The Benefits of Installing Drainage
-
20/04/21
-
Vodaland Canada
Lawns need watering, and rain is the best source of sprinkling for your landscape. Better still, rain is free. However, too much rain creates problems. If you look out the window and see a wetland that wasn’t supposed to be there, it is time to look into the benefits of installing drainage.
Standing Water Provides Breeding Ground for Insects
While your home’s aesthetic is a concern when parts of your yard disappear under pockmarks of puddles, health is an even greater worry. Standing water is a mosquito maternity ward, and mosquitos may carry disease. Standing water near the foundation of your home will try to find a place to go, and poorly graded landscape without a good drainage system means that water can end up in your basement.
Standing Water Drowns Your Garden
Even plants that love a rain garden don’t want wet feet all the time. It’s unlikely you intended to have a swamp or marshland in your yard. Plants not specifically adapted for soggy conditions will soon fail and you’ll have to start your garden all over again, add new trees, and replant your lawn, which can be expensive.
Fast-Flowing Water Causes Erosion
Poor drainage in your landscape can create a vicious circle of erosion—fast-moving water carries away topsoil and can create ruts and channels that encourage further erosion when the next storm hits.
A well-designed drainage system employing trench or channel drains or catch basins can alleviate these problems. A drainage system for your landscape, including a system that carries water away from hardscapes like driveways and walks, gives stormwater a place to go. Water is lazy. It will take the easy way out every time, and a drainage system gives water a quick and easy trip off your land and into the storm sewer or drainage ditch—whatever your zoning allows.
The benefits of installing a drainage system include controlling standing water, discouraging seepage into building foundations, and reducing erosion, so your lawn and plants have the nutrition they need from healthy soil that stays put.
