New construction, help!

10 years ago

My wife and I recently purchased our first home last year. We haven't gotten around to doing the landscape in the front, until now! We are very excited to get started with the spring weather approaching! However we are having trouble since this is our first home and it is a new construction so we are starting from scratch. The yard slopes a bit from the right side of the pictures to the left (it only drops about 1 1/2' for each 10 feet in length) so water from the downspout rushes down in front of the house toward the driveway creating a muddy mess after each moderate rain storm. The underground drainage seen in some of the pictures is no long there. Any help to get us started would be greatly appreciated, as starting from a clean slate can be great but also very difficult!

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Comments (5)

PRO
Arbordale Landscaping Ltd
10 years ago
To combat your rainwater issue you could create a leaching pit off the right hand side of your house. This can be a tough task because you will want to hold as much water as possible. This includes digging a pit as big as 4'x4'x4'. Line the pit with filtercloth so the soil won't infiltrate. Typically people will fill these with gravel, but the problem with that is the amount of water it can actual hold after being filled with gravel is minimal. We usually put 6" weeping tile (perforated drain pipe) in the hole because it creates more space for water to sit. Fill voids with large clear gravel. Wrap the top with filtercloth to avoid soil washing in, and top with either riverrock or sod depending on what you want to see.

Plants can also help slow water down. If you create plant beds at the front of the house with shrubs and perennials this will help slow the water, and will irrigate the plants. Be sure you put a layer of mulch on all your bed spaces to prevent the water from washing your new bedding soil away. Also, the larger the plants, the larger the root system, the more water it will absorb, although i wouldn't plant anything too large that would block out your windows.

Water issues can be painful, but you would get good results using these methods. Good luck!
PRO
Revolutionary Gardens
10 years ago
If the problem is the downspout, deal with the downspout. If you connect it to smooth, 4" PVC and bury that pipe you can have the pipe exit farther out in the yard, You can see in the photo that the worst of the erosion is coming from your downspout, I'd start there.
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jbtanyderi
10 years ago
The porch should extend at least a foot beyond each side window. Paint the gable the shutter colour. Planting near the house should involve colour each season, but be punctuated by some vertical green.
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
10 years ago
You could create a dry stream that fills with water when it rains. You should remove the shutters from the right side of the house they are too small and I would widen the front porch to the window and the garage side that way you can have a couple of planters one on each side of the door and paint the door a bright color , red would be nice. This pic is of a dry stream and the rest of it could be done in your space
shirlpp
10 years ago
You are in desperate need of a landscape design. Do not skimp on this, or try to do it yourself, you want to avoid "any and all" water problems.