drainage: viburnum bed

One of the projects I’ve been working on this spring is the drainage issue for our yard. All of the gutters go into the ground where black plastic pipe carries the water away from the house. Two areas where these underground black pipes drain down hill are a bit of a mess. Unfortunately, we have to make do with what we have since trees have been allowed to grow near the pipes.

Last year, I started working on the drain pipe that comes out in the middle of a bed of leatherleaf viburnums and 2 oak trees. After trimming back the viburnums, I removed the rocks and tried to dig out a deeper path for the water to drain through the bed. This wasn’t easy given the amount of roots in the area. The picture shows how close the oak tree on the right is to the pipe.

This year, I realized I could make a series of rock pools going down the hill from the pipe, just as a creek does in the woods. I dug out 3 areas between the roots and filled them with the rocks.

I hope this design buys us some time. If the rock pools fill up with dirt in a few years, we can hire someone to do a better job of digging a trench.