Monthly Archives: April 2013

Draining Landscapes and Gardens – Part II

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I know, I know. Drainage concerns are about as fascinating as watching paint dry, just less so. In my frantic efforts in this blog to allow you all to peer over the shoulder of what a landscape designer/installer faces however, I would certainly be remiss in not giving this “take”. In any thorough look at landscaping, omitting this issue of how we face and what we do with the accumulated water from rainfall (and other sources) on the strips of land as large as we deal with would be pretty uncivilized, frankly. The fact is, it is the first thing we ever look at. Bar none. So bear with a shovel-wielding, backhoe-driving contractor for yet another teeth-grinding trip through the uber-fascinating world of drain water. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The creek bed drain below is taken from the same example project I featured in Part I. As mentioned, these items posed a pretty splendid solution to the larger issues of how to deal with rainfall on the landscape. Generally sloped to receive runoff, these channels allow water to leave the project, en route to safer and less destructive places.

Other projects also have in-built reasons for drains and, frankly, most of them we won’t see. The issue is to either make a drain system organic with the design or to hide them. Since drainage is a strictly functional problem, and landscaping designs are such cosmetic enterprises, it is often better not seen nor heard.

The point with all this is to appreciate the respect one needs to maintain towards rain, snow and all the potential problems they can present. Water trapped under a home can bleed it’s humid evaporation upwards, causing mildews and molds which are unhealthy and foul-smelling. And, unfortunately, not all homes are constructed with adequate drain systems surrounding their foundations, another vulnerable point in water issues. What I have found is that we landscapers have become one of the rectifiers of these problems – and, as time has gone on, perhaps the only possible ones outside of calling the home builder back to reshape the entire property.

So it became something I consider almost foremost when I analyze the possibilities and challenges of any project. Generally, of course, we slope all patio and walkway surfaces appropriately, usually at a 1-2% slope. This takes the water outwards away from problems. But what then? Taking the water away from a home is important as it can be, but what about when water is directed away from a structure towards another structure, such as a free-standing wall?

The amount of pipe under this entire edifice shown above and below, from the two waterfall systems to dealing with both walls, measures in the hundreds of feet. The hidden drains and their sources measure in the smallest percentiles of slope but are enough for water to find and then get conducted away. We managed to hide the collection points for runoff possibilities in this project well enough. After all, rocks can hide a multitude of things. But there is another entire problem facing the catchments –  its final emergence. Where does it go, if not the street? What we found on this project was that we had to disperse the runoff enough to keep from eroding the hillside to the rear. That required yet another measure of construction all on its own.

Some drains are as straightforward as they can be. We will often just simply run a water test and see where it tends to go. Who woulda thought???  😉  On the creek bed below, we found an easy solution that looks good and actually adds something to the landscape, generated from the driveway behind it and its collection point. Simply put and very obviously, this one just runs off onto the street.

Other factors requiring drainage thought: water features. Nearly all of my water features have an in-built automatic fill system. Requiring a homeowner to get his hose out and go fill up the daggone pond is sometimes done – if they ask for it. But I have found the auto-fill to be simple and effective and – generally – pain free. But, things happen. If an “auto-fill” is run off the irrigation clock for example, the possibilities for mistakes are fairly numerous. Someone could forget the difference between AM and PM, for example. (Are you listening Mark? :-)). This meant 12 good solid hours of a 3/4″ pipe’s worth of water streaming into his pond and overflowing. Or, a guy could have the TV set to some compelling ball game and simply forget about that hose he set in the pond to fill it up. So we drain them as well. This is call an “overflow” drain and should be essential in any water feature, form the smallest to the very largest. These can come in straightforward and simple methods, combined with offering surface draining as well:

This one above, taken in early Spring, shows just how effective it was judging by the discoloration of the dried mud on the creek rocks. Below, we have a successfully-hidden drainage point, well-planted with swampy sorts of grasses which offer a congruency with the pond itself. It drains forward – when necessary – and onto a constructed cement drainage ‘swale’ that courses down the backs of all these properties nearby:

That about wraps up my drainage spiel. I have some fresh paint on our fence out back I need to get back to watching dry. God, this is a great day! Where’s my beer?  Roovveerrrrr!!  Darn that dog.

