French Drains – Part 2

The French drain installation is finally complete. After a boatload of gravel and even more elbow grease I can finally declare that the plan worked.  The amount of water running down into the garage has been reduced tremendously and after a night time shower there was hardly any mud on the paving.  Yay!  It is a win for 3623!

I ended the previous post when I ran out of gravel and the drain was halfway done.  The deep trench at the top was complete but the ‘main artery’ still needed lining and graveling.  The week after we dug the drain was an absolute scorcher here in Snor City so the rest of the work on the drain was done at night.  There was just no way I was manhandling thirty bags of gravel in that heat.

Because the drain is really shallow towards the bottom end I decided to leave the gravel uncovered.  I am not quite convinced that it adds to the aesthetic, but I figured I’ll leave judgement until there is some grass growing again and work from there.

On Friday it rained during daylight hours and we could finally see the the drain in action for real.

The top trench is still not catching enough of the run-off water, so it starts running along that proposed secondary drain, it is going to have to be dug as well /0\…  That little stream then bypasses the drain at the bottom and makes the usual muddy mess.

However before we start swinging pick-axes and hoes again, I’ll first widen the bottom part of the drain and see if that doesn’t sort out that last little trickle. Some vegetation will take care of the rest I think.  Before I can plant anything though I need to rehabilitate the soil.  It is currently in no state for supporting plant life – not even weeds will grow in it at the moment.  So still a little way to go, but the first steps have been taken so the journey has began.

I will keep you updated on the progress of the backyard and hopefully in years time I can post a peeksha of a back garden full of green.