My new house and garden problems! Please help! (spiders, growing, grass)

[h152cc2]

Hi everyone,

I bought a new house recently and it has some minor drainage problems. I have Bermuda grass in my yard and water collects in several low spots of the yard. This attracts mosquitoes and spiders (don't know why spiders like water but it appears they do). Also these spots appear to have lots of clay/rock underneath the surface and these are spots where the grass won't grow.

I recently spread Scott's Grass Feed Bermuda down on these areas after I loosened the clay.

Do you think if I was to get grass growing in these areas it would help to soak up water? Or should I build up the soil there and drain it to other areas in the yard?

I don't think I can install a french drain or other drain as I would like a low cost solution.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I live in Texas.

[esmith143]

Do you think if I was to get grass growing in these areas it would help to soak up water?

No.

[h152cc2]

Originally Posted by esmith143

No.

Thanks for the post, could you please expand on your answer? What would you recommend I do?

[esmith143]

The best fix would probably be to lay some drainage pipes, but you said you don't want to do that.

Do you know how deep your clay goes? Do you have high water table?

[h152cc2]

Originally Posted by esmith143

The best fix would probably be to lay some drainage pipes, but you said you don't want to do that.

Do you know how deep your clay goes? Do you have high water table?

Not sure how deep the clay goes, but I guess I could dig a hole to figure that out. How would I find out about the water table?

[azoria]

If you live in Texas the clay soil in your yard goes all the way down to China.

Throw some dirt into the low spots attempting to level them with the rest of the yard. Then put some more grass seed into the new patches of soil. Hope for the best.

It is also possible that your yard is being overwatered in any case. As clay drains poorly overwatering is a bigger problem than it might be in a better soil. Many newer homes in TX come with sprinkler systems, programmed to put out just way too much water--set yours to water first thing in the morning and maybe less frequently than it is currently set for.

[kygman]

Originally Posted by azoria

Throw some dirt into the low spots attempting to level them with the rest of the yard. Then put some more grass seed into the new patches of soil. Hope for the best.

We had to do that when we moved to this house. We had a driveway that sloped away from the house pretty bad. Called a man about leveling it up with rock. Since he charges a minimum of 3 hours ($85/hr) for his dozer. We also let him level part of our back yard. He did a great job hauling in 4 dump truck loads of good dirt and leveling it all out in one afternoon. No more wet spots!

[librarySue]

Here in NY we sometimes don't put in drainage pipes, but dig a bit of a trench and just fill with 1 to 2 inch rocks. You can do a width of 6 inches, but in one case we made it 12 or so inches wide to look like a gravel path since we happened to have a mud path from the end of our deck to our side yard. Worked like a charm! (but I admit we do not have clay soil, so I don't know if that would work in TX)