Why Lawn Drainage Matters

ABEDorb Gardening Tips

Lawn drainage is a crucial element to achieving a pleasing landscaping aesthetic and a healthy yard. Read on to discover the benefits that any Connecticut homeowner can enjoy by improving the drainage of their lawn, as well as some common ways to achieve this goal.

Why Lawn Drainage Matters

Benefits of Improving Lawn Drainage

There are a number of advantages to having a lawn with good drainage:

Eliminate Standing Water

After periods of rain or following the winter snow melting away, you might notice pools of water accumulating on your lawn. Not only are these pools unsightly eyesores that detract from the attractiveness of your property, but they’re also damaging to the health of nearby plant life. Standing water also creates great conditions for bacteria and pests to thrive in.

Standing water that settles on your lawn is a sign that you could benefit from improved drainage. When the soil of your lawn drains more quickly, it won’t become saturated with water, which is what causes water to pool at the surface. Instead, water will pass through the soil quickly so that it can be dispersed and prevent stagnant pools of standing water from forming.

Reduced Soil Erosion

Poor drainage can cause the loose topsoil that your lawn is growing in to wash away. Nutrient-rich soil that your lawn needs to thrive to its fullest potential gets swept away with the water that runs off due to poor drainage. This leads to soil that is less suited for giving plants the ideal conditions to grow and thrive in.

Not only is this erosion detrimental to the health of your lawn’s soil, but it can also have more serious consequences for your property if the issue is left unchecked. If soil continues to erode around the foundation of your house or other structures on your property, the stability of those structures will begin to degrade. Keep your property safe by ensuring you have a lawn that is draining properly.

Healthier Plant Growth

Every homeowner wants to show off lush, green plant life in their lawn. Improving the drainage of the soil your lawn is growing in is an important step to achieving this goal. Plants that are covered by standing water can become suffocated, stunting their growth or even killing the plant outright.

Water saturation also washes away vital nutrients before the plants in your lawn are able to absorb them. In addition, soil that has become saturated with water can create conditions that lead to all sorts of harmful afflictions for your plant. The high level of moisture is likely to bring on root rot or encourage the growth of mold. Improving the drainage of your lawn can avoid these issues so your plants can grow to their fullest potential.

How to Increase the Drainage of Your Lawn

Think your lawn could benefit from improved drainage? Here are some ways that you can address any drainage issues on your property:

Water Your Lawn Less Frequently

Before taking more drastic steps to improve the water drainage of your lawn, you might want to take a step back and consider whether or not the water buildup on your lawn is due to overwatering instead. While plants do need water regularly to grow, providing more water than the soil and plants are able to absorb will lead to saturated soil, creating inhospitable conditions for plants to grow in.

If you’re hand watering your lawn, simply cut back on the frequency you perform this task to see if that helps your lawn drain adequately. Cutting back on how much water you’re giving your lawn is even easier with sprinklers. Automatic sprinklers often come with timer settings that make it simple to solve your overwatering issue.

Check Your Gutters and Downspout

Water draining off your roof improperly could be another cause behind water gathering on your lawn. Take a look to see if runoff from your downspout is causing water to pool in your yard. Simply extending the downspout so that it drains further from your lawn may be enough to solve your issues.

Blocked or faulty gutters can also cause water to overflow and end up saturating your lawn. Make sure to keep up on regularly cleaning your gutters to avoid this issue. If you’re noticing excessive amounts of water draining off of your roof even after clearing your gutters out, you might be in need of more extensive gutter repair.

Dig an Artificial Creek

In nature, water runs to natural bodies such as rivers, streams, and creeks to drain away from a given area. Replicating this process in your lawn is an excellent way to improve drainage. You’ll also create an appealing addition to the appearance of your property in the process.

To start, locate the low-lying parts of your lawn where water tends to pool. Then, dig a low, shallow trench leading from these low-lying areas to a location off of your lawn. Line the bottom of this trench with pebbles or decorative stones to stop the water from simply going into the soil. Excess water will now be drawn into this trench and away from your lawn.

Grow a Rain Garden

As an alternative to building a creek on your property, you might instead turn any low-lying areas of your yard that gather water into a rain garden. This will take advantage of the oversaturation of water to create an eye-catching feature on your yard that creates a great aesthetic.

Dig out some soil in the area of your yard where water gathers to begin your rain garden. Here, you’ll want to plant ferns, mosses, hostas, and other plants that thrive in areas that receive a lot of water and are good at absorbing excess moisture. Ideally, you’ll want to create a garden that successfully drains the excess water within 24 hours.

Install a Drainage System

If surface-level improvements aren’t enough to address the drainage issues in your lawn, you may need to go deeper to solve the problem. Features such as dry wells or French drains can be installed to help improve the drainage of your yard.

A French drain consists of a long trench filled with substrate materials and a drainage pipe that carries water away from oversaturated areas of your yard. A dry well is a structure typically installed at the end of a creek or French drain to drain water into the surrounding soil so that it doesn’t gather at the surface. Either of these improvements can be greatly beneficial to your lawn.

Get Professional Landscaping Work in Connecticut

While there are some home improvement projects you can tackle on your own if you have the time and resources to invest in them, getting professional help can make all the difference in the result you end up with. You’ll be able to sit back and relax while you let experienced landscapers help your lawn look its very best, saving you from any stress and letting you enjoy the beautiful lawn the professional touch gives you.

Whether you want to improve your lawn drainage or tackle any other landscaping project, our directory of local landscapers will get you the help you’re looking for. All of the landscapers we list are local, screened, and vetted, so you can be confident you’re getting assistance that you can depend on. Check out Landscaper Locator today to take care of any project you need to get done!