Need advice on Springtime project (long)

[PineRidge]

If you go to the expense of a liner then you should have no problems maintaining the water level in the pond. I can't imagine leaving enough of the dirt to support the Willow tree and still get a pond in the space provided. And besides as dirty as Willows are the mess will end up in the water, that won't be a pretty sight. If you don't keep a lot of ground around the root ball the tree would most likely drown anyway and end up in the pond. So if you opt for a pond you might want to deal with the Willow beforehand.

Good luck with your project. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[MikePA]

Here's a link to Bend Tarp and Liner. I've bought geotextile cloth from them and they're great to work with. Their site also has interesting information about creating ponds.

 

[gerard]

The fact that it stays wet as long as it does when it is as shallow as it is makes it very unlikley you will need to line it. Merely digging it out will impound a lot of water so what you lose to evaporation and seepage will be more than replaced by inflow from your sump, down spouts, and natural ground grade runoff. You might get a little level fluctuation but all ponds do. You still need an overflow for when the ponds full so you need to determine some grades with a laser or water level and plan on overflow going in that direction. I vote for a pond - that would be a beautiful location for one. IF you want to get rid of it just filling it is only half the solution because you still need to figure out where the water's going to run. Once you know that you could just put in some drain tile and direct it in that direction anyway. You need to find out the level at the bottom of the street culvert vs the bottom of your low spot. Even if the ground goes up, the bottom of the trench STILL may be below the bottom of the low spot which means you could drain it to that location with some drain tile.

 

[jmc]

Andy,

I've got the exact same situation at my house but summers get so dry here that I didn't want to risk having a mud hole in the front yard with a seasonal pond. If you could pull it off there, it would be nice, especially if the driveway curved around the pond a little.

For my solution, the theory was that the surface soils were less permeable than one of the lower soil levels so I dug a 14 ft. deep hole at the lowest spot and filled that hole with large rocks from the basement excavation.

If you have a porous layer under there somewhere, connecting it to the surface would speed the drainage.

John

 

[Dozernut]

Willows are a dirty tree that do require maintenance work. They are a very pretty tree and are just like women, a high maintenance item
The Willow can stand having it's feet wet, in fact it will thrive. If you dig out the same diameter as the the top part of the tree you should be okay, just don't put any additional dirt on top of the roots or it will kill the tree. It would be easy to put the Willow on an island of its own.
You could use the spoils from the pond to build up the grade on your drive and install culverts to divert the overflow. As previously stated you could simply fill the area in, but you will be trading one problem for another.

 

[AndyM]

Just to give a little more info--

The driveway on the left side of the photos belongs to my neighbors, and after the rain we had yesterday morning, the water goes right up to their driveway right now. The neighbors commented today that it is the wetest they have ever seen that spot. I said I'm trying to figure out how to fix it.

Also, even though I had the house built a little higher than everything else around, the property slopes back down out back behind the house to a level that its about the same as the level of the road shown in the front of the photos. The spot where the willow tree is the lowest point on the property. The majority of my land is the same as the road level.

Since that is the LOWEST point on the property, I'm pretty sure the rain and snow is ALWAYS going to go to that spot. Even if I fill it in some, it still isn't going to bring it up to the level of the road ditch for it to flow there. So, I need to figure out a good way to make it drain. If the willow tree needs to go, then so be it, but at least it would dry things up. If I can keep the tree, that would be better, but I need to dry up the yard.

Hopefully, that clears things up on what I can do and what I can't do with it. The best case would be to have a small pond around the willow, but if we get a winter and spring with lots of snow and rain, the overflow has to go somewhere, and the driveways will flood WAY before it would get high enough to get to the road ditch.

So either way, I would have to pump water uphill, whether I went to the road ditch with it or made a pond out back farther behind the house. With all of the strikes I've got going against me, what can I easily do? Is there a simpler way to dry things up that I'm missing?

There's several people here within an hour's drive from me. If anyone's ever going to be in the neighborhood, send me a PM and you can check things out in person! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

One more thing to consider-- My electric and phone lines run underground from the pole at the road to the house, right through the low spot. It wasn't that wet when they put it in!

 

[Junkman]

Andy.... You are getting more than the run off from your land, you are also getting run off from the road in front of your land. I have studied the 3 pictures and come to the belief that the sub soil is of a clay based nature. Given that it doesn't percolate into the ground after a couple of days leaves you with no alternative to move the water to another location. In many jurisdictions, it is not legal to pump water into the drainage ditch alongside of the road. I suggest that you contact the county engineers office and ask them for suggestions. Part of the problem is the roadway drainage is coming onto your property. They may have a solution for the problem, but I don't see one being a pond. At a certain point, it will fill and not be able to hold any more water and then you are back having the same problem.
It may be an optical allusion, but it appears that there is a crown to the road in the middle of your lot and that the right and left sides are lower than the middle. I have dealt with drainage problems in the past and the one thing that I know.... water seeks the lowest point and then it goes into the ground. If it can't percolate, then it just becomes stagnant. This is the problem as I see it. Without knowing the rest of the topography, I can't make any other suggestions.... By the way, if you get rid of the willow tree, the problem will become further exasperated. Willows can absorb up to 400 gallons a water a day under the right conditions....

 

[SPIKER]

I tend to go with the POND people

the bigest problem is the under ground wires. also I see that concrete top that looks like it may be a septic tank???


if so you are pretty much stuck. the willow is nice and they DO love water and will survice under water for extended times. once you locate the lines and make sure no septic problems are there I would dig it out in a horse shoe shape around the willow. build up the bank along the drive to the left (neibors) and that will help stablize their drive. also I have similar problems with no drainage and wet soppy front yard. it is ruining my drive becasue the up hil neibors put in a NEW house with a basement and the water flow was diverted across my drive and so far I ahve not been able to correct it but will have to do somethign. this year I had upwards of 8" of standing water all over my place... link here to the post

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=projects&Number=352585&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=186&fpart=1

that has some pictures.

anyhow leave the tree dig a hole it will help you out a lot. at the boss's place it was a swamp for years in back of his place we dug a pond and it filled right up to about 6" of flat, used some of the rremoved dirt for land scaping and building up of other low spots . now although a heavy rain still brings 1000's of gallons of runnoff it usually keep going into the pond and the surrounding area is dry enough to mow in a couple days.

Mark M /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[AndyM]

Junkman,
You are very obvervant. All of my ground is a very heavy clay. Here's a picture taken from the road, showing how the water runs away from the house and away from the road also. The ground level at the house is approximately the same as the level of the road. On the plus side of things, it's good that I do have the water flowing away from the house and keeping things dry, I just wish it had somewhere to go.

As of right now, the water is higher than it's ever been since we've owned the property, however, there is NO spot on the 3.6 acres that is lower than the water level, including the road ditch.

Also, it's 62 degrees and raining, further adding to the problem. Is the weather out of wack or what? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[AndyM]

One last picture. This is an upclose shot showing the contour of the ground from the low spot going toward the road. As you can see in the picture, the ditch at the road is too high to drain the water to without pumping it upward and there is no part of the property lower than the water level.

The water runoff is always going to run to this spot. If I make it a pond, where do I run the overflow to, since there is no spot on the property lower than this water level?