Are you experiencing drainage and erosion control issues on your Bowie MD property? If you are, then know that you’re not alone. It’s an issue that a great many of the clients we work with ask for our help in dealing with. The good news is that there are a number of simple, relatively low-cost solutions available. In this article, we’ll cover the basics.

Before we do that, however, let’s talk about your overall landscaping goals. If you’ve got some major landscaping goals planned, it’s important to spell them out clearly and succinctly before you start any project designed to address the drainage and erosion control problems on your Bowie MD property so that your efforts in solving for those problems don’t interfere with the other work you have planned.

The best way to go about doing that is to create a Master Design Document. This document serves as an umbrella that gathers all of your landscaping desires in one place. Once assembled, this document allows you to take a high level view of your plans, prioritize your various initiatives and break larger projects down into more budget friendly components.

Of course, solving for those drainage and erosion control problems on your Bowie MD property will feature prominently in the document and be pretty high on the list. Let’s look at the three best options to solve for those issues:

• Grasses And Low Shrubs – This is the cheapest and most obvious solution. Grasses and shrubs create a tightly woven network of roots that help hold your soil in place, keeping it from washing away when it rains.
• A Diversion – Another very simple, cost-effective solution. Where the first one targeted erosion specifically, this one targets drainage. The simplest diversion is an open drainage ditch. Since water always seeks the lowest point, it will naturally gravitate to the drainage ditch and flow to wherever the ditch ends.
  You have lots of options on this front. If your property has a creek on it, you can simply divert the water into it and your problem is solved. If not, a drainage ditch that leads to a municipal water treatment system works just as well, as does a dry well or decorative pond.
• Terraces – This is a more expensive, but also a more comprehensive solution that’s especially well-suited to steep slopes on your property. Creating terraces requires the building of retaining walls and the installation of proper drainage systems which usually take the form of French drains.
  While this is the more expensive approach, the results look spectacular and tie in well with a wide range of many other landscaping initiatives, making it a great all around choice.

Whatever your landscaping goals and ambitions, we stand ready to assist. Give our office a call today and let’s talk about the possibilities.

Having drainage and erosion control problems on your Bethesda MD property? You’re not alone, and it’s understandable that you want to rush right out and fix them but that may not be the optimal solution. In this article we’ll explain why and reveal the three most effective strategies to deal with those kinds of issues.

First, let’s start by talking about the other landscaping you want to do, over and above dealing with the drainage and erosion control issues on your Bethesda MD property. If you haven’t already done so, the first, best thing you can do is to take the time to build a Master Landscape Design Document.

Don’t let the name fool you. That’s just a fancy way of saying a document that houses all of your landscaping ambitions.

It’s more than just a laundry list of things you want to do, however. By putting all your ideas down on paper and in one place, it gives you the chance to look at the big picture, prioritize your projects, break down the bigger ones into smaller component parts, and figure out the best way to implement your drainage and erosion control solutions on your Bethesda MD property.

Where solutions are concerned, there are three primary solutions to consider. They are:

Shrubs and Grasses

This is a delightfully low-cost solution aimed squarely at controlling erosion on your property. By planting plenty of grasses and shrubs, you create a dense network of roots that will lock your soil in place, even after a heavy rain.

A Diversion Channel

This is a little more expensive than planting shrubs and grasses, but not by much. Where the former is aimed at stopping erosion, this is aimed at solving your property’s drainage issues.

In its simplest form, a diversion channel is simply an open ditch. Since water naturally seeks the lowest point, it will flow into the ditch and carry the water anywhere you direct the ditch. You could dump it into a nearby stream, a dry well, or a decorative pond, at your preference.

Build Terraces

Terraces are an ideal solution for properties with steep slopes because they give you more usable yard space. You can create them by building retaining walls that create flat spaces that gradually step down from the upper elevations.

The great part about this approach is that although it’s more costly, a properly built retaining wall comes with a drainage system built in, so it neatly solves both problems at once.

