Improper landscape drainage can be one of the most frustrating, and most costly, outdoor issues that Minnesota homeowners have to deal with. If your landscape is not designed to allow water to drain properly, it can result in many serious problems. Flooding of basements is the most obvious concern but if too much water pools in your yard, it can also drown your gardens, result in mold growth and become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
Between melting snow and regular rainstorms, spring is an especially problematic season for flooding. If you had a problem with drainage last spring, be sure to get it fixed before the next Minnesota winter arrives and it’s too late. Continue reading to learn about some effective landscape drainage options that can prevent flooding in your yard and home.
The Best Ways to Divert Water From Your Home
- French Drains – One of the best ways to divert water from your home in Minnesota is with a French drain. This landscape drainage system is both highly effective in removing excess water from your yard and pleasing to look at. The first step of installing a French drain is to dig a trench through your yard, leading to where you want water runoff to go; ideally, into a gutter, a pond or a dry well. You’ll then need to lay down a sturdy filter fabric in the trench and create a bed of rock or gravel of your choice. After this, you’ll lay a perforated pipe through the trench and then bury it under more rock, and your French drain will be ready to go! When it rains or snow melts, the excess water will drain into the pipe, since rocks present the water with a much easier passage than soil, and the pipe will allow the water to run out of your yard instead of pooling and causing problems.
- Rain Gardens – If you’re looking for an all natural solution to your landscape drainage problem, you should plant a rain garden near your home in Minnesota. “Rain gardens” are so-named because they thrive in wet conditions and their purpose is to absorb rainwater to prevent flooding. You should plant your rain garden at the bottom of a downward slope near your home, at least 10 feet away from your foundation to prevent the basement from being flooded. You’ll need to lay down lots of soil and mulch, then choose plants that thrive in continuously moist conditions and can tolerate being partially submerged in water. Many MN native plants thrive in rain gardens, including butterfly flowers, cardinal flowers, lobelias and milkweed. Once your rain garden is set up, it’ll absorb a great amount of floodwater from rainstorms and snowmelt, preventing a flood in your yard.
- Dry Wells – A dry well is a large subterranean basin that can assist with landscape drainage by absorbing excess water to prevent flooding. You should install a dry well in your yard in Minnesota at the end of a downspout and at least 10 feet from your home. You’ll need to dig a large hole in the ground and lay down filter fabric with a base of rocks. Then, you’ll need to install a pipe feeding into the well from a downspout or a French drain. After this, you can install a plastic basin in the center of the well, connected to the pipe, and fill the hole with rock to complete construction of your dry well. Each time it rains, water will accumulate in the dry well and then percolate into the soil around it instead of flooding your backyard and your basement.
The Best Landscape Drainage Installation in Minnesota
While you may want to try to tackle a landscape drainage system as a DIY project, creating any of the above drainage systems in your backyard will be both time-consuming and labor intensive. If you’re short on time or worried about throwing out your back, let the pros handle it for you. Call Ground One today for premium landscape drainage installation services in the greater Twin Cities area!