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A drainage swale can be an effective way to remove excess water from your property. It can also be beneficial for your garden and neighbors.
By allowing the water to flow in a more slow and natural way, it promotes filtration, prevents clogging, and helps to water the plants around your land.
They might look simple, but swales need proper planning and execution, or the results can be the opposite of what you expect. Take a look at how they work and how to make one.
What Is a Swale Drainage?
It is a type of drainage that makes use of a shallow channel or ditch to redirect water away from your property, preventing it from flooding. There are different kinds of swale drainage systems.
A swale drainage system can be more beneficial when compared with other common solutions, like the french drain. They can be built to help water your plants, to prevent pollutants and soil from going into the sewer system, and serve as a landscaping tool.
Concrete Drainage Swale
Swales made out of concrete slabs are used in homes, but also along roads and highways. They are shaped and installed in a way to help redirect water from the land to a water reservoir or the curb drain.
This solution prevents erosion of the soil and protects the pavement around it from suffering damage caused by water accumulation. It is a cheap alternative to other drainage systems, and easy to maintain.
Rip Rap Drainage Swale
The rip rap is a drainage swale design focused more on being an eco-friendly type of drainage. It is also made of a dug-up channel, but uses rocks and a permeable bed, allowing water to infiltrate the soil.
This type of swale is great to slow down water flow. As the liquid goes through the rocks it loses kinetic energy, carrying less dirt and preventing the erosion of the soil underneath.
Using it along with vegetation, proper planning and landscaping can also be a less intrusive way to drain your yard, as the concrete stands out in the middle of the plants.
How to Correct Your Yard Drainage With Swale
To properly install this system, you will need to understand the slope of your terrain, plan the swale, dig the channel and fill it. After all of this is done, you can make the swale prettier by adding some landscaping.
1. Understanding The Slope
First, pay attention to your front and backyard when it is raining. Check the direction the water flows, and where puddles are formed. This allows you to figure out the path that the swale needs to take to drain your property.
3. Planning The Swale
Now, it is time to start laying out where the swale will start and end. Normally the starting point is below the rain gutter of your house. The end can be just before the street drainage system, in a rain garden or an underground water reservoir, if you have one.
4. Digging The Channel
Ready to get your hands dirty and start digging? The dimensions of the ditch will rely on the amount of water runoff that your property usually has. As a rule of thumb, the more you need to drain, the deeper and wider the channel will be.
Start by removing the dirt, and try to make a “U” or “V” shaped swale. Use the terrain to create some sort of curb at the top of each side slope. This will help to prevent overflowing water from returning to your garden.
Keep an eye on the inclination of the swale, it needs to have a constant tilt towards the end. To check this, you can use a big level or attach a small one to a piece of 2x4 and lay it on the ground.
5. Filing
After the digging comes the filling. You need to start the bed with a nonwoven geotextile fabric or granular material, and the big rip-rap rocks on top. This is to prevent the rocks from getting slowly buried in the ground and undermining the soil.
6. Landscaping
To make the drainage swale more integrated to the surroundings you can plant flowers, shrubs, and a variety of other plants around it. Be careful with trees though, as their roots can pierce the bedding and disrupt the flow of water.
Need help with all this work? Our landscaping professionals are licensed, work efficiently and have the experience you need for installing a drainage swale and an array of different services for your backyard and front yard. Give it a try!