Having read about the Big Three, do you have a firm handle on which approach is best for you and your property? If not, give our office a call and let’s talk further about the possibilities.

How do I get rid of standing water in my Columbia MD yard? It’s a question we get quite often, because let’s face it, nobody likes having water pooling on their property. It’s an eyesore. It gives you less usable yard space, and if the water is collecting in an area too close to your house, it can cause serious damage to your foundation, leading to staggering repair bills. Not a happy situation.

Unfortunately, there’s no one simple answer to the question. A cookie-cutter solution won’t work, because there are so many possible causes. In this article, we’ll talk about the most common causes of standing water and the things you can do to fix those issues.

These types of issues can be broken into two basic categories: Habit-based and design-based. Habit-based issues arise from things you are doing that cause or contribute to the problem. Design-based issues are issues that arise from specific features or characteristics of your property. What you do or don’t do doesn’t really impact them.

Of the two categories, answering the question ‘how do I get rid of standing water in my Columbia MD yard?’ tends to be easier when dealing with habit-based issues. Simply change what you’re doing and the problem goes away. Where those types of issues are concerned, the two most common are overwatering and homemade decorative planting beds.

Overwatering is the easiest of the problems to resolve, but what about decorative planting beds?

The issue here is that often, people build these beds without thinking about drainage, so they don’t incorporate an adequate channel that allows excess water to escape the bed. The worst instances of these kinds of issues arise when people build decorative beds right next to their homes.

Often, the people who do this don’t take into account the downspouts connected to their rain gutters, which wind up emptying into their decorative beds. With no channel to allow the water to escape, the result is that you wind up with pools of water right next to your home, which is a disaster waiting to happen.

Again though, the solution is a simple one. Create a more robust drainage channel and angle your downspouts away from the beds, and that should be the end of it.

Now let’s talk about those design-based issues. Answering the question ‘how do I get rid of standing water in my Columbia MD yard?’ is more of a challenge in these cases, but certainly doable. Here are the most common types of issues you’ll see:

Clay

Soil composition is a very big deal. If the soil in part of your yard has a high concentration of clay, it’s going to be virtually impossible to water to drain from that area without help. The solution in these types of situations involves building a drainage system to move the water from wherever it’s collecting on your property to somewhere else, usually a drainage ditch, nearby stream, or a small decorative pond you’ve built, or will build for that specific purpose.

The wrinkle here though, is that before you install a drainage system to answer the question ‘how do I get rid of standing water in my Columbia MD yard?,’ you’ll want to spend some serious time thinking about the other landscaping you may want to do in the future.

If you have a long wish list of projects you’d like to undertake, you’d be well-served by taking the time to create a Master Landscape Design document, which captures all of your landscaping goals, putting them in one place so you can prioritize them and take them into account as you do your other work.

We can help you put that document together, and armed with the details it contains, we can make sure that we design and build the drainage system with your future landscaping initiatives in mind.

Poor or Improper Grading

This is another common issue. While it’s possible to call in heavy equipment and dramatically change the grading of your entire property, a drainage system is a simpler and more cost-effective solution. The same notes we made above regarding other landscaping you plan to do in the future apply here as well.

Thatch

This term describes the layer of organic material that is just under your grass, resting atop your topsoil. Over time, the thatch layer can become highly compressed and tightly interwoven, which makes it increasingly more difficult for water that falls on it to filter down to the topsoil.

In this case, the answer to the question ‘how do I get rid of standing water in my Columbia MD yard?’ involves removing the thatch layer and aerating your lawn. This solution requires the use of some specialized equipment but is generally something a diehard DIYer can do if they want to. If you’d rather not have to deal with it, we’ll be happy to take care of it for you.

Hardpan

In a nutshell, hardpan is a layer of tightly compacted soil just beneath the layer of topsoil covering your yard. It can occur naturally, or it can be created by the presence of heavy equipment passing over a given area.

The solution to this problem is to break up the hardpan, which requires specialized equipment and is usually a bigger job than even the most committed DIYers want to try and tackle on their own.