Incidentally, here are some shots of the more severe-looking landscape above. The first is from its onset:

The next gives a picture from the neighbor’s perspective and shows in better detail not only the killer view these guys have of Reno, Nevada but also the slope which we built on top of and which we had to somehow protect:

And here’s a few of those pipes I talked about, during construction:

Drainage – In Landscapes and Gardens – Part I

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What do we mean by this term? What is drainage, a term we see referred to often but which many don’t entirely comprehend?

Simply put, the term “drainage” refers to the dealing with any water that makes it onto our land. Now this could be irrigation water, rain water, snow or even accidental flooding from such things as broken water pipes or problems from neighbors which no one ever forsaw. I have pointed out such a problem in an earlier post, where the dimensions of problems a neighbor supplied were large enough to imperil an entire 5 acre project.

In the picture above, we see the extent to which we attend to drainage issues. All the larger white and black pipes collect water from the patio we will install above it. (The other pipes are either irrigation lines or electrical conduits).  Some function to collect (the white pipe which will be the ends of a “Channel Drain” system we put in the middle of the patio) and some merely to conduct (the black pipe) water down and away to an appropriate spot where it goes into the street out front. The white extensions – capped in the picture below – closest to the house are for the eventual gutters, which will also conduct water from the roof into the same black pipes.

Here then, after installing the pavers, is what this patio looked like:

Generally speaking, the current law of the land is that each home and property is responsible for their own water. What this implies is that the property owner is liable for any damage resulting from the run-off from his property which affects a neighboring property. This is typically the focus of the law. The bottom line for designers and installers such as myself is to find some way of conducting the water to a catch basin or storm sewer so that the entirety of our problems are thus “internal” if at all. Almost all properties provide for this at the time of sale. It may be that they supply a 1% grade via a “swale” or a “scooped out” trench, but that is then what you have. The fact is, it is enough, although extremely exacting for professionals. Flat lands still need to be drained because even they get rained on. If a substantial amount of runoff ends up piled around the basement window of a neighbor and there is tell-tale evidence it came from your land, then you will at best share liability for any damages from the basement flooding.

Another very fundamental feature of drainage is to keep the water away from your home – your investment. We always slope the ground away from the house. This is an absolute “given”. It also applies when constructing any patio, sidewalk, gazebo or any number of other projects, all of which must provide for what we call “positive drainage” away from the house itself. There is no reason really to explain why. So what then? How do we do it?

What I have always liked doing – where possible – was to create a small creek bed, suitable for not only conducting collected water to a destination, but also to actually capture it. In the picture above the house is actually quite close on the left hand side of this picture. This small creek bed thus circles the home, with the ground sloped to appropriately collect and take away water from rain and perhaps the overflowing water feature shown in the background, if its automatic filling system somehow screwed up……..(it happens, lol. 😉 )  Or also, say, if a valve sticks in the irrigation system and the water just doesn’t stop. Measures like these can prevent small disasters from becoming something worse. Here – let’s follow this creek bed around: (This, below, is a view taken farther out back by the fence which shows how we also supplied drainage, not just next to and around the house, but also from the very rear of the property forward, out to the street. Notice the creek on the left. It joins with the creek in the above picture (shown by the shed where the picture was taken) for its journey to respectability.) It’s actually gotten nicely overgrown, hiding this feature more, but it is visible beneath the branches.

Here then is a view from the very distant fence in the second shot, hard by the front yard, looking back. The creek also picks up water from the gutter system as well, thus the crossing creek beds, also joining the main player, in the shade to the right bottom:

And here is where it all goes away:

Those small creek beds were a dynamite solution to an occasional but very serious problem. As dry as Reno may seem, it does indeed collect some dreadful amounts of rain and snow. It mmight have only gotten 7 inches a year of rainfall, but I swear it all came at once.

Special People – Special Place – Harbor House in Louisville

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I’ve written once before in this blog about a literally transforming event in my life. I can’t even recall exactly where it is located in this now-multiplied posting binge of mine, but I love telling the story, so bear with me as I talk about an inner relationship I have with the coolest animals on Earth – other humans.

