, mold will start to grow.
That is why installing drainage systems properly in your garden will help to fill low spots. This will then help change the soil structure in your area. You can also try the following to help you deal with low spots.
Top Dressing
Did you know that top dressing is just a simple fix? Nevertheless, this helpful fix allows you to eliminate depressions, or areas that are easily filled with water when the rain stops in your garden.
You can use this method to even out low areas in your yard. You can also make use of soil layers by applying these over the existing grass in the garden.
You can start applying soil layers on your lawn that are about ¼ to ½ inch thick. Do this from 8 to 12 weeks.
Use a drop spreader to have the soil evenly spread. If you do this, grass will regrow better in between the ground and the soil you’ve applied.
Lawn Aeration
A heavy rainfall will cause a pool of water in your lawn due to compacted soils. As you know, water cannot soak away on its own. However, with the help of a soil aerator, you can have topsoil loosened across your yard.
This will make it easier for the soil to absorb air making it easily absorb the water. This will reduce the water pool in your yard. Most importantly, it promotes a healthy lawn.
Soil Type
Did you know that soil type plays a vital role in surface water pooling? This is because if your soil consists of more clay they tend to collect more water rather than actually absorbing the excess.
You can do a quick fix by adding peat, organic matter or compost. Aside from giving you a hand to quickly remedy your soil, it also improves its fertility. Furthemore, it also improves the drainage to keep water from creating a pool in your area.
Making a Drainage
Does your garden have a drainage system? Setting up a drainage system to keep water from pooling is a good idea especially when you have a large flat area or big depressions at the bottom of an incline. Once you build a drainage, you are also preventing the soil from getting soggy after the rain.
French drains are among the simplest drains that can be installed. You can do this yourself by just filling a ditch with grav.
To have a French drain installed, dig a trench in the area where water gets mostly collected.
Make sure your ditch measures ½ inches for every 10 feet and should be in a slope down angle. This will ensure flooding will be stopped. Use a layer of hardware cloth before filling it using gravel.
How can I dry my wet yard fast?
Ever wonder how to get that wet yard to dry faster? Indeed, standing in a yard with puddles can create a lot of problems. Let’s start off with mosquitoes. Puddles become their breeding grounds and in turn can bring diseases once a mosquito bites you. Aside from that, a wet yard with soggy or muddy areas can lead to your pets dragging mud inside your house. Furthermore, grass will no longer grow instead moss growth will overtake instead.
If the grading starts to run in the wrong direction, then your home’s foundation will most likely encounter more problems caused by excess water. Standing water is known to be caused by poorly draining soil and low spots in your yard.
So what does it mean when the soil doesn’t drain or dry fast? This actually means that the soil is not working to absorb more water thus draining the excess becomes rather slower. Take note that loamy soil drains a lot faster than gardens containing clay.
If you think you have more clay than soil, then you can simply add more organic matter. This will help improve soil quality as it breaks the clay barriers causing absorption to be slower. Aside from using compost, you can also use organic mulches including wood chips or bark. As these break over time in the ground beneath, it allows drainage improvement as well. We have seen you add organic material to improve your soil as it breaks up problem clay barriers.
Lawn Thatch
Lawn thatch can be an enemy of your drainage system. This is because it traps the water through its thick barrier.
Depending on how severe your thatch problem is, you can check out the solutions below.
You can have your thatch taken out from your lawn using a power dethatcher. You can also use a dethatching rake where possible.
For severe issues, you can use a power aerator or an aerator tool. Foot traffic compaction can be fixed using core aeration.
Creating a Natural Creek Bed
Do you want to create a natural creek? You can do so by using gravel and rock. This can even be a part of a great landscape. However, its actual purpose is to be a direct water runoff or a storm drain.
Meanwhile, you can terminate a French drain trench by filling a deep hole of rocks. When water gets collected, it drains into the soil that surrounds the areas. Remember that the average size of your dry wells or that natural creek should be at 4 feet wide by 4 feet deep.
Here’s the last catch. Make sure your wells don’t end up flooding your neighbor’s property and gets the water drained as intended.
How Do I Get Rid of a Swampy Yard?
Are you tired looking at that swampy backyard? Most homeowners share the same feeling. It makes the lawn unattractive, difficult to mow and makes the yard unusable after periods of rain occur.
Here are some steps on how to soak up water in backyard and get any excess water away from your home.
Find out what the cause is
First, determine what causes the water problem in your yard after a heavy downpour. It might come from your roof where the drainage might have some issues. It might also be because of compacted soil keeping the water on the ground surface or your garden is situated at the bottom of a slope.
It might also be that your property is situated near the drainage system of your neighbors. Thus, you will have an influx of water coming to your lawn from time to time.
Using Aeration and Dry Wells to Improve Drainage
Did you know that soil alone cannot absorb the excess water? In any area, when the soil becomes compacted, it cannot soak away the water pooling in your lawn. The biggest solution to this is by improving your drainage through aeration. This is done by adding soil and other organic matter when you are tilling.
On the other hand, there is another way to get standing water out of the yard. This can be done using dry wells that can help you drain the water found in your garden or your backyard. You can install a dry well as it acts like a tank where the water can run off your landscape.
Rainwater can bypass any compact soil if the depth of what you dig is deep enough. A dry well can be filled with gravel then covered with grass and soil so it can soak beneath the soil.
Growing Trees and Shrubs in your yard
Did you know that growing trees and shrubs that are good in absorbing water can also help displace lots of standing water from your yard? There are many types of trees and shrubs that have thirsty roots. You can check the area in your backyard where most of the excess water collects and plant the right type of trees and shrubs there. This can help solve soil erosion problems as well as improve drainage.
Add a lot of inground plants after planting water thirsty shrubs. Try planting an Ivy as this type of plant can help absorb water more effectively. Although unlike indoor plants like chlorophytum, growing this plant can take a lot of time, after a couple of seasons you will see that there is indeed a big difference from the excessive water you’ve been experiencing in your backyard. Flowering perennials also help absorb standing water especially in areas where there is excessive run-off.
Pipes and Drainage Systems
A perforated pipe as a water drainage could be a good idea to install if your land is elevated above neighboring properties. This perforated type of pipe can be buried under your garden which can take away water surrounding your house and your yard’s wettest parts.
Creating a garden slope
Did you know that a garden slope can actually help move the water away from your house? Water can collect on your roof and in other areas within your property if there is no proper drainage. This also happens when your yard slopes toward your house.
To prevent this from happening, you can create a slope that will channel water away from your garden’s landscape. This will result in draining away standing water.
