Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
dkoebke

Thinking of raised flower beds as water/flood barriers

dkoebke
10 years ago
Dept of Natural Resources does not allow building permanent berms to control water. We're looking at the possibility of installing poured cement planters and raised garden beds that could be used as a base for sandbagging. They need to be low enough so they don't block the view. Any ideas?

Comments (9)

  • Nancy Walton
    10 years ago
    Wow! Do you have flood insurance?
  • dkoebke
    Original Author
    10 years ago
    last modified: 10 years ago
    Fortunately yes - we discovered if you only have 1 claim every 10 years your rate stays very reasonable. We don't have a basement, so we only have to worry about the water coming in the back door. 2008 (the date of these pictures) we had a large claim, so we're trying to avoid another any time soon. This spring we've put in sandbags similar to the picture with the yellow irises. We think cement raised beds would allow us to anchor down plastic sheeting and use minimal sand bags to fill the gaps.
  • Nancy Walton
    10 years ago
    We live in NM, about 1/4 mile from the Rio Grande (a 100-yr flood zone) and we are required to have flood insurance--can you believe it? We are also on an elevated crawl space 2 1/2 ft above ground level. $1200/year is our premium. Anyway, I would think they couldn't prevent you from building raised beds, as long as they didn't completely form a levee, right?
  • PRO
    ASVInteriors
    10 years ago
    Is there a way to design your planters so you can divert the water somewhere else? Either side, to a drain or a slope?
  • dkoebke
    Original Author
    10 years ago
    last modified: 10 years ago
    We are in the 500 year flood plain - unless they changed that - and we think leaving gaps in the garden beds will make it legal.
    I like the quickcretre idea for the garden bed I'm planning at the end of the house, and I'll pass it on to a few of the neighbors.
    I'd really like to invest in some formal planters in the front of the house that look like they were part of the original design of the house.
    As far as diverting the water - we are higher than the river and our street with city drains, so that's where we'll send the water. In 2008 it was just a matter of using pumps to keep it on the other side of the sand bags.
  • S. Thomas Kutch
    10 years ago
    I would take your idea of the raised planter beds to the DNR and get their input. I wouldn't just guess at what you could "get away" with by calling it another name.

    Another idea would be to leave 2-3' spaces between them with key ways formed into the end of the planter walls, so that a wooden panel could be slid down into them in the flood times.

    If you go to the DNR, I would go with a rendered site plane and maybe a rendered ground level perspective to give them an accurate picture of just what you're talking about.

    You definitely want their approval or buy in before you actually build something. Be it a planter box or whatever. The last thing you want is for them to come in sometime after you've completed your project and issue an order to take it down.........and DNR has that kind of clout to do that.
  • dkoebke
    Original Author
    10 years ago
    last modified: 10 years ago
    Good advice. I'll never understand why the DNR can say I can't do anything to my normally high and dry yard that might change the flow of the river, but it's OK to sandbag and change the flow during a flood. A neighbor several houses down simply left his sandbags in place, added more, and covered everything with dirt. DNR didn't seem to have a problem what that, so we thought raised flower beds would not be a issue.

    We are planning for 2-3' gaps, more where it could affect the view. We want to incorporate existing pond/fountain features and flower beds. I like the wooden panel idea (much lighter than sandbags), but it might need reinforcement during biblical floods.
  • mamadada
    7 years ago

    Just seeing this post. What did you eventually do? Our house flooded in August. 1st time in 18 years since we built. Worried about the cost of flood insurance going up. No one has given me the information about it not going up if you only have 1 claim in 10 years. Is this still accurate? The rebuilding cost more than our home cost.

Sponsored
Iris Design Associates
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars22 Reviews
Northern Virginia Landscape Architect - 13x Best of Houzz Winner!