Looking for gardening knowledge...

This may help, Sheryl. Good luck!

Willows suck up a lot of water. But becareful not to plant too close to septic lines and tile drains, etc. Their roots can be invasive (they're looking for the water!)

Cypress - if it grows in your region (I'm not sure if it does but your Dept. of Agriculture Extension Office would know)

They would be a good resource for all kinds of plants and shrubs in your area. But remember - if you end up in drought conditions later on - they might not be too happy with the location.

Consider your conditions now and what 'normal' is for your area.

Unique said:

Willows suck up a lot of water. But becareful not to plant too close to septic lines and tile drains, etc. Their roots can be invasive (they're looking for the water!)

Cypress - if it grows in your region (I'm not sure if it does but your Dept. of Agriculture Extension Office would know)

They would be a good resource for all kinds of plants and shrubs in your area. But remember - if you end up in drought conditions later on - they might not be too happy with the location.

Consider your conditions now and what 'normal' is for your area.

Click to expand...

I agree about the willows. AND they're easy to grow. My mother says you can just stick a cutting in the ground and stand back.

I have the same problem, Sheryl.

A couple of years ago, me and my hubby built a dry creek bed down one side of our property. It handles most of the water run-off most of the time. It can't handle snow melt and spring rains at the same time, though. It has overflowed a couple of times this spring, but it handles regular rainfall, and looks absolutely beautiful. We're going to build it a little bigger this summer, and hopefully there'll be no overflowing next spring. It directs an awful lot of water away from the house.

We're gonna add some French drains this summer, and I'm also interested to learn of any plantings that will suck up water. We planted some willow saplings last year, but they didn't make it. I think the deer got them. We're gonna try again with the willow, though, taking precautions against hungry deer. Those spreading roots are apparently very good for preventing erosion, though you do have to be very careful where you plant them.

Good luck to us both!

You're not looking for gardening advice, you're looking for Engineering advice. lol

If you are having water problems due to a steep hill running into one end of your house, then planting trees isn't going to solve it...it'll lessen it, but trees don't catch the runoff from rain storms.

Go up on the hill and cut a ditch somewhere near the center of it to divert the water down the sides.

Here's an example, Sheryl, of a dry creek bed close to a house. Our is a bit more natural looking than this one. Building it was, as James points out, more akin to engineering than gardening. It was back-breaking, but lots of fun. It might be worthwhile to get professional advice, though. I'm thinking of doing that myself. Get an expert opinion, and do all the work myself.

Sheryl Nantus said:

I like that picture!

see, we've already put the five grand into internal french drains inside the basement, put Drylok on all the walls and I can't see much else we can do (other than move to Arizona!) to help deal with the rain....

but these are great options! thanks and keep 'em coming!

Click to expand...

French drains are really a waste of money. The Drylok stuff is awesome though.

Ideally you want to deal with water as quickly as you can (meaning at the SOURCE not at the point of damage). Putting french drains around the basement does nothing to slow the flowrate of water coming INTO the basement.

But going back up on the hill and putting a ditch somewhere in the middle will stunt the flow rate back and divert the water to the sides.

A more costly way to deal with it would be to cut the slope of the hill into "benches". Instead of having one steep slope, you have several small benches at a small slope to slow the water down.

Sheryl Nantus said:

ah... so cutting a ditch across the back yard horizontal to the house (back wall) would slow things down?

we don't really use the backyard at all, so I've no problems destroying the heck outta it to keep the water trouble away...

Click to expand...

Yeah.

Plus, it would push the water out to the sides and you could run ditches down the sides to wherever you wanted it to go.

This would take virtually ALL the water from hitting that end of the house.

Some things to think about however:

1. Extremely large rainstorms will get some overflow from the ditch, but with large rainstorms you expect to get water damage anyways.

2. You are still going to have runoff from everything BELOW the ditch, but it won't be NEAR as bad.

3. You would want it somewhere near the center because if you put it too low the water will run too fast the ditch would be useless. If you put it too high, you aren't solving the problem because the runoff BELOW the ditch will still cause problems.

4. It may cost more, but lining the ditch with rocks/stone of some sort will help stop the ditch from eroding away and make it virtually maintenance free.

5. You might want to get an Engineer's opinion on where to put the ditch.

It all depends on how much money you are willing to spend as to what you can do and keep in mind I haven't seen this hill or the lay out of the terrain so it's hard to say just how affective this will be. Unless you can snap a picture of it or something.

Something like this? Or is it a constant slope back?

That's my house/hill, too. The top of the hill is heavily wooded, and has two springs up there (original water source for this old farmhouse). When it rains heavily or spring snow melt, the springs overflow, and water heads straight for the house.

The dry creek bed handles one of the springs (for the most part).

We need that horizontal ditch, too, and maybe another dry creek bed on the other side of the house.

We're talking backhoe, right?

Well, don't take my advice as gospel (lol) but if it's laid out sort of like this then here is what I'd personally do:



It might do you some good to go ahead and spend the money to have an engineer or somebody to come look at it, but I think that will solve a lot of your problem.

dolores haze said:

We're talking backhoe, right?

Click to expand...

Yeah, unless you want to get out there and dig it by hand. lol That's a lot of work to do by hand though.

Plus a backhoe will ensure you get the ditch big enough.

Heh, no problem.

I'm a Civil Engineer and I spend all day fighting water and where to put it. Water is my arch-enemy in my job. lol

You could even plant some trees for good measure. They're fairly cheap and they do help a bit.

The ditch thing with a backhoe will cost a bit of money. I suppose if you WANTED to dig it by hand it wouldn't hurt (and would be a hell of a lot cheaper), but it'll be one heck of a task.

Birch trees drink awesome amounts of water, a half grown tree can drink up to approx 200 gallons a day. To plant some around that ditch would maybe help. Bamboo also drink a lot, but can develop extensive root systems and should not be planted too close to the house.

French drains are really a waste of money.

Click to expand...

That really is your opinion and not fact.

French drains have worked for centuries in many locations. They aren't the 'be all, end all' by any stretch but they are effective. (Your opinion notwithstanding)

I only say this because your 'know it all' pov makes me avoid your posts most of the time

Unique said:

That really is your opinion and not fact.

French drains have worked for centuries in many locations. They aren't the 'be all, end all' by any stretch but they are effective. (Your opinion notwithstanding)

I only say this because your 'know it all' pov makes me avoid your posts most of the time

Click to expand...

In this case, however, it's a professional opinion because this is part of what I do for a living.

Well, good for you. I did it for a living from 1979 to 2004 so I think I have a bit of experience as well.

I wasn't a landscape engineer, but I sure did need to know enough about it to refer clients to one if they needed it.

And furthermore, telling Sheryl that she wasted her money (since it is already installed) wasn't very nice.

Depending on the grade, it might be totally adequate in a normal year but this year may not be normal, i.e., above average rain/snowfall with quickly rising temps make all the snow melt all at once. If you get my drift.