This past storm that came through decided to let us know that we are not immune to the muck. Our friends Heidi, from Itty Bitty Farm in the City, and Kitty, from Havenscourt Homestead, have both lamented about muck. Well, it has finally come here. And since our yard slopes away from our house and the livestock yard is at the end of our yard, it’s become a recipe for disaster. Kinda. Most of the actual yard is raised due to compost. Which is beneficial because it keeps everything from draining into our neighbors’ yards.
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| Most of the yard doesn’t look wet at all |
But along the yard’s fence line and along the barn it’s a total mess. So the plan this spring is to dig an 18″ wide by 18″ deep trench along the fence, line it with filter fabric and fill it with drain rock. Very similar to what Heidi has done. I’m considering getting a sump pump as well, however we don’t have anywhere to pump the water to as the front yard is too far for any hose to reach.
I hope the French drain helps, it should. We need to do the same by our turkey pen this year. The pen itself slopes, and then the whole darned property slopes! 😛 We do ok, until the ground is either saturated like it is now, or we get a deluge all at once. We definitely need to curb a little runoff though.
French drain worked wonders keeping my in-laws mountain cabin dry in the crawl space under the house. It definitely won't hurt matters any.
I just read about your win at the Crunchy Chicken site… just wanted to stop by and say congratulations!!!
I won?! Sweet! Heading over there right now. Thanks for letting me know!
Wow, that's wet! you could have a sump pump just drain into a rainwater barrel or two. and then the water would be like compost tea. That's what we are planning to do with ours.
Oh! That's a fantastic idea! Thanks Heidi.