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Pro tip from a neighbor about drainage that saved my garden path
I had a neighbor stop by while I was digging a trench for a new paver walkway last weekend. He's this older guy who keeps his yard like a golf course, and I kinda expected him to critique my work. Instead he just said 'you're gonna want to slope that away from the house more or you'll be swimming by July.' He showed me how he uses a 2 foot level and a string line to check fall, and it hit different because I've been fighting puddles for two summers now. I went back and added an extra half inch of drop per 10 feet, and the difference in water runoff has been night and day after just one rainstorm. Made me realize I've been too focused on how things look instead of how they handle weather. Has anyone else had a random piece of advice from a neighbor totally change their approach to a backyard project?
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wendy_bell834d ago
oh man for real, puddles are a huge deal if you ask me. i had a similar thing happen with my own walkway last year, i thought it looked fine and then after a heavy rain i had a whole swamp forming right by the back door. i spent like two hours with a shovel and a level fixing the slope and it made such a difference, the water just runs right off now instead of sitting there. that old neighbor really saved you a headache, i wish someone had told me that before i finished my path the first time. its funny how the little things like that totally change how usable a space actually is.
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