jeff charelbois

Ben Stallings wrote:Hi, Jeff. The short answer is yes, this can work. I did it as one of the first improvements to my property, as the basement flooded twice in the first week we lived here! Our land doesn't slope much, so the swales are only a couple inches high, just enough to stop sheet flow from getting closer to the house. I dug them slightly off contour so that they overflow away from the house. Not only did the basement stop flooding, the lawn and garden were much healthier for the extra water!

Grading the ground around the foundation is also crucial. The magic ratio I've heard is 6" of rise over 6' of run. I built a wooden jig to help me determine if I had that much slope: a long board with a short board screwed to it at a right angle so that the inside measurements are 6' and 6" respectively; I strapped a level to the longer arm and walked around the house setting it down every few feet and marking the spots that didn't comply.

The final piece of the puzzle may be obvious, but I've seen many houses where people apparently didn't think of it -- your downspouts need to take the roof water more than 6' from the house and keep it there. If you don't have downspouts, the grading is all the more important. If you have rain barrels, make sure they have enough overflow to handle the heaviest rains and take it 6' or more away, or use a downspout diverter to reduce the flow to the barrels to a level their overflow can handle.

I do think i need more slope but to get 'll need to have the gas company raise my meter I've already added as much as i can without covering it. I do have extentions on my downspouts but the may not hit the 6ft mark I'll check that out stat. and probably move them out more even if they are 6ft. hand put them where i plan to put a swale and berm for the food forest. I guess i will see how much getting the meter moved will cost me too so I can add soil berm to the edge of the house. I also have a storm water collection basin in the back that may be the root of this problem but its pretty far from the house. It des fill at the same times as the basement gets wet. so id guess diverting everything from it into the grounds may also help. Thank you all for the responses It was a great help! any additional help is also appriciated!!!

Just curious if this will work or not any input appriciated. I currently get water in my basement from only very heavy rain falls the edge at the floor starts to weep. Id guess the water table is surpassing the footings and floor. I am wondering if while I work my plan to make a forest garden if a swale could solve this problem as well as get me to that goal? The land is sloped away and I have a few inches thick of mulch around it that seemed to help a bit. Im thinking a swale would draw the runoff away from the foundation more. would a swale the lenght of that wall a few feet away 6-8 accomplish this? I would likely then add more swales to pull the water further away to where id like it to be so kind of like a big "E" with the back of the "E" 6-8 ft from the wall. Not nessicarily straight but thats th genreal thought. Also the internet implies that plating in that area may make it worse but I dont see it that way I would think the roots of the shrubs and plants would assist me like a huglekulture soaking itin and keeping it from saturating to the point where my problem occurs? Opinions?

With them and the abundance of rabbits I think I need to make some of sepps bone sauce.

I figured it might be helping but there's far too many of them for comfort. Cat caught 6 traps 2 and holes everywhere I had carrots in that bed at one point to that either got choked out as the tomatoes went crazy or were eaten by the mice who knows lol.

I had one raised bed with mostly tomatoes in it that has gotten infested with mice. I am clearing it out but wondering if the tomatoes from there should be safe to eat still. The reason I question their safety is one mouse a cat caught and it had mites or some white bugs crawling on it. The rest don't seem to have this problem. I assume mice get to crops often on farms and such but the bugs on it to me scream red flag. the roma's look fine to me but its my first year.