The damage caused by a flood to your home can be extensive. There’s the cost of replacing items ruined by the floodwater, extracting water and drying out your home, and restoring your property. This includes not only furniture and personal items but can also include your carpet and drywall. There can also be structural damage to the house. Fortunately, there are things you can do to your landscaping to decrease the risk of flooding. Here are 10 landscaping tips to protect your home from flooding.
Make Sure Your Yard Is Graded
To avoid water entering your home, the ground around your home should slope away from your house. Professional landscapers can add dirt and soil to low areas. When grading your yard, they’ll make sure the vents, windows, pipes, and drains aren’t impacted.
Use Native Plants in Your Yard
Plants that are indigenous to the region help prevent soil erosion. They also allow water to drain more efficiently from your yard. Carolina jessamine and Asiatic jasmine are excellent ground cover plants that help with soil erosion on your Georgia property.
Use Mulch in Your Gardens
A few inches of mulch will keep soil in place and hold rainwater. Make sure the mulch is at least 6 inches from your home. You don’t want standing water to rot or damage the exterior of your home.
Plant Grass in Your Yard
The roots of grass help with the absorption of water. Bermuda grass is a good choice because it germinates and covers quickly, minimizing soil loss. Avoid cutting your grass too short because it can weaken the root system of the grass.
Build Rain Gardens
Use plants that have deep roots in your rain garden. A rain garden, often planted in a landscaped depression, collects stormwater. It also collects water from gutters and downspouts.
Install Rain Barrels to Collect and Store Water
Rain barrels, which often consist of wooden drums, are placed at the bottom of gutters and downspouts. They redirect the water and protect a home from flooding. You can use the water collected in the barrels for your lawn and garden.
Clean Your Gutters and Downspouts
Clogged gutters and leaking downspouts can allow water to get too close to your house and enter the basement of your home.
Install a Drainage System
A surface drainage system uses pipes to carry water from downspouts and garden beds away from your house.
Improve the Drainage near Your Driveway
If your driveway slopes down from the street toward your home, you can place a channel drain across the driveway. A small trench is dug, a metal U-shaped channel is inserted, and the channel is connected to pipes that run water out to underground or street-level drains. Another method to prevent flooding is the use of swales, depressions in the ground on the side of the driveway. They direct the water off the driveway and down slopes in the surrounding landscape.
Get Professional Help
Landscape contractors in Dacula, GA, can look at your land and come up with a landscape design that will help protect your house from flooding. Grading your yard, planting more grass, or adding drainage can make a big difference.
Call Stoeckig Landscape Group at 770-832-1790 for your landscaping needs. Whether you’re planting a garden, adding a patio, or designing an elaborate landscape design, our team of professionals is here to help.