Drainage ditch / weeds/ landscaping oh my!
doccraw
17 years ago
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Saypoint zone 6 CT
17 years agoRelated Discussions
Drainage ditch / weeds/ landscaping oh my!
Comments (2)A catch basin at the upper end of your ditch might reduce or elliminate sedimentation. It would have to be designed to be deep enough to slow the water down so it will drop particles it is carrying. Once a year or so you will be able to drain and excavate the debris from this spot leaving the rest of your stream much cleaner. The basin can be design tastefully. It is done here in Dallas Texas at several locations where people have dammed up stream beds which the city uses as storm sewers. The debris which is removed from the catch basin can be used as mulch or fill when it dries out....See MorePros/Cons of drainage ditch options
Comments (3)Some photos and a plan showing the elevations would be helpful. It is not clear whether the run off is being absorbed on-site, or continues to drain off site. What you are talking about doing is creating a sort of french drain to slow down the run-off and percolate it into the ground. If your soils can accomodate the runoff and allow it to percolate into the soil without causing problems, this may be a solution. One thing to consider is that silts in the soil will infiltrate into gravel over time and clog its ability to drain. The more standard way to create a french drain connected to a downspout is to line the trench with filter fabric first, install several inches of drain rock, set a 4 inch diameter perforated pipe on top also wrapped with a filter fabric sock, and then continue to backfill with crushed drain rock. The filter fabric should wrap and overlap at the top so that no silts/soil may get into the gravel. The top of the trench backfilled with gravel does not necessarily need to come to the surface, and can be topped off with several inches of soil cover and sodded/planted if desired. The length of the trench, and depth of trench, and slope of pipe all need to be calculated to provide sufficient slope to drain, and capacity to handle the amount of run off. If you have heavy clay soils that don't allow much water percolation, the trench depth and length would need to be much larger to handle high rainfall events....See MoreTemporary drainage ditch, did I make it better or worse?
Comments (15)So after all that rain, water is not standing in the soil at a depth of around 12". Not now, but it quit. And I dug some more as I said. If it starts raining as hard as it did, I have no doubt it will pool up to a certain level for awhile at least, but no more puddle on the sidewalk and into more of the rosebed. Then it started sprinkling and a couple small cavities in the deeper trench were holding water. Maybe it is not so bad except for the surface drainage problem. Does the subsoil feel gritty? Not when I scooped some of it out with my bare hands when I got fed up with trying to get a good pass at it with the shovel. But I threw a small pebble up on the sidewalk, brought it in and rinsed it off. It was gritty and took a bit to rinse it, rubbing between my fingers. Now I don't know what I've done with it. I didn't like getting my hands in the muck (don't mind getting them dirty) because there is broken glass everywhere, I'm constantly picking it up, and I didn't want to cut myself. The landscaper who planted the roses thought the drainage was adequate. Does it smell sewagy? Not at all. No rotten or sulphur odor. There were several worms in it, but they could have been at the sides I dug down through. I am now down to clay. It's only been like this since mid summer last year when we rototilled. Before that, I never noticed any problem, didn't pool on the sunken sidewalk slab, must have soaked through the grass or something. Or it didn't pool so badly that I noticed it and dissipated quickly or that dirt collected there. I scraped dirt off there, too. The dirt is either running back off the trenched side or from the other side. If I get it fixed, I can hose the rest of it off or more rain should take care of it. Does water seep in after you dig down another shovel bit at the back of the hole? Not yet. Not at all. At least when it isn't raining. I measured (roughly) and am now down to about 14 inches, maybe it's only 12, hard to tell with the bottom being uneven still, no seepage whatsoever. It all seems to be from water runoff, maybe from the other side and down the sidewalk, pooling, and overflowing out into that one spot in the rose bed. You can see how the sidewalk slab is in the first photo. Just the open trench got rid of the pooling in the bed itself, and the rose there is mounded now, before it made quite a large puddle in the actual planting area. There is one more slab like it, but it is toward the steps to the front sidewalk, and doesn't seem to cause any significant pooling, probably because it's close to a slope where it can run down. The slopes are washing mud onto the sidewalk, and I shovelled it back into the planting area. I'm hoping that once plants are established and mulched, that will stop. The guy who finished the barrier did a crappy job on that side near the front walk which makes it a little worse, but it does it on the other side, too. I've got everything I need except rock (was going to buy a bag at Hy Vee, landscaping pebbles, one bag ought to do it) to finish it up tomorrow if you think it is right except I want it a little deeper on the front end to allow for rocks, sand and 4" soil on top, then may have to compensate down the whole thing a bit, making sure it slants down in every part of it. Maybe 4" soil at that edge will still cause a problem, 2" might be better, but I would prefer at least 4. I googled for wet box and found some, mostly for marine uses, have no clue how they work or photos, was wondering if large pvc pipe filled with rocks and capped on the ends with some, no anything screen, landscape cloth, sieve, would clog up in no time. I guess that's why the pebbles are supposed to work, it kind of leaches out. In a bad rain, I don't expect miracles, but it will trap it underground (I hope) until it drains out. I decided not to try to trench it a foot or two more on the other side of the landscape barrier. Plus I have them coming to mark lines again, don't think that was close to anything but the further out I go, the deeper I have to go as well. I could do that, but it would be a lot more work. I could trowel under the barrier and not have to take it out, then slide the landscaping cloth through the opening, work in the rest of the materials and refill. Do you think I can make it work? I'd hate to have to dig it all up again. I would scream or cry or both....See MoreSteep Drainage Ditch ground cover, Juniper?
Comments (1)First, if the city, county or state own the ditch then you better check with them. If they own it they control the use of it not you. Second, control the weeds before during any plant if it is permissible....See Morejoepyeweed
17 years agodoccraw
17 years agoBrent_In_NoVA
17 years agodoccraw
17 years ago
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