While rain is essential for a healthy, lush yard, too much can cause grass to die while also promoting the growth of mold. You can’t necessarily stop rain from falling onto your yard, but you can minimize the negative impact it has. So, how do you prevent your yard from falling when it rains?
Identify Areas of ‘Waterlogging’
In order to prevent your yard from flooding, you must first identify where exactly the waterlogging occurs. Watch your yard the next time it rains to pinpoint areas where water collects.
In a well-designed landscape, rainwater should be diverted away from the house and yard to a nearby ditch or drainage channel. Unfortunately, not all yards are designer in this manner, as some contain bowl-like areas where waterlogging occurs.
Clean Gutters
If your yard is flooding when it rains, the problem could be attributed to clogged cutters. It’s not uncommon for gutters to accumulate leaves, pine straw, twigs and other debris over time.
When enough of this debris becomes stuck inside the gutters, it restricts or prevents the flow of water. So, instead of rainwater being diverted away from your home, it falls off the roof and lands around the base of your home.
If it’s been a while since you’ve cleaned your gutters, get on a ladder to inspect them. If they are clogged, you can either clean them yourself or hire a professional to do it. Either way, you need clean gutters to prevent your yard from flooding.
Heavy Mulch
Mulch is an excellent landscaping tool that can be used to prevent flooding. The key thing to remember, however, is that you need to choose heavy mulch.
Pine straw isn’t going to stop fast-moving water. A better option is to choose wood chips, which you can spread across areas where waterlogging is a problem.
Create a Drain
Of course, the most effective solution to prevent your yard from flooding is to build a drain, such as a French drain.
Also known as a weeping tile, a French drain is a ditch containing a perforated pipe through which water flows. Rainwater will gradually find its way into the pipe, at which point it will travel to the end, which should be away from your yard. French drains are easy to build and work great for this purpose.
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I like your recommendation to identify areas of waterlogging to help prevent flooding issues. It makes sense that a landscape needs to be well designed with drainage in mind to ensure there isn’t any pooling of water during heavy rainfall. Thanks for the post; since I’m looking to have my yard renovated, hiring a drainage design professional could be very helpful to keep my mind at ease when there are serious storms.
Hi Tyler,
Sounds like you are on the right path. Flooding can ruin a yard in so many different ways, I am glad to see you are willing to get expert opinion.