Get Your Garden Ready for the Rainy Season
Avoid damage to your home and yard by improving soil permeability, redirecting rainwater and planting strategically
Water brings life to gardens, but when rainfall causes puddles to linger on lawns, pool on pathways or seep into basements, it can be too much of a good thing. Whether you live in a year-round wet climate or the rainy season throws into light the drainage issues of your plot, chances are your garden could benefit from some water redirection. Here are seven solutions for increasing water absorption and putting excess runoff to use in your landscape.
7 Ways to Improve Drainage
1. Amend your soil. For compacted soils, digging in organic material and breaking up any compacted areas improves soil texture and drainage. Well-amended soil essentially acts like a more effective sponge: The soil has an increased capacity to retain needed moisture, but gaps between soil particles allow excess water to drain through.
Some people will recommend additives such as gypsum mineral salts to help break up heavy clay soils, but for most home gardens, adding a good dose of organic compost is equally effective at improving soil structure.
1. Amend your soil. For compacted soils, digging in organic material and breaking up any compacted areas improves soil texture and drainage. Well-amended soil essentially acts like a more effective sponge: The soil has an increased capacity to retain needed moisture, but gaps between soil particles allow excess water to drain through.
Some people will recommend additives such as gypsum mineral salts to help break up heavy clay soils, but for most home gardens, adding a good dose of organic compost is equally effective at improving soil structure.
2. Use permeable surfaces for pathways and patios. In areas with frequent heavy rainfall, the more areas of your garden that can absorb water and have it sink straight into the soil, the better. For walkways and patios, look for materials that allow water to percolate through, such as gravel, wood chips or widely spaced flagstone. You can also install a permeable driveway to drain stormwater.
In this Seattle garden, a pathway of impermeable cut stone pavers is interspersed with sections of path made up of permeable gravel to help increase water absorption.
Learn more about installing a walkway of pavers and gravel
In this Seattle garden, a pathway of impermeable cut stone pavers is interspersed with sections of path made up of permeable gravel to help increase water absorption.
Learn more about installing a walkway of pavers and gravel
3. Plant a rain garden. Plant a slightly sunken area with water-loving rushes, shrubs, trees and perennials. Rain gardens can be large areas designed to absorb a lot of runoff, or they can be pocket-sized plantings of bog and streambed plants sited in an area of the garden that stays consistently moist.
How to Site and Size a Rain Garden for Your Landscape
How to Site and Size a Rain Garden for Your Landscape
4. Dig a swale. Channel excess water runoff from the roof or other poorly draining surfaces to the garden where it can be absorbed. You don’t want to redirect unwanted runoff to neighboring properties or straight into the storm drain. Instead, send it to perennial beds or garden areas, such as a rain garden, designed to absorb excess water.
Swales are shallow ditches that don’t just move water, they also act as infiltration basins, depending on whether your soil drains well. Excess water can be safely channeled away from the home while also percolating into the soil, cleaning itself and deeply irrigating plants as it returns to the ground.
See how to move water through your landscape with a swale
See how to move water through your landscape with a swale
5. Add a French drain. If a channel on its own isn’t enough to divert excess water away from your home, consider installing a French drain, possibly in conjunction with a swale. At their most basic, French drains are sloped, gravel-packed channels that run away from the home. More permanent installations involve pipes set in the gravel channel and an impervious lining to increase the amount of water flow away from the building.
In this sloped property in Atlanta, a French drain placed below the roof eaves catches runoff from the roof and channels it through PVC pipes set in a sloped gravel channel to a rain garden on the property.
6. Store rainwater. Rather than diverting water from downspouts into a swale or rain garden, set up a catchment vessel to store excess water for future dry spells. This is particularly useful for gardeners in regions with dry seasons. Hook up a hose to the catchment container, and you’ll be able to use rainwater to irrigate your kitchen garden or perennial beds. Rain barrels come in many shapes and sizes, and can often make attractive additions to the landscape.
Watch now: How to Install a Rain Barrel
Watch now: How to Install a Rain Barrel
7. Install raised beds. In gardens with poor drainage, sometimes the easiest way to create a habitat suitable for growing edibles is to add raised beds. Raising the soil level and filling the beds with a quick-draining soil mix and organic compost can be a solution for sloped lots or gardens with poor soil or compacted soil. Most vegetables and all Mediterranean herbs thrive in well-draining soil.
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To Manage Stormwater Sustainably, Understand Your Site
See other ways to save water around your home and garden
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See other ways to save water around your home and garden
If water is puddling and draining especially slowly in your garden after moderate rainfall or typical irrigation, when you know the soil cannot be completely sodden, then your soil may not be absorbing water efficiently. Compacted soils and soils with a higher portion of clay drain more slowly than soils with more silt or loam.
Not sure which type of soil you have? Do a soil test yourself.