At the beginning of last year, French drainpipes experienced a rapid rise in popularity, and this trend shows no sign of stopping. A cursory Google search for this clever drainage solution brings up dozens of forums of gardeners recommending French drains as the only solution to a waterlogged garden.
However, French drains are not a miracle solution for garden drainage. They do not work at the top of slopes, they require an unloading point, and they are expensive to install.
While a good French drain can be the perfect solution, there are some alternatives you should consider before digging up your lawn.
What's the deal with French drains?
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French drains are a popular solution to lawn drainage problems. This ingenious solution involves digging a trench and laying it with filter fabric and a perforated pipe covered with gravel and turf. This creates a hidden drain that directs water away from the lawn, eliminating waterlogging.
Landscape expert Ryan Farley explains, “French drains are great for providing additional natural drainage to your garden and can help prevent flooding or waterlogged soil without using electricity.”
However, Ryan says: “It depends on your individual situation.” French drains are not always the solution to standing water in a garden, as they cannot help with standing water on patios. Because they are submerged, they can be difficult to repair if they become clogged. French drains can also be quite expensive. They cannot be installed at the top of slopes or near tree roots and must be carefully planned to ensure water stays in your body of water and does not drain into a neighbor's yard.
This means that a French drain may not be the best solution to your drainage problems. So why not consider one of these six French drain alternatives?
Ryan Farley is the CEO of LawnStarter, a lawn care service founded in 2013 based in Austin, Texas.
1. Build a dry stream bed
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Dry stream beds are one of the cheapest alternatives to a French drain. You can think of a trough like a French drain without a pipe. Dry streams are long ditches of gravel or stones created at the base of slopes. The idea is that these stones filter excess water into the ground, unlike a French drain that diverts excess water to a dry well or other water storage system.
However, dry stream beds do not work in every garden. The stones drain water slowly into the ground, so they don't always hold up well to stormy weather. They also distribute water directly into the ground instead of draining it away, so they don't help with standing water near a home's foundations.
Streambeds can easily become clogged with leaves and other debris in the fall, and besides, unlike a French drain, you can't cover them with sod, but instead have to landscape them with water-loving stonecrops like reeds and rushes. This can look nice, but it doesn't suit every garden style.
2. Create a hollow
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Swallows are typically seen in commercial or residential plantings, but you can also incorporate them into a home garden. A grass swale is a shallow ditch lined with peat. If you do it right, you'll hardly notice a grass gully – it's just a small ditch at the bottom of the yard. Grass swales are also easy to install – all you need to do is dig a trench and line it with turf or native, water-loving plants.
Unlike a French drain, this isn't a deep trench – it should have a slope of around 4%, so it's a relatively simple design. Any water will drain into drains at either end of the swale. This also makes sink troubleshooting easier because, unlike French drains where the pipe is buried under rocks and grass, you can easily identify any blockages at the drain hole. You can also plant lawn hollows with water-loving grasses, just like a dry stream bed.
The downside to grass swales is that they are best suited to dealing with rainwater runoff rather than everyday waterlogging. They can relieve waterlogged lawns, but cannot completely solve them. While they are great for dealing with rainwater, they can look pretty ugly after heavy rain as they turn into a swampy ditch. They also don't work for steep lawns, nor can you
3. Plant a willow tree
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If you have a lot of standing water, planting willow or other moisture-absorbing trees can be one of the best natural solutions. Willows use a lot of water, so planting willows is a natural way to divert some water from boggy ground.
In addition, the willow is easy and quick to grow. You can buy potted willows like this from Fast Growing Trees, but all you need is a branch. A willow branch planted in moist soil will quickly form roots. Under the best conditions, willows can grow up to 3 meters tall in a year.
However, there are some major disadvantages. You need the right tree for your climate zone, but the biggest drawback is that willows are so thirsty that they can suck up all the moisture from your other plants. This can stunt their growth and particularly affect fruit and vegetable yields.
Because willows grow so quickly, they can quickly become invasive and difficult to remove from the garden. Willows also have many thick, powerful roots, and if you let them grow too close to a house or drains, they could undermine your foundation or pipes.
4. Consider planting a rain garden
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Rain gardens are plantings designed to manage roof runoff. The idea is that you plant an area of your garden with water-loving plants, creating a boggy area that can capture rainwater and slowly filter it back into the ground, preventing the water from flooding drains or pooling on patios and lawns . This is probably the best-looking option on this list and an opportunity to create a beautiful planting of water-loving plants.
However, rain gardens are primarily a way to deal with roof runoff, not waterlogging. They prevent too much water from being discharged into the public sewer system. While this can certainly help a waterlogged yard and catch water that might otherwise end up on your lawn, rain gardens cannot solve the problem alone.
If you have very heavy clay soil, like those found throughout the South, a rain garden will not solve the problem. In this case, you will need to add mulch to the soil or create a French drain to drain away the excess water.
5. Install a dry well
Dry wells are another way to collect rainwater. You can imagine them like buried rain barrels. These are huge, underground rainwater storage tanks that collect liters of water and slowly release it into the ground. This reduces waterlogging as the water is removed from the surface of the lawn and slowly released further underground. You can also place a dry fountain in an unused corner of your garden. If you're still worried about waterlogging, know that it occurs away from the main lawn.
However, you don't have to think of French drains and dry wells as opposing solutions. In fact, you can combine the two and connect a French drain to a dry well. The drain directs standing water away from the lawn and into the fountain, where it slowly redistributes into the ground.
This can be an excellent drainage method as it prevents waterlogging and keeps water in your garden. This will prevent potential disputes with neighbors and ensure that your soil receives the moisture it needs for healthy plants. The only downside is the cost – this dry fountain kit at Home Depot costs almost $500.
6. Add a trench drain
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Trench drains are classic drains – you probably go through over a dozen of them a day without even realizing it. These are small, narrow trenches that are covered with a metal or plastic grid. They are the best remedy for water accumulation around the foundation of a house or on a patio. If they clog, like skips, they are easy to repair because you can remove the grate and fish leaves or other debris out of the ditch.
The problem with trench drains, however, is that they are typically only installed on patios or where a patio meets a lawn. This means they cannot always relieve waterlogged lawns. If your waterlogging problem occurs where your patio meets the lawn, a trench drain is a good way to drain this water.
However, if you have standing water in the middle of your lawn, a ditch drain won't help you. Trench drains are also pretty ugly. You can find decorative trench grates like this at Home Depot, but they're all pretty practical and can add a little corporate vibe to a backyard.
Most of these solutions only help with waterlogged lawns. If you have another drainage problem, looking at the wide range of drainage ideas could provide another solution. French drains can be great, but they only really work for lawns.