Warning ---- only one dog and no hounds photos tonight in this short, unplanned post. Two --- I know all about the rain in California and this is nothing compared to that but California rain has nothing to do with this blog post. Three --- Walter will NOT go outside no matter how long he has to wait to poop and pee. Luckily he went out after his lunch and right before the rains started around 12:30pm. It is 5:16pm local time as I write this with solid rain until a little past midnight.
This was expected, the flooding. Same thing as my first winter here last year. Interesting and understandable why the seller never mentioned this before I bought the house. I have written about this before. IF I had a keen eye on the photos of the yard in that sales ad, I would have seen possible water damage to the yard, but my eye wasn't keen enough until last winter when I was looking at the sales ad photos again in much closer detail.
Everywhere you see standing water, I added a lot of bags of topsoil and new grass seed last May. The yard looked just like this last January 1st, 2022 and this past April. Like I have said before, both neighbors in their 60s and living in the houses they grew up in, told me my yard has been flooding for 55+ years every winter and spring.
I have thought of a drainage system like I did myself at my old house up north. The difference is, here I have nowhere to run the water except into the side yards of both neighbors. That field you see behind the burn, angles downward to all of our backyards on this side of the street and nothing can be done about that.
There is one consistent thing though that I have seen in the two years I have been here (this April 29th will be two years already) .... where there is Zoysia grass, in the front, side and backyards, there is no flooding. It is a thought I had last year, that in the 2023 spring I would add more dirt and plant Zoysia grass seed this time instead of Kentucky Bluegrass and Fescue.
Of course with the dogs needing the backyard, I will have to fence off sections at a time, where I will add a lot more topsoil (landscapers recommendation) and grass seed. The frustrating part is all that new seed that grew last spring is now gone and underwater. It may or may not recover.
The yard may look flat but when sitting on the patio in great weather, in deep thought with a cigar and some whiskey on ice ... I can see the yard sloping toward the house. Looking at the fence up ahead you can see how the top of the fence goes upward as it heads for the back of the yard. It is times like this that I miss my Arizona rock yard but here a popper scooper replaces my hand inside a bag when cleaning up the yard after their meals. I keep hearing my friend tell me "you can't have everything".
This photo and the next ones were two hours later.
The chairs ??? I put those there about a month ago when I caught Watson digging his own drainage ditch after the first heavy rain before the snow fell in December.
Like before, I am open to any suggestions as I am out of ideas.
Both neighbors told me to solve their flooding problems, years ago their fathers brought in dump trucks full of topsoil to build up their backyards and then planted grass. Yet on the right side her back yard is lower than mine and does not flood.
And ... there is a French drain built all the way around the house along the side of the foundation. I have a popup drain in the front yard and the side yard but do not know the source of their water. It could be from the system in the crawl space (which is dry and under heavy black plastic), that has an electric pump.
I may need to do some exploration digging next spring to see where their underground pipes go.
Not sure what tonight's plans will be except checking to see if Walter will go outside if it stops raining for a short break.
It was still a good day here in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana. The hounds did well on their walks.
That isn't good. What a mess with the pups. Have you had an expert in to give you an estimate for repairs? When my folks planted zoysia grass it was by plugs about every foot.
ReplyDeleteI had three different landscaping companies come out and look after I showed them photos of the flooding. Only one suggested a drainage system but he too did not know where to drain it. The city (I live outside city limits) drains are across the street, down two houses. All three said the best way was to build up the yard with soil and plant grass. My friend up the street had the same problem with his front yard but he has steep side yard that go to a steeper backyard into a natural wash.
DeleteI had not heard that about zoysia, no one around here has that seed for sale but I can buy it online. I will do some online research about "zoysia plugs". Thanks for the info.