Not all natural areas are easy to keep. Some have soil that’s packed and hard, creating a great deal of water run-off and leaving small water in plant beds. Other areas’ plant mattresses simply can not retain the enormous amounts of rainwater that drop during certain times of year. If your landscaping includes drainage issues, then just a little bit of digging may fix those problems.
Dig a trench that’s 3 to 4 inches wide and 4 inches deep around the landscape’s plant mattresses. If the soil is soft, you may have the ability to use a hoe as opposed to a scoop.
Create smaller trenches in the plant beds using a hoe or trowel. The smaller trenches will stop standing water around crops, helping mattresses that do not absorb water well, such as those using clay soil. They also help when it rains too much at once and the soil cannot absorb all of the rainwater quickly.
Slope the small trenches within the plant beds toward the mattresses’ outer trenches. Make each slope very minor, such as a 1/4-inch drop each four feet of trench, so that water doesn’t rush too quickly out of their mattresses. Use a level to look at every single slope. By flowing gradually, some water in the small trenches will have enough time to absorb into the soil. The rest of the water will soak into the soil along the beds’ outer trenches. Maintaining rainwater close to the plant mattresses will help the area retain moisture.
Dig shallow trenches along the borders of walkways. During downpours, rainwater will fill the trenches, keeping standing water off the walkways. In case a walkway is on level ground, slope its trenches to help rainwater move elsewhere. If a plant bed is nearby, then an option is to dig trenches from a walkway to the plant bed to help water the bed plants.
Fill trenches that border plant beds and walkways with gravel or smaller stones to make a better look. Fill trenches inside plant mattresses using a combination of gravel and sand, and cover those trenches in plant beds with soil and mulch to conceal them. Sand, gravel and small stones allow water to flow freely during trenches. Sand also prevents soil from settling in trenches.