Whatever the ultimate cause of your standing water issue, we’ve got you covered. As the area’s top-rated landscape design company, our team has the skills and experience to diagnose the problem and propose the best and most cost-effective solution. Give us a call today.

As the area’s #1 landscape design company, we field lots of questions from the clients we work with. Among the most frequently asked is the question ‘how do I get rid of standing water in my College Park MD yard?’

It’s easy to see where this question arises from. After all, nobody likes having pools of water in their yard that can often linger for days on end. Unfortunately, there are no quick and easy answers because there are so many different possible causes. In this article, we’ll discuss the most common of those, and the optimal solutions for each case.

Broadly speaking, there are two categories of issues to consider here. Those that are habit-based, arising from specific things you’re doing or not doing, and those that are design-based, which arise from specific characteristics or features of your property.

As you might expect, answering the question ‘how do I get rid of standing water in my College Park MD yard?’ tends to be easier and more straightforward when dealing with habit-based issues, so let’s take a look at those first.

The two most common habit-based issues are overwatering and issues relating to the design of homemade decorative planting beds.

Overwatering is the simplest issue to correct, and any time you see areas of standing water around your plants, the first thing you should try is watering them less. Odds are excellent that doing so will eliminate the problem.

The most common issue where homemade decorative planting beds are concerned is that the homeowners who build them often fail to build adequate drainage channels into their designs. This problem is compounded if the beds are built up against your house, because quite often, no consideration will be given to the downspouts connected to their rain gutters.

Any time it rains, these will wind up emptying into the decorative beds, and absent an adequate drainage channel, the water has nowhere to go, so it pools there. This is especially dangerous because when you’ve got water pooling right next to your house, it will invariably begin seeping into the foundation of your home, where it can cause considerable damage leading to expensive repair bills.

The answer to the question ‘how do I get rid of standing water in my College Park MD yard?’ in this instance is two-fold. First, make sure any decorative planting beds you create have an adequate drainage channel and second, angle your downspouts well away from those beds, so that the water isn’t draining into them.

Now, let’s talk about those trickier design-based issues. Here are the biggest and most common ones you’re likely to see:

Thatch

Thatch is the layer of organic material that sits just out of sight under your grass, resting atop your topsoil layer. Over time, this layer will become increasingly tightly woven and ultimately, the day will come when it’s so thick and so tightly woven that it’s all but impossible for water to filter past it to get to your topsoil layer where it can drain away.

In this instance, the answer to the question ‘how do I get rid of standing water in my College Park MD yard?’ involves removing the thatch layer and aerating your lawn. This requires the use of some specialized equipment but is a project that a committed do it yourselfer could handle on their own. If you’re not a DIYer, or you just don’t have the time to deal with it, we’re more than happy to assist.

Hardpan

Hardpan can be a manmade issue, created by moving heavy equipment over a section of your yard, or it can occur naturally. Basically, it’s a layer of soil beneath your topsoil that’s so compacted that it’s almost impossible for water to pass through it, which makes it quite similar to the thatch issue we described above.

In this case, the answer to the question ‘how do I get rid of standing water in my College Park MD yard?’ revolves around breaking up the hardpan. Unfortunately, that’s a much bigger job than removing the thatch layer and is beyond the capabilities of most DIYers.

Improper Grading

This is far and away the most serious of the design-based issues. If your properly wasn’t graded properly, or time has significantly changed the lay of your land, anytime it rains, water will collect in the lowest-lying areas on your property and will have no place to go.

While it’s possible to bring in heavy equipment and completely transform the lay of your land, changing the grading of your property, in most cases, the simpler and more cost-effective solution is to install a drainage system, most often a French drain. This will redirect the water away from that area and into a drainage ditch, a nearby pond, or the like.

In this instance, before you have the drain installed, it’s important to look into the future, especially if you have other landscaping you’d like to do on the property. The best way to do that is to create a Master Landscape Design document which captures all the landscaping initiatives you’d like to undertake, allowing you to prioritize them.

