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Improving Drainage & Leveling Yard


KDubU

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Not necessarily a palm question but seeing that is what I plant, I thought why not ask the experts. Our backyard has a slope to it and when it rains hard and for a while, water tends to creep up from the neighboring property and it sits for a while on ours and don’t want to plant anything in that area. I am looking to raise  the ground by 4-6” and install some proper drainage with a couple drains that will feed to sump pump with a Zoeller pump and from there to a ditch via buried pvc. Now the question, should I put down sand and a little topsoil on top or “fill” which to me appears to be a sandy/soil mix (everything has sand her in FL)? Some are telling me the sand option will help more with the drainage but to me it seems like a lot of sand and not the best for growing anything in. Thoughts? 
 

Located in NE FL, 9a-9b and need to raise an area of 60’ L by 15’ W. Also note the neighbouring property in the back is 3 acres and not yet developed. The owner is planning their retirement home there and likely will break ground in a year or two and their house will be about 200’ feet from our property line.

Tks!

 

Edited by KDubU
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I’m going though something similar in my back area, and am going to install a French drain and a series of pipes to direct everything toward the street.   I’m not sure exactly what your weather is up there, but here you can get 8 inches of rain in a day during the wet season storms.  There is a massive amount of water to deal with for 1/3rd of the year, followed by 2/3rds semi-drought-like conditions. 

I’ll be putting in a lot of sandy fill for the drainage, which I consider pretty essential.  From there I’ll amend the planting beds with a lot of organics so things will grow well in certain spots.   

Do you have to get permits and such for raising the area?  It’s good to be a little careful with this.   If you raise the area and don’t follow the drainage plan for your lot, and cause flooding or damage you’ll be looking at a lawsuit.  I guess a few years back, the neighbors to my lot here were forced by the city to bulldoze their lot back down to even with the surrounding lots. It may happen again with the property behind mine after they dug out a pool.  

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I guess it depends on what you want to do with the area. If you plan to develop it into a garden, other options would be to just go with the flow... so to speak. Build a raingarden or plant a thirsty tree or plant that likes boggy conditions (e.g, Sabal, Taxodium, etc...)!  

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I am good from a permit perspective and actually had considered building a Koi pond as I have had one at my previous home and really enjoy them. I would only dig it down two feet otherwise water under the liner could be an issue. The pond itself would be four feet at it’s deepest so would need to build up around it. The dug out soil I could use though to raise the rest of the backyard. This to me is ideal but we have not 100% settled on whether we are staying here long term. If we were for sure, pond would have been dug by now. 
 

Pics of the pond I built at my previous house.

 

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Edited by KDubU
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