How to fix low spots in the yard.

simple life

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Not sure if this is the right section for this but what the heck.
I have been having a tough time with low spots in the yard holding alot of water after a rain and even when it drains its all muck.
I trucked in alot of loam over the summer to level it off but its still retaining water.
It seems that the loam just didn't have the heft or structure needed to hold up.
I didn't want to use the rocky fill that was available because I already have way too many stones mixed in the lawn as it is.
I had a problem with chicken run getting mucky and gross and used hay and other things but the best thing and it has been a miracle worker is coarse sand.
That stuff has been amazing and I wish I had done it a long time ago.
For the yard though I need to do something else.
I can get free wood chips and I was thinking of putting them down and then a layer of dirt just to give it some more structure.
We are planting grass over it in the spring.
I know the wood chips will break down eventually but I was thinking that by then the grass would give it enough structure and drainage.
Any suggestions?
 

Greenthumb18

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That sounds like a good idea, yeah i would go with the wood chips. I would even add some organic matter like shredded leaves, compost, manure, or any other decaying vegetation. This would help with the drainage problem.

Hope this helps! ;)
 

journey11

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One thing I know that works, but depends upon the topography of your yard, is to take a ditch-witch and make channels to catch and reroute water, especially if you do it toward the bottom of a hill where water comes down and collects. You fill the ditch with large gravel, which gives it a path of least resistance, and you run the ditch to another area that can accept the water and carry it away (i.e. a small stream). You can then fill the last 4" of the ditch with dirt, and plant grass. This is all a bit technical though and you'd really have to do some careful planning for it to work. Don't know if I can explain it any better than that. :p This will work for low spots too, just so long as there is some degree of slope to run the water off.

Another idea would be to use the low spot as a landscape element if possible. Build up the height to level with gravel, put down landscape fabric if desired, cover that with several inches of sand, cover with pavers or flat rocks to make either a patio area or walkway, then fill in between the rocks/pavers with decorative gravel, pea gravel or mulch.

If it's really holding A LOT of water, and there's nowhere to channel it, then I'd just go ahead and put in a fish pond. :D

I've got a soggy area at the back of my house I plan to do a combination of the first 2 suggestions to. Then I want my husband to build me a giant pergola and I want to plant grapes all up and down it.
 

seedcorn

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take a picture of wet hole and surrounding area so we can see what you are working with.
 

obsessed

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My backyard holds a lot of water also. But I live in the swamp. I just had some landscapers out here and we would run some catch basins out to the run yard but there is only a 2" rise in elevation. And that is not enough to drain the water fast enough. We cant add much more dirt because then my house would flood.

So we are going with a sump pump. To collect the dirt and push it out to front. We will have to get some sand to regrade the yard and then put some sod on top of that.

So I vote for drainage. If you can't do it yourself (like me who cant and doesn't want to) it may be better to get someone out there to look at it. I could if I wanted to jusst dump sand myself but I think that the regrading is important in my situation.
 

Ridgerunner

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It kinda depends on what is causing the problem. Is it rainwater that collects in low spots, is is a wet weather spring, is the ground subsiding, or is it maybe sinkholes? The solution might vary a bit depending on the cause.

When I lived outside of New Orleans, we trucked in 6 to 8 yards of sand or sometimes the more expensive silt (spillway dirt in the local vernacular) every two or three years to level our yards. Almost all the area was built on drained swamps and the organic matter (swamp muck) that had been built up there over time kept subsiding. It did cause a lot of foundation problems if the house had not been built to account for it. A friend bought a house to refurbish with foundation that had to be levelled 22" due to subsidence.

What do you have against sand as a leveling medium? It drains extremely well and does not shrink. The reason it is used in bricks is to keep the clay from shrinking. It is the clay that does the bonding, not the sand. In the New Orleans area, we never had problems getting grass to grow in the sand we used sometimes three or four inches thick to level our yards. Just raking it level usually got a bit of topsoil mixed in. Of course in that climate St. Augustine grass will grow in practically everything.

Journey11's suggestion of using French Drains is also a distinct possible solution, especially if it is a wet weather spring or low spots. It depends a bit on what the problem is but could be a great long term solution. It may not be the best solution if the problem is subsidence or a sinkhole.

Good luck! These drainage problems are not always easy or inexpensive to solve, especially permanently.

I saw Obsessed just responded. That is somebody problably familiar with subsidence, even across the lake on the North Shore.
 

Lavender2

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I live in a swamp and have had to learn to work with the elements, and cope with the muck... and dips... and shifting soil ... :/
Often times if you fill, mound or change the soil structure of low areas the problem just moves to another. The water has to go somewhere.
Providing you don't have your heart set on lawn for the area ... and I don't know if it fits your particular problem with water ... but have you considered a native wetland garden?
Deeply rooted wetland plants or swamp trees will use the water and help structure the soil... a lot less maintenance than grass also...;)
 

simple life

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Thank you to everyone for all the replies.
The yard use to have grass in the area that is now holding water after a rain.
Its right in the middle of the yard in front of the chicken coop.
The rest of the yard is fine, the house and surrounding areas does not get water, its been here since 1768 and there are no issues with water and the foundation.
This problem with the center of the yard has been happening on and off for a few years.
Every time we bring in fill it seems like its good to go but then after a particularly hard rain or if it rains for a few days it will hold water again.
Its been less and less each time as we keep filling it in but it seems that the loam we are using is not substantial enough to hold up and gets mucky and loose.
There has always been grass there but we had to cover it up in order to level it so I should be able to grow grass there again when the ground is finally stable.
That is why I was wondering if wood chips would help give the soil some heft since I can get them for free.
Ridgerunner, its not that I have anything against sand, I used it in the run but I want to keep the grass there since its right in the middle of the yard and we already have gardens, beehives, a firepit, and a vegetable garden using up some prime lawn space I need to have something for the kids to run around on.
 

curly_kate

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Glad to see all the suggestions! We have had drainage problems since we had a new septic put in. We are at the midpoint of a hill, so we have a lot of water coming down. We had a garage built this summer, and now are having a similar problem over there. I wasn't worried about it because it just ran down the gravel driveway, but with the cold weather, it's now turning to ice! :he

I like the idea of planting some water loving plants in the drainage "ditch" that we created. The grass doesn't grow there anyway. Wouldn't larger plants help soak up the excess water anyway? What are good water loving plants for zone 6? They would need to be sun-lovers. It is also fairly close to the house, so I"m thinking a tree wouldn't be a good idea.
 

journey11

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curly_kate said:
Glad to see all the suggestions! We have had drainage problems since we had a new septic put in. We are at the midpoint of a hill, so we have a lot of water coming down. We had a garage built this summer, and now are having a similar problem over there. I wasn't worried about it because it just ran down the gravel driveway, but with the cold weather, it's now turning to ice! :he

I like the idea of planting some water loving plants in the drainage "ditch" that we created. The grass doesn't grow there anyway. Wouldn't larger plants help soak up the excess water anyway? What are good water loving plants for zone 6? They would need to be sun-lovers. It is also fairly close to the house, so I"m thinking a tree wouldn't be a good idea.
Water maples--not as pretty as other maples, but well suited to wet land. Any type of willow--weeping, curly, etc. And a really neat, super-fast grower I love called an Austree (very similar in cultivation as a willow). Sycamores do well in wet areas too. Those are just a few that I can think of.
 

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