Our house, lawn, and gardens are situated close to the bottom of a very large hill. In fact, most of our part of town is a series of hills that cascade down to a deep gorge through which the Ashuelot River twists and turns. While it’s lovely and all, it also means that rain and snow – and we normally have a fair amount of each every year – drain downhill and into our yard, creating swampy boggy areas. Even at a time like this, when we’ve been two weeks without any precipitation and suffered such heat, the outer edge of our yard would often be so wet that the mower got stuck from time to time.
Thanks to some wonderful serendipity, our son is a landscaper. On a fiercely hot afternoon last weekend, he offered to remedy the drainage situation and spent several hours expertly operating an excavator, digging and shaping a swale. What’s a swale, you ask? – I had to ask the same question! The best way I can describe it is a long, narrow bermed ditch, designed to slow and capture runoff. Taking the slope of the land into consideration, he built a deeper drain pit at the lower end, with gently angled edges.
The plan is to sow the exposed sides of the swale to clover, rather than let the local weeds totally insinuate themselves. By summer’s end, it should be green again.
Now here’s the part that proves to me that I’ve married the right man: my husband, surveying the nicely finished swale, suggested that the very long lawn edge – probably close to 150 feet long – should be turned into a long border of daylilies. Who am I to argue? My guys are great!
Torrential rains last night ... the sort of scenario that usually results in a small lake on the south side of the lawn. But amazingly! -- the swale is filled with water, and the lawn is like a normal lawn. We were able to walk out to the edge with no problem, no sinking in over our ankles with muddy water oozing into our shoes -- fabulous!!!
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