After successfully landscaping your property, filling it with trees, attractive shrubs and flowers, don’t let all of this beauty wash away. Understanding the importance of landscape drainage will protect your investment, while adding an additional touch of attractiveness to your yard.

In today’s environment landscape drainage has become a real challenge for many homeowners due to site grading in residential developments and changes to the neighborhood topography and the drainage problems already in existence in many developments.

Besides being unsightly, standing water or swiftly moving water can cause a lot of problems in a landscaped yard. If too much water accumulates around the base of trees, shrubs or flowerbeds, root rot will develop on the plants, which will ultimately cause them to die. Water and moisture around the foundation of your home is also hazardous to your homes health and can cause serious damage to your homes foundation.

Landscape drainage doesn’t have to be a large or expensive process; however, it does depend on the slope of your property and the placement of the plants. A simple fix for flowerbeds or shrubs is to pack the soil so that excess water runs off the plants. Additionally raising plant beds or creating a berm, (an elevated mound around the plant bed), with soil, rocks or mulch can direct extra water away from the plant’s roots.

Moving water in a landscape can be a challenge but it can also be a design opportunity. Moving water in different ways can actually enhance the landscape. Moving water with swales or dry river beds can actually be attractive when done correctly.

While landscape drainage serves a definite purpose, it can also be an attractive addition to any property. There are several types of landscape drainage designs used in landscaped areas and each type offers both practicality and creativity.