We can help you create the document, and armed with that information, we’ll be able to position the drain such that it accommodates the future landscaping plans you’ve got.

Whatever the case, and whatever your needs are where the landscaping on your property is concerned, we’ve got you covered. Call our office today.

We get a lot of great questions from the clients we work with. One of the more common we hear is: ‘how do I get rid of standing water in my Bowie MD yard?’

It’s an excellent question, but one for which there’s no easy answer. Since the particulars of each situation and property are different, there are no cookie cutter solutions to be found. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at possible causes and solutions in the hopes of providing a comprehensive answer to the question ‘how do I get rid of standing water in my Bowie MD yard?’

Broadly speaking, standing water can be traced to one of two root causes. We’ll refer to these as habit-based and design-based issues.

Habit-based issues are, as the name indicates, things that you’re doing or not doing that may be contributing to the issue. For example, it may be the case that you’re simply watering your plants too much. If you’re giving them more water than they need, and more than the soil can absorb, it’s going to just sit there, creating an unsightly mess and providing a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Not good.

Fortunately, the solution here is simple, and the very first thing you should try is to simply water your plants a bit less and see if the issue goes away.

Another possibility here is that you’ve created a decorative raised bed but haven’t built in drainage channels to allow the water to escape. In that case, when you water the plants in the bed, the roots and the soil will soak up what they can, but the rest will just sit there.

The worst instance of an issue like this occurs if you’ve constructed a decorative bed next to your house, and the downspouts connected to your rain gutters are emptying into it. That’s going to virtually guarantee you’ll have standing water pooled right next to your house, which, if not addressed quickly, could cause serious damage to your foundation.

As we said though, in cases involving habit-based issues, answering the question ‘how do I get rid of standing water in my Bowie MD yard?’ tends to be simple and straightforward.

Design-based issues are significantly more of a challenge to address, but there are viable options in every case. We’ll cover those next. Here are the most common culprits:

Thatch

Thatch is the layer of organic debris that exists between the grass you can see and your topsoil.
When this layer gets too thick, it will prevent water from trickling down to your topsoil and draining away. If this is the root cause of your issue, answering the question ‘how do I get rid of standing water in my Bowie MD yard?’ is as simple as removing the thatch layer and aerating your lawn.

Hardpan

Hardpan is created when the layer of sub-soil that exists beneath your topsoil becomes incredibly compacted. This can occur naturally or be caused by the presence of heavy construction vehicles moving repeatedly over an area. The problem here is that hardpan is so tightly compacted that it’s virtually impossible for water to filter through it, which leads to the creation of pools of water on the surface above it.

If this is the root cause of your issue, answering the question ‘how do I get rid of standing water in my Bowie MD yard?’ is a bit more involved and requires the use of specialized equipment. Experienced do it yourselfers are likely to be able to get it done, but if it’s a bigger project than you’d care to undertake on your own, we’re happy to help.

Clay Soil Or Poor Grading Issues

We’re grouping these two together because the solution to both problems is the same. Soil quality and composition can vary widely from one property to the next, and even in different areas on the same property.

If you’ve got extremely dense soil or clay on one portion of your land, the water’s just not going to drain very well without help. The same is true if your land is improperly graded. While it’s certainly possible to bring in heavy equipment and radically alter the grading of your property, the easier solution in this case is to install some type of drainage system.

There are lots of possibilities here, but the most common solution is the deployment of a French drain, which can redirect the water to some other area such as a swale, a decorative pond, or a nearby stream or drainage ditch.

If this is the solution needed, it bears thinking about any other landscaping you may want to do in the future so that when the drain is installed, its position doesn’t run afoul of any future landscaping plans you might have.

The best way to do that is with the creation of a master landscaping design document, which we can help you create. It’s a document that captures and prioritizes all the landscaping initiatives you ultimately want to undertake. Building that document first will ensure proper placement of the drainage system we ultimately install.

