If you have a home in Ann Arbor Michigan and your yard looks more like a swamp than landscaping, it’s time to look at yard drainage solutions. Water sitting on your land for hours or days after rainfall indicates you have a problem with lawn drainage. This problem must be understood before it can be addressed.

Understanding the Problem:

Most plants including grass or turf lawn don’t do well in standing water and this is the biggest problem with a poorly draining lawn. While all plants depend on water to survive, too much water causes root rot and a host of other problems. The only plant which enjoys an over abundance of water is moss, which can overtake your lawn and edge out the plants you would like to grow there. Yard drainage solutions will keep the moss from overtaking your lawn and destroying your landscaping.

Another huge drawback of a poorly draining lawn is it diminished your ability to enjoy your yard. Simply walking in your yard is impossible and unpleasant until the water is completely drained and this can take days. Also walking on a wet yard can damage your already weakened yard turf and plants.

The third and probably most important problem with standing water in your yard is it is standing against the foundation of your home. This water might be slipping into your home’s foundations creating cracks, mildew and other issues.

The First Step:

The first step in determining yard drainage solutions in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is understanding the problem. Simply observing where the water is coming from and how it acts once it is there will give you a good starting point for correcting the problem.

No lawn drains instantly despite how it appears. Rain water is absorbed slowly and never completely due to a variety of reasons including:

• Soil composition, the higher the sand content, the slower and less completely water is absorbed.
• Lawn composition, plant roots can form a thick shield to the soil and reduce permeability.
• Soil Aeration: if the soil is greatly compacted due to traffic or settling, the soil is less absorbent and this can reduce absorption.
Any and all of these issues can lead to lawn drainage issues and identifying which are true will aid in yard drainage solutions in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

One good rule of thumb to remember is water follows gravity and will end up at the lowest point in a yard, which is where standing water is most likely to occur. Finding the lowest point in your yard and working backwards to the highest will give you a good idea of the path water is following and a starting point for yard drainage solutions in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

These tips will give you a good starting place to identifying the problem and information your yard care expert will need when they arrive. Having a dry beautiful lawn in Ann Arbor, Michigan is achievable with a little help.