Dry wells and drinking wells

[ishiboo]

I just bought the TSC post hole digger, and boy am I having fun. Goes through wet heavy clay like butter!

One issue I have is drainage - of course the heavy clay does not dissipate well. Now that I have the auger, I was thinking about drilling about 10 12" drywells in the wet areas, filling them with gravel and putting grass and dirt over the top.

This would be about 75' from my drinking water well. I fertilize the grass. Do you think this would be a concern? Our water table is quite high - 11' when we had our well last tested.

 

[whistlepig]

I have something tried similar to this and it didn't work out. A backhoe dug a 6 foot wide X 10 foot deep hole and it was filled with gravel and topped with dirt. Water filled the hole up. I think that if the drain isn't tiled the water just fills the hole up.

 

[Raspy]

ishiboo,

Those 10 holes filled with gravel, (gravel occupies about 60-70% of the volume), really don't hold much water and won't solve a drainage problem in non porous soils. Better to trench and drain it away, if possible, to a lower area.

I know how much fun it is to drill holes with an auger, so drill a few for some other reason, like practice, or to set a flag pole or to set a decorative wind mill, or to set some sono tubes for a foundation for your shed. Have fun!