As you can see then, resolving standing water issues is a lot more complex than first meets the eye, because there are so many possible causes to the problem. Whatever the case though, help is just a phone call away. Give our office a call, and we’ll identify the root cause for you, and propose a solution that will solve the issue once and for all.

We get lots of great landscaping-related questions from the clients we work with. One of the more common ones is this: ‘How do I get rid of standing water in my Bethesda MD yard?’

It’s much more than just an aesthetic issue. Pools of standing water reduce the amount of useable yard space you have, can be a breeding ground for mosquitoes, and in cases where the water is pooling quite close to your home, it can seep into and damage your foundation where it can cause significant damage.

Unfortunately, there are so many different possible causes that there’s no one quick and easy answer. In this piece, we’ll explore the issue more thoroughly, identify some of the more common causes, and fill you in on the solutions in each of those cases.

Before we do that, we’ll start by saying that generally speaking, standing water issues can be divided into two categories: Habit-based and Design-based.

Habit-based issues are issues that arise from things you’re doing or not doing on your property. Answering the question ‘how do I get rid of standing water in my Bethesda MD yard?’ in these cases is pretty straightforward. Make some basic changes to how you’re doing certain things and those types of issues go away.

Where habit-based issues are concerned, the two biggest ones we see are:

Simple Overwatering

This is one of the most common issues we see. If you’re giving your plants more water than they need, and more than the topsoil around the plants can absorb, the water is going to pool and collect until it has time to percolate down through the soil. In this case, the solution is to simply water less and the problem will go away on its own.

Decorative Planting Beds

Lots of people like to build decorative beds to plant their favorite herbs and flowers in. Unfortunately, many of these homemade designs don’t incorporate a sufficiently large drainage channel that will allow any excess water to escape the bed.

The problem is made worse in cases where the decorative beds are built right next to your house, and the downspouts connected to your rain gutters empty straight into the bed.

Here, the answer to the question ‘how do I get rid of standing water in my Bethesda MD yard?’ involves creating a more robust drainage channel so excess water has an easier route out of the bed, and to extend and redirect your downspouts to ensure that they’re not emptying into the bed itself.

Those are the easy issues. The design-based issues we’ll talk about next tend to be a bit trickier, but in every case, are still solvable problems. These issues arise because of characteristics that are specific to your piece of property. What you’re doing or not doing has no real bearing on them. Here are the most common things you’re likely to run into:

Hardpan

Hardpan can be either manmade, by the presence of heavy equipment passing over a given area, or it can be naturally occurring. It’s a condition where the layer of soil just beneath your topsoil becomes so compacted that it’s virtually impossible for water to filter through it.

In this case, the answer to the question ‘how do I get rid of standing water in my Bethesda MD yard?’ involves bringing in specialized equipment to break up the hardpan. It’s a big job, and something that all but the most committed do it yourselfers will probably want help with. If that sounds a bit daunting to you, we’ll be happy to take care of your hardpan issue for you!

Thatch

Thatch problems are similar to hardpan issues, but generally easier to resolve. Thatch is the layer of organic material that’s under your grass and resting atop the topsoil. Over time, the thatch layer can become highly compacted and so tightly interwoven that water has difficulty filtering down past it and into the soil.

Answering the question ‘how do I get rid of standing water in my Bethesda MD yard?’ involves removing the thatch layer and aerating the soil beneath it. While this requires the use of some specialized equipment, it’s generally easier to deal with than hardpan issues, and serious DIYers should be able to handle it on their own.

If, for whatever reason, you’d like to delegate the task, again, we’re more than happy to assist. As the top-rated landscape design company in the area, we’ve got the skills and experience to make short work of your drainage issue, whatever the root cause might be.

Don’t let standing water ruin the aesthetic of your lawn, reduce the amount of useable space you’ve got, and potentially cause serious, much more damaging problems. Help is just a phone call away.

