My yard has turned into a pond

[Newbie Gardener 2]

Hi Gardeners,

Last summer I resodded my lawn and dug up a lot of roots in the ground that was in the way. This year, I am having water problem in my yard. Whenever it rains, it becomes a pond, and the soil has turned into mud. I am a newbie in gardening and am enjoying the learning and the work and want to know how to deal with the water problem.

Did the digging up the root create problem for the drainage of my soil? How can the drainage be improved?
Any suggestions, idea you can share will be much appreciated!

 

[Chuck]

Hi Gardeners,

Last summer I resodded my lawn and dug up a lot of roots in the ground that was in the way. This year, I am having water problem in my yard. Whenever it rains, it becomes a pond, and the soil has turned into mud. I am a newbie in gardening and am enjoying the learning and the work and want to know how to deal with the water problem.

Did the digging up the root create problem for the drainage of my soil? How can the drainage be improved?
Any suggestions, idea you can share will be much appreciated!

Where are you located and how deep can the water become. Pics would help

 

[Newbie Gardener 2]

 

[Chuck]

I think something more is going on here than meets the eye. Just digging up a few roots wouldn't turn your yard into a swamp. Are there any water lines that may be leaking? What is uphill from this? When was your last rain and how much was it? How long has this water been there and how long does it usually stay?

 

[Newbie Gardener 2]

The water only gathers after a rain. I look at my neighbour's lawn and they do not have water gathering. The house is a mile or two from a little hill over a small lake in the area. The water usually stays for a few days, either being evaporated off or drained away I suppose. A note on the root is that there are some big chunks of root that I took out which was part of a big tree near by. The root is coming above the lawn so I remove some of it.

 

[Lostvalleyguy]

There are things that can be done to improve the drainage but knowing the lay of the land would be essential in providing a specific solution. Drainage pipes (Which are usually perforated 4" diameter pipes) can be buried around the perimeter but they need somewhere to drain to. Depending on regulations, you may be able to connect this in to a storm sewer or sewage line from your home. If you live in a low spot and the water table is just too high, you will need to build up with several inches of coarse gravel and a new lawn on top.

If you have a basement and it is not damp or flooding, then there probably is drainage around the perimeter of your house. This means that there should be a way to drain away the water in your yard.

 

[Chuck]

Is your lawn more or less level with your neighbors or is it much lower? In the top right hand corner of the pic it looks like the lawn slopes INWARD at a fairly steep angle. Is there where you removed the roots? About how many roots did you remove? A couple of pickup truck loads maybe? This really doesn't make any sense. There is no reason for this to happen all of a sudden just because you removed some roots. Is this partof your lawn level or is it bowl shaped?

 

[Newbie Gardener 2]

By looking it looks like my lawn is more or less level with my neighbours. I did not have this water problem last year. Now that you asked about the roots actually most of ones that are removed are on the left and middle of the yard (the big tree sit between me and my neighbour). Not truckloads of root, may be enough to fill 5 garbage bins. I did them manually so it wasn't on any industrial scale.

 

[Newbie Gardener 2]

Also, I do not have a way to drain it to the street coz the surface is cemented and there is no direct access from the street to the back of the house. I have been researching and wonder if the French drain or other drainage system might be a solution.

 

[Chuck]

Also, I do not have a way to drain it to the street coz the surface is cemented and there is no direct access from the street to the back of the house. I have been researching and wonder if the French drain or other drainage system might be a solution.

There has to be a reason for this suddenly happening. If your neighbors didn't raise the elevation of their lawns then your lawn has for some reason subsided. And from the pics it looks about 3 inches or so. I can see only 2 or 3 remedys. A French drain to somewhere, slowly adding compost and letting the grass grow through it until it will not leave standing water or perhaps making a berm and swale. I really think your answer is to find out just how much out of level your lawn is from your neighbors by using a water level and then deciding what method to use. There wouldn't be an old swimming pool buried there by any chance would there or something else maybe?

 

[Newbie Gardener 2]

All my neighbours surrounding my yard did not do any big garden renovation in the past year, I am also puzzled by the drainage problem that come up this year. If there is some back flow (from the lake or from the buried swimming pool ) in the region I would expect my neighbours to have it too. Even if my yard is level, there is still water standing on the surface, which I am not sure why it did not happen before.

Apart from the French drain, how does a dry well / soak well sound? It seems to be quite easy to install on my own and could be a solution. Any idea?

 

[firelily99]

If it only fills up after it rains then it probably wouldn't be from a leaking water line. Frankly I would have someone like a landscaper come look at it. I don't think digging the roots out would be the cause of this problem.

 

[Chuck]

All my neighbours surrounding my yard did not do any big garden renovation in the past year, I am also puzzled by the drainage problem that come up this year. If there is some back flow (from the lake or from the buried swimming pool ) in the region I would expect my neighbours to have it too. Even if my yard is level, there is still water standing on the surface, which I am not sure why it did not happen before.

Apart from the French drain, how does a dry well / soak well sound? It seems to be quite easy to install on my own and could be a solution. Any idea?

The simple reason that the water is standing there is that the surrounding ground is higher and that is the problem. Why is your lawn lower all of a sudden than the areas around it? I am not familiar with a dry well/soak well. French drains yes I am quite familiar.

 

[Pat]

I would have someone look at the yard. The roots took up space that now is empty plus they sucked up some of the water that is now just sitting there. You do need to talk to a professional, good luck.