You're looking at a picture of my driveway, which is higher than the yard on both sides by several inches. As you can see, it's got fairly substantial ruts, resulting in mini lakes after any rain. The nearer lake still holds water even after 3-4 days of dry weather. Last winter, I parked on the grass to avoid these small frozen ponds, and managed to kill the grass where salty ice melted off my vehicles. The grass *still* hasn't fully recovered.
After many months of thinking about what would the best thing to do be (and getting seriously muddy thanks to my water dog), I got fed up last night and took action! This small trench took all of 3 minutes to dig, and it actually worked! The puddle is about 1/3 the size now than it was yesterday, only because the deepest part of the puddle is a little deeper than the trench.
I think tonight I'll deepen and/or widen the trench and put sand or small gravel in it and then put the grass back on top. Then I may tackle the other side where the trench will have to be longer to carry the water to a low spot in the yard. That's one way to make use of a dreary, rainy evening!
You engineers are so clever! I would have bought gravel and filled the holes....
ReplyDeleteI was planning to do exactly what you suggest! I just hadn't found the time or money to hire someone and eventually decided to just DO something, even if it's wrong.
ReplyDeleteLast year, as part of an ambitious project, I was planning to bury the wires that go to the garage. Around here they need to be down about 18", so I pulled out a trenching shovel (a brilliant little tool) and completed about 80% of the trench. The project failed to proceed for various reasons, but the trench remained, running next to the drainage pipe that was put in before we bought the house to address the yard's origins as a stream. Where the drainage line failed (as did the project requiring the buried wires), the trench works remarkably well to dry the entire back yard. I'll get motivated at some point and put in the gravel and turf.
ReplyDeleteYou might just run down the middle of the drive in places rather than trying to run it off to somewhere else. That would also address the problem of future ruts.
ReplyDeleteAll hail the lowly trench!
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