Working on landscapes every day, we wanted to share 3 tips for landscape maintenance and yard drainage design. Why? Because we think that every homeowner should upgrade their yard’s appearance and give their yard the ability to drain properly.

One way to make sure that your landscape designs are eye catching and lovely is to let nature do some of the work for you. With drainage and landscape maintenance working in tandem, this isn’t always possible. This is because soil, especially harder clays, makes it difficult to keep lawns looking beautiful, especially when water isn’t running off properly.

With homeowners looking for ways to improve their home’s equity, it’s no wonder that lawn maintenance services are becoming popular for those looking to make a positive change to their home’s drainage and landscape.

Read our 3 tips for landscape maintenance and yard drainage design below.

3 tips for landscape maintenance and yard drainage design

Both yard drainage design and landscape maintenance require basic knowledge of irrigation, ditches, and how you’d like your yard to look.

In terms of basic landscape maintenance, soil must have aeration, or an amicable mixture of oxygen, food and water, to continue to promote healthy grass growth.  Where backyard drainage design is concerned, looking at where water runs off in relation to source is a major component. These are just a few things to think about.

With that, here are your 3 tips for landscape maintenance and yard drainage design.

Identify the Excess Water Source

Finding excess water buildup is relatively easy; if water sits for a few hours then dissipates, more than likely your drainage is fine and no problems exist. If water collects near your foundation, then you’re experiencing slope issues which need corrected before designing something new. Finally, if you simply have some soggy areas, you’ll want to install a French drain which we’ll discuss later on.

Consider Soil Composition

Does the type of soil homeowners have, really matter when designing landscapes and drainage solutions?

Type of soil you have may adversely affect your drainage system’s efficiency. Of course, downslope matters, too, but hard clay or rocky soil bedding doesn’t make drainage any simpler to deal with. If you’re unsure what kind of soil you have, or how well it handles water, consider having your state perform soil tests.

Now let’s look closer at our 3 tips for landscape maintenance and yard drainage design.

Choose the Right Type of Drainage System

How does one know what drainage system is best suited for their property configuration?

Hosting consistent yard sogginess makes you an excellent candidate for these yard drainage ideas. Not everyone will have sloped yards or updated culverts. Take these yard drainage issues to your preferred landscaping contractor to determine which is best for you.

Open Ditch

Much of the landscaping, northern VA homeowners have adopted, is an open ditch drainage concept. Much as the name implies, water simply runs down piping, into a public ditch system which then carries water away. Depending on the layout of your home, you may not be close enough to ditches to run this type of irrigation.

Trench (French Drain)

Another option is French drain installation. Otherwise called ‘weeping tile’, these drains consist of trenches either rock-filled or designed with perforated pipes which then carry water off your property. Mainly used to haul water away from foundations, these drains work well in any condition or situation, and can help keep your lawn dryer than standard ditch systems.

Either configuration – ditches or French drains – can be implemented if drainage runs slightly uphill by use of sump pumps. They’re slightly more expensive to install, but work well with drainage systems nonetheless.

Sometimes picking which drainage solution works best is a chore. We hope our 3 tips for landscape maintenance and yard drainage design helped bring clarity in terms of available choices.