We’ve built our reputation by exceeding the expectations of each and every client we serve, and we’d love to add you to our growing family of satisfied clients.

Whether you simply want to solve this one issue, or you’ve decided to start making your landscaping dreams come true, we can help. If you know you want to do some additional landscaping, but you’re struggling to come up with specific ideas, be sure to spend some time browsing the photos on our website.

Not only will this give you an opportunity to see the quality of the work we do for yourself, but you’ll also come away with tons of great landscaping ideas for your own property. When you’re ready to get started, just give us a call.

If your Silver Spring MD property suffers from drainage and erosion control issues, the fix might be simpler than you think.  That’s not always the case, but sometimes, if the issue is relatively mild, the strategic use of ground cover can solve the problem handily.

Not all ground cover is created equally, however.  Broadly speaking, the best choices fall into one of three categories:  Ferns, Creepers, and Shrubs.  Here are a few examples that will serve you well:

Ferns

• Royal Fern
• Wood Fern
• Lady Fern
• Cinnamon Fern
• And Christmas Fern

Creepers

• Joe Pye Weed
• Violets
• Woodland Phlox
• White Wood Aster
• Virginia Bluebells
• And Great Blue Lobelia

Shrubs

• Elderberry
• Silky Dogwood
• Ninebark
• And Red or Black Chokeberry

Of course, we won’t know if your Silver Spring MD drainage and erosion control issues can be solved via ground cover alone until we perform an assessment of your property.  Once we understand the scope and scale of the issue, we can make a formal recommendation and give you a quote so you’ll know exactly what it will take to solve your issue once and for all.

In most cases, if the issue is mild enough where ground cover alone will do the trick, the exact species used comes down to personal preference and what aesthetic you’re going for, but sometimes, due to the composition of your soil and other factors, we may recommend one over another as a better fit.

Unfortunately, sometimes ground cover isn’t enough to solve your Silver Spring MD drainage and erosion control issues though.  Should that prove to be the case, no worries, there are other options we can deploy, including the strategic use of a retaining wall and/or a drainage system that will safely redirect water away from your home so it doesn’t cause damage to your property.

That’s the biggest concern where drainage is a problem.  Sure, a soggy lawn is no fun and still ultimately needs to be addressed if you want to get maximum enjoyment out of your property, but it’s not nearly as big an issue as water that’s pooling on your patio, seeping into your basement, or cracking your foundation.  Those kinds of issues will wreck your home over time and ultimately cost you tens of thousands of dollars in repairs if left unchecked.

It doesn’t have to come to that though.  Whatever your drainage and erosion issues are, and however mild or severe, we’ve got you covered.  We’ve been in the business since 1979, and at this point, there’s not much we haven’t seen.  No job is too big, and no detail is too small for our veteran crews.

All that to say, don’t let your drainage and erosion control issues fester.  Help is just a phone call away.

When you bought your home, there were undoubtedly lots of things you loved about it.  Unfortunately, there were also probably a few things you didn’t, and even worse, a few hidden problems that you didn’t become aware of until you’d lived there a while.  It’s possible that your Rockville MD property has drainage and erosion control issues, but how do you know?  Below are some of the more common signs:

• Your ground is soggy, and stays that way for days after it rains
• Streams seem to form spontaneously at various points around your property during thunderstorms
• Soil or mulch (if you use mulch) collects on sidewalks, your patio, or your driveway after a heavy rain
• Soil tends to wash downhill during heavy rains, collecting in noticeable piles at lower elevations
• Cracks begin appearing in your basement walls (if you have a basement, of course) or on your foundation
• Water seeps into your basement

While none of these are especially good, the last two are particularly worrisome, and speak to a serious issue.

If you see any of these signs, give us a call immediately, and we’ll come assess your property to gain an understanding of the scope and scale of your Rockville MD drainage and erosion control problem.

