Are you having any sort of drainage and erosion control problem on your Laurel MD property? It’s something we’re asked to help our clients in the area resolve quite frequently. In this article, we’ll outline three of the more common solutions to the problem, but before we do that, let’s talk about your landscaping ambitions more generally.

What are your landscaping goals? Most homeowners have at least a mental wish list. Before you start addressing whatever drainage and erosion control problems you have on your Laurel MD property, it’s important to outline what other landscaping you want to do so you’re not working at cross-purposes with yourself.

The best way to do this is to create a Master Landscape Design Document. This doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but it does need to capture all your landscaping goals in one place. This allows you to prioritize your goals and break them down into discrete projects that won’t bust your budget.

It also informs you about the best way to proceed with dealing with whatever drainage and erosion control problems on your Laurel MD property you might have. Now, in terms of dealing with the issue itself, let’s look at the three best options for doing so:

Grasses and Shrubs

This is the first and simplest option, ideal for dealing with erosion issues specifically. Grasses and shrubs create a tight weave of roots that help keep your soil in place.

A Diversion

In simplest form, this is an open drainage ditch used to create better drainage. A diversion, in concert with the planting of grasses and shrubs is a cost-effective one-two punch that wards against both drainage and erosion.

Simply route the drainage ditch to a nearby creek, dry well, or decorative pond and your drainage problems are a thing of the past.

Terrace Your Yard

This is a more expensive, but also a more comprehensive option that’s most effective on steeply sloped areas. Terraces are constructed by building retaining walls which also have drainage systems built into them, most commonly in the form of French drains.

Once the terraces are built, you can plant a wide range of plants and grasses on them. Best of all, terraces look fantastic and blend seamlessly with a wide variety of any other landscaping initiatives you might have in mind.

Taken together, these three options give you a tremendous amount of control and lots of freedom in terms of how you deal with whatever drainage and erosion issues you’ve got on your property. Armed with a complete Master Landscape Design Document, you’ll be able to incorporate your other landscaping initiatives into these, seamlessly.

If that sounds good to you and you’d like some help getting started, give our office a call today.

Are you experiencing issues with drainage and erosion control on your Columbia MD property? It’s more common than you might think and it’s something we’re frequently called upon to assist our clients in dealing with.

Before you rush out to embrace a solution, however, let’s talk first about the other landscaping plans you may have.

If you’re like most people, you’ve probably got a number of landscaping projects you’d love to see completed, but have you taken the time to gather them all in one place? If you haven’t, then before you start solving for whatever drainage and erosion control issues you have on your Columbia MD property, the first, best thing you can do is to create a Master Landscape Design Document.

Don’t let the formal sounding name throw you off. Basically, it’s just a document used to collect all your landscaping goals and ambitions in one place. There are a couple of key advantages to taking the time to do this.

First and foremost, it gives you the opportunity to look at your overall objectives at a high level which facilitates better planning and prioritization. It also allows you to spot big projects and break them into smaller, more budget-friendly pieces and to spot projects that depend on the completion of other projects, which is extremely handy.

In terms of dealing with the drainage and erosion control issues on your Columbia MD property, it also tells you where and how to best build the system to solve for those problems, which brings us back to the main topic of this piece. So let’s talk solutions. There are three big ones to consider:

First is the planting of grasses and shrubs. Grasses and shrubs are a low-cost way to target issues relating to erosion. By planting densely, you create a tightly interwoven network of roots that help anchor your soil in place, making it much more resistant to eroding away over time.

Second, if you’re more concerned about drainage than erosion, consider building a diversionary trench. This can be as simple as an open ditch designed to collect water and shunt it where you want it. The sky’s the limit here. You can send it to a nearby creek, a decorative pond, a dry well, or the like. Whatever works best for you.

Third, there are terraces. Terraces are ideal for steeply sloped property. Built using retaining walls, they create more flat, level, usable yard space that steps down gradually from the upper elevations on your property.

Properly constructed retaining walls come with built-in drainage systems, so this neatly solves both the problem of erosion and drainage in one go, albeit at a higher cost.

Whichever solution you deem to be best for you and your property, we’re happy to help. Call our office today.

