How I Solved Drainage Problems In My Yard

When water is pooling in your yard, it usually means you have a grading problem, soil erosion, soil compaction, or all three. The good news is, it can be relatively easy to fix and you can do the work yourself.
water pooling on lawn
This is part 1 of 4 articles on how I solved drainage problems in my yard.

Rainwater creates two problems when your yard has poor drainage: Erosion and compaction. Both are serious problems – erosion washes away topsoil, and compaction destroys soil structure and keeps grass from growing properly. Additionally, water that just lays on the lawn can eventually suffocate its roots, as they’re deprived of oxygen.

Late winter and early spring surely bring their share of rain. If water is pooling on your lawn where you don’t specifically want it to, then you either have a yard unable to filter the rain or grading issues with your landscaping. Both can be fixed if you’re willing to get your hands dirty and burn some calories.

When I first moved into my current property I had significant problems with rainwater: Two downspouts were issuing such intense runoff that they were eroding my yard and a number of areas were pooling, compacting the soil beneath it. Over 4 seasons, I tried various methods to solve the problems, and each required a different solution.

Factoid: One inch of rainfall on a 2000 square foot roof generates 1,250 gallons of water.

Save The Rain

Know the condition of your soil before trying to fix drainage problems

Before you decide to regrade or solve your lawn’s drainage issue in another way, ask yourself the question I did: What’s the condition of the soil underneath my lawn?

Good soil (loamy) or bad soil (compacted) makes a big difference in how much rain your yard will manage or absorb. You can get a good idea of the condition of your soil by digging up a one square foot block of the problem area lawn, flipping it over and taking a look at it. Note the following:

  • What color is the soil? (dark and crumbly=good; light brown or brick red and hard=not so good)
  • How tough is it to dig your finger into the soil? If it’s extremely hard, water can’t filter through it.
  • What condition are the lawn’s roots in? If they penetrate less than one-inch into the soil, that’s bad. The roots should be at least as long as the grass above the surface.
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If you have drainage problems in your yard, most likely your answers are: light brown, hard as a rock, and short.

Drainage problems are frequently caused by soil compaction

Many water problems on lawns are the result of soil compaction. A high traffic area is walked on or played on constantly and the soil is compressed – this creates a barrier through which rain has difficulty draining. Depleted soil could also be the problem, from the overuse of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides which have rendered the soil lifeless. The grass is only kept alive and green through regular applications of lawn chemicals.

How to improve your lawn’s soil

Aerate your lawn

In either case, the first thing you’ll need to do is to stop using chemicals to treat your lawn. The second thing is to aerate your entire lawn.

If you have a small lawn or a teenager looking for work, use an inexpensive manual core aerator that you can buy online or at many garden nurseries. To work the aerator, just set it in place, step down on it, and as you do so, it removes plugs that you leave on top of the lawn to decompose, thus feeding the soil and lawn. Keep repeating this across your entire lawn. Rainwater, air, soil, and decomposing matter make their way into the holes, feeding your lawn and putting it back on the road to good health.

If you have a large yard, rent a mechanical aerator from a nursery or equipment rental company, hitch it to your riding mower and get the job done that way. Or you can hire a landscaper to do this for you.

aerating lawn soil
Aerating my lawn’s soil with a manual step-on aerator. Note the “plugs” which now lay on top of the lawn.

Add lots of compost to your lawn

After you aerate, add compost to feed your lawn’s soil. Simply spread the compost across the lawn’s surface, as you would a fertilizer treatment. The compost, with or without the aeration, adds organic material which loosens the soil and allows the roots of the grass to grow deeper. When the roots grow deeper, the grass is healthier and better able to manage stormwater – it will drain through the soil instead of running across it or pooling.

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In addition to compost from yard waste, composted manure is also excellent for your lawn and to get the soil food web activated. I’ve also had success with finely ground peat moss, which creates pathways in the soil for air and water. The peat moss separates the molecules of clay, and helps to keep the soil from easily compacting again. But peat moss is on the acidic side of pH, so if your soil’s pH is already acidic, don’t use it. My soil was alkaline and heavy clay, so adding peat moss only helped.

After you aerate and compost, study the flow of water across your property the next time it rains heavily. Note how much water is running off your yard into the street or adjoining properties. Watching how the water flows will show you where your lawn’s grading needs improvement.

1 thought on “How I Solved Drainage Problems In My Yard”

  1. drainage experts Sonoma

    It sure is great reading about your experience regarding drainage issues and how you fixed them. One man’s experience and problem solving skill is different from others so it is nice to compare and contract the results to see the effectiveness of dealing with the drainage problems. It’s good to learn from posts like this!

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