Grasses to plant to prevent worse and worse flooding
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Anonymous
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I live on a hill in CC, and the flooding going through my yard is getting worse and worse. It's like a fast-moving creek through my property, and it's almost breaching our side door. We've put in underground diversion measures, and we've built little stone walls around the house, but every time it storms, a river of water and mud rushes through our property to the street. It regularly washes out our paths, and it comes into our garage (we are going to seal the garage door!).
I'm so worried about our home's stability and value. I'm a divorced mom. i'm wondering if I can plant thick grasses along the water line where the rain rushes through? Even if it slows things down, I would be grateful. Are there any plants, or grasses, that can help? Or any other ideas, given that the flooding is getting worse here every year? Thank you! When we moved in, this was not an issue. It's getting worse and worse each season. |
Anonymous
| How frequently does this happen? |
Anonymous
| If you know the path of the stream, build a berm to divert it |
Anonymous
| I’m in the same situation and also live in CC! The above advice looks v helpful. Not sure how much space you have but I have read that river birch trees are v good. |
Anonymous
| I would get a consultation, but generally grasses are not the best for absorbing water. And you have to slow down the water, i.e., build a rain garden, or if it's a really steep slope, terracing and rain gardens in the terraces, to allow the water to pool and then infiltrate. If it's rushing downhill, any plant roots won't have time to absorb the water as it races past. |
Anonymous
| Trees and shrubs are best for absorbing water if you have room for those. |
Anonymous
| You need a dry creek bed or to build a drainage system where all that water goes into a big pipe and out somehwere thsts not your house. |
Anonymous
I agree. Depending on your slope, you may not need a steep one like in the pictures. We resloped the earth outside our basement walkout away from the house and created a shallow berm, maybe 5-10 degrees. Water gets trapped in the berm. We then planted zoysia grass because the area is sunny. It aborbs the water and has really slowed the water rolling down the hill such that water no longer collects at the bottom of the yard either. |
Anonymous
PP to this comment. Sorry. Looking at that attachment again, we did a swale. |
Anonymous
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I’d be curious where the water is coming from. If the problem is getting worse, it may be due to hardscaping or construction on neighboring lots. Don’t know where you are in CC, but this document (https://www.chevychasesection3.org/building-information/pages/storm-water-management) suggests that you *may* be able to work with CC and neighbors to control water at the source.
Montgomery County has some good one-page resources on thing you can do to manage storm water: https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/water/stormwater/index.html. FWIW, using sealing strategies is of limited utility in many cases. Water will find a way through tiny, tiny cracks. It will also divert and take new paths when blocked in one direction. Within your budget, do what you can to find solutions to managing the source of the water and channeling or absorbing it into the ground better. There are engineers who work with storm water management. |
Anonymous
| Willow tree |