In mild cases, it may be possible to solve the problem with the creative application of the “right” kind of ground cover.  There are lots of great options here, but broadly speaking, they fall into three categories:  Ferns, Creepers, and Shrubs.  Here are some examples of each you may want to consider:

Ferns

• Royal Fern
• Wood Fern
• Lady Fern
• Cinnamon Fern
• And Christmas Fern

Creepers

• Joe Pye Weed
• Violets
• Woodland Phlox
• White Wood Aster
• Virginia Bluebells
• And great Blue Lobelia

Shrubs

• Elderberry
• Silky Dogwood
• Ninebark
• Red Chokeberry
• And Black Chokeberry

Unfortunately, not every Rockville MD drainage and erosion control issue can be solved so simply, but don’t worry.  If your problem turns out to be more serious, it’s still fixable, although it will require the addition of a well-placed retaining wall and/or a drainage system.

Those are, of course, a bit more expensive, but still much cheaper than letting serious drainage issues fester and worsen.

In any case, we won’t know which approach is optimal until we perform a thorough assessment of your property, which is our first step.  Armed with a better understanding of the severity of the issue, we’ll be able to make a formal recommendation, and develop a detailed project plan, which will include a no-obligation estimate so you’ll have a complete understanding of how much it will cost to fix the problem once and for all.

Then, assuming you’re comfortable with everything, we can dispatch one of our veteran crews and deal with the issue decisively.  Give us a call when you’re ready to get started.  We’ll have you fixed up in no time!

If your Potomac MD property has drainage and erosion control issues, that’s not something you can leave untended and hope it will get better on its own.  It won’t, and if you’ve got water building up close to your house, it could cause tremendous damage to your foundation and your basement (if you have one).  That could lead to thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars in damages.  Not good.

Fortunately, there’s a simple answer.  We’ve been proudly serving the region since 1979, and in that time, have solved Potomac MD drainage and erosion control issues of all shapes and sizes for hundreds of clients.  No job is too big, and no detail is too small for our veteran crew.

The first thing we’ll do is come pay you a visit and assess the scope and scale of your Potomac MD property’s drainage and erosion control issue.  Once we understand the severity, we can make a formal recommendation about how best to fix it, and draft a project plan, complete with a no-obligation quote so you’ll know exactly how much it will cost.

In some cases, the issue is fairly mild and can be solved with the strategic application of the right kind of ground cover.  There are lots of great options on this front, including things like:

• Elderberry
• Silky Dogwood
• Ninebark
• Red/Black Chokeberry
• Violets
• Joe Pye Weed
• Woodland Phlox
• White Wood Aster
• Virginia Bluebells
• Great Blue Lobelia
• And a variety of ferns

To a point, which of these we use comes down to personal preference and what aesthetic you’re going for, but soil composition and other factors do play a role and may skew our recommendation toward a particular species.

If the issue is more severe than ground cover alone can solve, there are other solutions we can bring to bear on the problem, including retaining walls and drainage systems.  That is, of course, a more expensive solution, but it’s still much less expensive than repairing your basement or your foundation.

It’s worth mentioning at this point that if you have other landscaping projects you’d like to do that go above and beyond fixing your drainage and soil erosion problems, the development of a master landscape design document is of great value.

That’s a document that captures your entire landscaping wish list under a single umbrella, prioritizes the list and breaks your landscaping projects into bite-sized chunks that can be tackled iteratively, as your budget allows.  It also ensures that all your landscaping efforts will hang together and form a cohesive whole.

Even if you have no interest in a master landscape design document, we’re still more than happy to help you solve your drainage and erosion control issues.  Give us a call and let’s get started!

If your Kensington MD property suffers from drainage and erosion control problems, there are a multitude of solutions available.  The first question though, is how do you know?  There are a number of signs, including:

• “Squishy Yard Syndrome,” which keeps your ground soggy for days after a thunderstorm
• Evidence of soil buildup at the bottoms of hills, on driveways, patios and walkways, especially after rains
• Streams of running water at various points around your property during a thunderstorm
• Constantly having to replace mulch, because it keeps getting washed away
• Standing water on your patio, driveway, and/or sidewalks
• Cracks in basement walls or foundation
• Water leaking into your basement

Once you know what to look for, the next logical question is why does it matter?  The answer lies in the last two items on the list above.