I ran an extremely busy business in Vancouver, British Columbia in the early 80’s. Fresh at my first-ever business launch, the previous couple of years had presented me with a burgeoning business with many clients and prospective clients in a hugely rich climate of new construction and forming wealth all around us. Relationships were forming daily and I was being appealed with and sometimes nearly blackmailed to not only take on major landscaping projects of large apartment buildings and commercial properties, but also to design and install landscapes for the homes of the bosses of these developments. It meant a real crush for time and exposure as well as the demands pummeling my sensibilities to achieve the level of professionalism of the installations I had signed up for. I began feeling stress.

I could be found racing across that large city in my late model 1-Ton flatbed truck or in my car at all times during the day, racing the clock to appointments which seemed so incredibly vital to my existence that my entire focus was set specifically on the competitive traffic impeding me on my appointed tasks. I recall feeling betrayed by traffic lights and honking rudely at scofflaws impeding my progress in my urge to stay tuned to the tremors of opportunity and wicked ambition.

Then one day, it all changed.

Racing down Marine Drive in the southeast end of Vancouver, hard by the Fraser River, I was en route to a pre-construction meeting of unquestioned importance, involving the entirety of the principals involved, including the construction Project Manager as well as the owners and architects. Typically, I was slightly late and, equally typically, I was hell-bent on speed to make up the difference. Ahead, I saw this light which I just knew was beginning to change to yellow and I raced towards it thinking I might “make it”. Alas, dam the luck, it was not to be. Smacking the steering wheel with my hand like a mad shark and emitting a small scream of frustration, I slowed and stopped, feeling the rage waves roiling.

Sitting there, I watched a fairly large group of people crossing the crosswalk at a pace I knew would not help. At least 30 people were approaching via the painted crosswalk, intending to walk across the 5 lanes of traffic at their own pace. Work had obviously shut down for the day and they were en route home.

As I looked closer, I realized I was watching a group of developmentally disabled adults, leaving their place of “work” and on their ways to buses and their homes. The Down’s Syndrome was, as always, patently obvious, as well as the jerky, challenged demeanor of other more seriously physically disabled, some in wheelchairs. All were carrying lunch pails and all were doing one other thing which I will never – ever – forget.

They were smiling. Every single one of them.

Watching these folks cutting up with each other, high-fiving, laughing and responding so actively and so engaged, I was hit by an epiphany that nearly lifted the top of my noggin. It was beautiful! It was just plain gorgeous. Their enthusiasm at living their lives was palpably obvious. It was so uplifting to think these comparatively “unfortunate” beings were maximizing their talents and their abilities by crossing the street in front of my very vehicle. It was so uplifting seeing the joy with which they approached this simplest of human actions. I recall the sensations approaching in the rush which they descended with. It seemed that Time itself had momentarily stopped and it allowed me to peer into a literal crack in the firmament of Life Itself. I was attacked with goose bumps and my hair felt different – nearly electric. I was experiencing what ancient shaman felt as their gods revealed themselves. I was simply charmed beyond belief.

They were a living lesson in life and one which I will never forget nor underestimate.

After they crossed – two light durations worth, lol – tears were streaming down my face. I was still digesting what I had experienced. I am still digesting it now, 30 years later. This was the Ultimate in Soul Food. My epiphany was a religious conversion-type experience. I had looked on the face of God and He was more merciful and more humorous than I had ever even conceived. It honestly really did change my life – that stupid, simple moment in city traffic. I drove away feeling renewed, somehow. I arrived at the meeting eyes dried, barely late but with an aura, I just know it. People smiled at me and my own persona had to be alive with joy. It was a splendid collective smile among people used to competing and ended up being fun and warm, maybe made more so by myself and what I carried.

We need to acknowledge our gifts at times. I firmly believe one of the greatest gifts we receive are in the persons of those whose simple humanity and joy is a product of our own compassion and involvement and our investments in our community at it’s extremes.

One of my best friends in life is Dave Shulhafer. He began a highly successful media company named Videobred in Louisville back near the time of this event, actually. Since then, he sold the business but he stays involved in media, consulting and taking on small projects which he deems suitable and appropriate. This is a video he produced and this is him at the onset and closing of it, talking about his own relationship with persons who resemble in every way those wonderful folks who made me “Believe” as well.

 

And here is a beautiful bonus video, thanking you for reading this far. This one you owe yourself because you, too, are beautiful.