Front yard: drainage at walkway

Front walkway drainage issue
(4.14.13 - 4.16.13)

On the "to deal with later" list has been a minor drainage problem along the front walkway. The issue is that the soil (aka: red clay ground) is higher than the walkway - this creates a problem when it rains  a lot (something that happens fairly regularly in TN) as the water simply has nowhere to go and tends to pool up until it evaporates.

Exhibit A: the shift of ground over time to the left has created somewhat of a basin on the walkway that can take several days to fully absorb/disburse the water.

B E F O R E 

My solution? Exhibit B: dig out and ultimately remove some of this soil (if you can call it that). By the way, I highly advise either enlisting some help with the movement of dirt and/or enlisting some help with the digging itself. With a small wheelbarrow and a square shovel it took me almost 3hrs to move all of this (partly because my dirt dump site is at the back of the property line in between some trees where I've been piling brush/branches/etc. over time.

D U R I N G

The second phase of this is to add some actually USEFUL soil and border plants to aim for a slightly lower level at the walkway, thereby creating a slope of sorts that will enable the rain to run off properly. This current trench (aka: dragon moat, if you're one of the nosy neighborhood kids that asked me wtf I was doing) is approximately 37ft long x 1.5ft wide x 0.5-1ft deep depending on problematic root structures uncovered during this excavation process. Phase 2 pending.

------------------------------------04.16.13---------------------------

As I came out to remeasure and check things this morning (day after digging), I noticed something else had been checking out my project:

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Completion: fill, plant, mulch & set. Mondo grass can get kinda pricey when you're buying by the flat without a contractor's discount so hopefully my 20 will do okay and double the spacing. We'll see!

A F T E R 

Now I just have to wait about 3mos and see if nature handles the rest to "test" it out and see if this solves the issue entirely. To be continued..?