When you purchased your current home, you may not have been aware of any drainage and erosion control issues your new Hyattsville MD property had. They’re not always readily apparent, after all. Unless you happen to visit the property on a rainy day, you don’t really have any way of knowing.

When you discover the problem, your first impulse might be to begin taking steps immediately to try and fix it, but that might not be the best idea.

The reason comes down to this: If you’ve got other landscaping goals and ambitions, you want to make sure that when you fix whatever drainage and erosion control problems you have on your Hyattsville MD property, you don’t do so in a way that interferes with your other landscaping goals. You want all your initiatives to work seamlessly together.

The best way to do that is to create a Master Landscape Design Document. Don’t let the official sounding name fool you. In its simplest form, it’s just a document that captures all of your landscaping goals and ambitions in one place.

Doing so allows you to prioritize your landscaping ambitions so you can tackle them in a way that makes sense, break big projects into smaller ones, and most importantly, figure out the best way to solve the drainage and erosion control problems on your Hyattsville MD property in a way that won’t interfere with your other landscaping plans.

As to solutions, let’s take a quick look at the Big Three:

1) Create A Diversion – This is a delightfully low-cost way of dealing with drainage problems. It can be as simple as an open drainage ditch. Since water always seeks the lowest point, it will naturally find its way into the ditch, which you can then use to direct the water anywhere you want it to go.

You’ve got lots of options where that’s concerned. You could dump it into a stream if you’ve got one on your property, a drainage ditch at the edge of your property that carries the water away, a dry well, or even a decorative pond at your preference.

2) Plant Grasses and Shrubs – Planting more of these is a natural, modestly-priced solution to erosion issues because healthy plants have a robust root system which helps lock your soil in place, even after a hard rain.

3) Create Terraced Spaces – This is the go-to solution if you have steep slopes on your property. Terraces are created using retaining walls, which have drainage systems built-in, neatly solving for both erosion and drainage issues in one package while simultaneously giving you more usable yard space. They’re a bit more expensive but create a stunning aesthetic.

If you’re not sure exactly how you want to proceed, just give our office a call. We’ll be happy to talk about the possibilities with you!

If you’re experiencing drainage and erosion control problems on your College Park MD property, your first impulse might be to rush out and try to fix them immediately. That, however, may not be the optimal approach. In this article we’ll outline a better, more comprehensive approach and then talk about some of the more common strategies used to deal with those issues.

First, take a step back and look at the bigger picture. If you’re like many homeowners, you probably have a long list of landscaping improvements you’d like to make to your property. Of course, you want to do those as efficiently and effectively as possible, which among other things, means not working at cross-purposes with yourself.

To that end, the best place to start would be by creating a Master Landscape Design Document, which is, in its simplest form, a list of all the improvements you’d like to eventually make.

By putting all your ambitions in a single document, it gives you the ability to plan and prioritize. You’ll be able to spot big, budget busting projects and break them into smaller chunks. You’ll be able to spot projects that have dependencies and be better able to prioritize, and when it comes to dealing with those drainage and erosion control issues on your College Park MD property, you’ll begin to gain a better understanding of how and where to implement solutions.

As to solutions, there are three that should be at, or near the top of your list for consideration. They are:

A Diversionary Channel – This can be as simple as an open ditch used to collect rainwater and funnel it where you want it to go. If you have a stream on or adjacent to your property, you could direct the ditch there and be rid of the water. Or you could send it to a decorative pond or a dry well. The possibilities are virtually endless.

Shrubs and Grasses – While the first strategy is a modestly-priced way of dealing with drainage, this one is aimed squarely at handling erosion and is similarly low-cost. Grasses and shrubs create a densely packed root network that helps anchor your soil, holding it in place.

Terraces – This is a more expensive, more robust and all-encompassing solution designed to handle both drainage and erosion control issues on your College Park MD property. Terraces are created by constructing retaining walls which not only help stop erosion, but also come with a drainage system built in and have the advantage of turning steeply sloped property into usable yard space.

If you know you want to do something but you’re still not sure what, give our office a call today and let’s talk about the possibilities.