How to Clean Yard Drainage

Keeping your yard drainage channels clean and free of debris maintains a healthy water flow in your watershed, and helps keep water away from your home and outbuildings in times of heavy rains. It's easiest to clear yard drainage systems in the early spring, when melting winter snows promote heavier than normal water flow, and lack of foliage allows you to more readily spot and remove roots and brush. Clear again in late fall, when grasses are still green and more easily removed from the watercourse.

Things You'll Need

• Rake
• Hoe
• Spade or shovel
• Loppers
• Work gloves
• Disposal bags
• Rubber boots or waders
• Bushel of stones or pebbles

Instructions

1. Mark yard drainage ingress and egress. Note all the locations where water enters the yard drainage system.

2. Clear the outflow point first, or the spot where your yard drainage meets a culvert, stream or rain garden. Use a combination of rakes, hoes and hands to remove all debris, grasses, weeds, silt and anything obstructing water flow.

3. For heavily clogged areas, clear obstructions at the egress point in sections about three feet long. Remove debris in layers. Segregate debris into compostables and nonbiodegradables, and bag separately. Use a spade or shovel if needed to dig out heavily silted areas.

4. When egress is cleared to about 6 feet from the watercourse to the exit point, move upstream to begin clearing at the water source. Check back periodically to be sure water continues to run freely at the egress point, and that your activities upstream aren't creating new obstructions downstream.

5. If your water source is above-ground, such as an outflow pipe from a gutter, be sure that erosion has not altered the downhill slope of the drainage bed. Use a hoe to clear all leaves, debris and dirt from around source. Keep water rolling downhill. Do not allow it to pool or puddle.

6. If your water source is underground, such as an artesian spring, gently clear grasses and debris away in small sections until you can clearly see the water bubbling up. Wait until the silt and mud have settled. Note the direction of the water flow away from the spring, and begin clearing in that direction.

7. Alternate clearing in6-foot sections between the ingress and egress points, or between the water source and the point where drainage flows into another drain, ditch or other destination. Never try to redirect the drainage flow, unless water is flowing toward a home or other structure.

8. After clearing each 6-foot section, inspect the section you cleared previously to make sure you removed all obstructions. Feel beneath the muddy bed for hidden rocks and roots and remove them.

9. Use branch loppers to clip extensive root systems in order to remove them piece by piece as you move along the watercourse. Bag tree and plant roots separately to avoid re-rooting.

10. When clearing yard drainage courses that are prone to grassy overgrowth, dig a concave channel in places along the drainage course to exaggerate the downhill slope and speed up the water flow. Add a bushel of small pebbles or rocks to the stream bed to discourage swift regrowth.

Tips & Warnings

• Always use work gloves when working in a stream to avoid contact with poisonous vines, thorns, biting insects and snakes.

• Use rubber boots, or waders, if the watercourse is more than a couple inches deep.

References

• Adjust yard's drainage to avoid basement leaks