Cracks in basement walls or your foundation are extremely worrisome and if left unchecked, will only get worse with time.  Eventually, you’ll be facing extensive, expensive repairs.  That’s not something you want, and that’s not something we want for you.

We’ve been proudly serving the area since 1997, and over the years, we’ve solved Kensington MD drainage and erosion control issues of all shapes and sizes for hundreds of clients, and we’d be happy to make your issue a thing of the past.

To do that, the first thing we’ll need to do is come to your property and assess the severity of your Kensington MD drainage and erosion control issues.  In some cases, the solution might be as simple as strategically planting the right kind of ground cover.

Where that’s concerned, there are tons of great options, so it mostly comes down to what direction your tastes and preferences run to.  Broadly speaking, there are three basic options:  Shrubs, colorful creepers, or ferns.  Here are a few possibilities to consider in each category:

Shrubs

• Elderberry
• Silky Dogwood
• Ninebark
• Or Red or Black Chokeberry

Colorful Creepers

• Joe Pye Weed
• Violets
• Woodland Phlox
• White Wood Aster
• Virginia Bluebells
• Or Great Blue Lobelia

Ferns

• Royal Fern
• Wood Fern
• Lady Fern
• Cinnamon Fern
• Or Christmas Fern

It’s awesome when we can solve your Kensington MD drainage and erosion control issues with something as simple as well-placed ground cover, but it doesn’t always work out like that.  Sometimes, something more is needed.

Not to worry.  There are plenty of other things we can do.  The next step up from a simple ground cover solution is a strategically placed retaining wall.  They’re so common in this part of the country that your eye probably just passes right over them without noticing, but if you start looking for them specifically, you’ll see them just about everywhere.

They do two important things for you.  First and most obvious to the eye is the fact that they prevent soil erosion by serving as a physical barrier that prevents it from moving downhill.  Second, and somewhat less obvious, the presence of the wall itself serves to redirect water so that it’s not running down straight to your house, where it can damage your foundation.

Sometimes though, even that’s not enough to completely solve your Kensington MD drainage and erosion control problems.  As good as retaining walls are, they’re even better when working in tandem with some kind of drainage system.

Generally speaking, drainage systems come in two flavors:  aboveground and below ground.  Both work the same way, which is to say that they collect water and shunt it to a safe location in your property, well away from anything it could potentially damage.

Whatever the severity of your issue is, a survey and assessment of your property is the first step.  Once we’ve got a good handle on the scope and scale of the problem, we can make recommendations about how best to fix it and gain an understanding of your preferences where ground cover is concerned.

Armed with that information, we can develop a detailed project plan that includes a no-obligation estimate so you know exactly how much it will cost to fix your drainage and erosion control problems.  Assuming you’re comfortable with everything, we can put the plan into action and before you know it, those problems will be a thing of the past.

Most people have a long list of landscaping they’d like to do to improve the aesthetic of their property.  Fixing these kinds of problems definitely falls into the category of “must have” rather than “like to have,” but if you’re planning to have that kind of work done, it’s worth mentioning that there’s tremendous value to take the opportunity to have a master landscaping design document drafted.

This document captures all your landscaping goals and puts them under a single umbrella.  The unfortunate reality is that most people can’t afford to do all the landscaping they’d like to do in one go.  The master design document allows you to sub-divide your wish list into bite-sized projects that can be prioritized and tackled incrementally.  Its true value lies in the fact that it ensures that when the last piece of the landscaping puzzle falls into place, all the elements hang together to create a cohesive whole.

While fixing drainage and erosion control problems definitely tops the list, you’ll want to make sure that any future landscaping work you do blends seamlessly with the work you’ve already had done, and we can help with that too!  Give us a call when you’re ready to begin.  You’ll be very glad you did.