Hello, permies! I have a 2 acre lot, in which the highest point is the SW corner, and the lowest is the NE corner; there is a difference of 22 feet of elevation between these two points. The slope is a convex fan spreading out from the SW corner. Our house sits between these two points, and due to the grading for the home, the area behind the house is almost always wet. As in you can hear water squishing in the grass wet, with occasional standing water. Our dirt guy hypothesizes a small spring somewhere uphill from the back yard. to add to the issue, our soil is sandy clay, and is about 7 inches of dirt on top of a 3-4 inch layer of hardpan. Once the soil is saturated, water does not soak IN, it must drain OFF the property.
Now, I have read to put your pond both high and low in the landscape and the rationale for both seems reasonable. If I put it high in the landscape, will it mitigate the water settling behind the house, or just overflow and flood the kitchen? Or do I put it in the wet area behind the house to catch all the water running down the slope, and possibly the silt and mud along with it? Or just put in a rain garden in the backyard and skip the pond all together?
I am stuck in analysis paralysis, and need some help to start off in the right direction.
Hi, Drew. Photos added to post. We discussed french drain, but where it would have to drain is where all utilities come into the house, so a pond sited there isnt feasible.
I would say a pond anywhere uphill wouldn't help, unless you dig down enough that its surface is distinctly below floor level and the lawn slopes away from the house to the pond. You would also need a swale or drain running around the house to a safe low spot.
What would happen if you dug through the hardpan? Would the soil below drain?
Hi, Glenn.
I suppose if we could get through the hardpan, it would drain away. But it takes a jackhammer or heavy equipment to get through it.
Initally, I had thought to put a pond lower than the house, with drains in the yard that would send water to the pond. But that puts the pond in our unfenced front yard in a neighborhood full of kids. However, if we can clear some more scrub, we might be able to squeeze one on the side of the house, which is also a lower elevation & will be fenced.
Water flows downhill. Let gravity do work for you.
Put the pond where the water is already collecting- seems like a good indication that a pond will work there.
Leave room for "wet lands" around it, make the pond shallow and wide like a saucer, plant water loving plants and crops around the edges.
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