# Poor drainage on my property



## CDennyRun (Nov 26, 2015)

As the title states, I have really poor drainage and it's causing big problems. We bought this place almost a year ago, and knew it didn't drain all that great, but figured it wasn't anything we couldn't overcome. Well last winter was really mild, and we didn't get all that much rain. This year on the other hand has been rough! Lot's and lots of rain has turned the low spot on our property into a pond roughly 2/3 of an acre. The rest of the property is just muck, and we've been hauling in many 30 yard loads of wood chips for our horse paddocs.

In general we have about 10-14" of topsoil, then a layer of clay that ranges from 1-8" thick. Obviously this is the problem. Under the clay is sand, as far as I know. I've dug several 2-3' deep holes while I was building my barn, and that's what I saw.

I've come up with the idea to rent a 3-pt PTO auger, and basically perforate our whole three acre lot, and fill in the holes with drain rock. Dose this sound like a good idea? I guess the only other option would be a subsoiler (which I want anyway) and key-line the whole place every few feet. I'm not positive a subsoiler will go deep enough in in all areas though.

Thoughts? I really need to do something. This is driving my wife and I absolutely crazy, bot to mention the poor horses. We don't have a ditch or creek to rout the water to, without spending probably 10's of thousands of dollars. It's pretty much not an option unfortunately.

Thanks in advance!


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Is the ground higher than the ground surrounding it, or are you in a bottom.....really hard to tell from the pic...


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## Thorim (Jan 19, 2015)

How many acres do you have?


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## CDennyRun (Nov 26, 2015)

somedevildawg said:


> Is the ground higher than the ground surrounding it, or are you in a bottom.....really hard to tell from the pic...


I was standing on ground about 2' higher than the level of the pond. If it gets that high, my whole property will just about be flooded.

Chris


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## CDennyRun (Nov 26, 2015)

Thorim said:


> How many acres do you have?


Just three.. That's why this is such a big problem!

Chris


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## CDennyRun (Nov 26, 2015)

If things get too nasty we can always bring the horses to my in-laws place. We would just hate to see it get to that point.

Chris


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

A subsoiler might work for a bit until it seals shut again.

Bite the bullet and have some tile installed, has to be a place some where the you can tie into an existing main or run it to a creek.

More than likely if the water won't move thru a few inches of clay it's pretty wet underneath as well. We have sand in town that we could only grow hay on for years because of the quicksand, some of the proper tile placed in key locations and now we can pull the 16 row planter across it no problem.


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## urednecku (Oct 18, 2010)

> The rest of the property is just muck, and we've been hauling in many 30 yard loads of wood chips for our horse paddocs.


My concern about the wood chips would be when they decay, they would make a bigger mess. Wouldn't it be better to bring in clay, shell, or what ever you have in your area as filler that would not make a bigger mess to have to clean up in a couple years?


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## CDennyRun (Nov 26, 2015)

urednecku said:


> My concern about the wood chips would be when they decay, they would make a bigger mess. Wouldn't it be better to bring in clay, shell, or what ever you have in your area as filler that would not make a bigger mess to have to clean up in a couple years?


We only use the wood chips in the paddocs, and luckily I have a never ending supply for free from a friend of mine. Once a good bed is in place, it doesn't tak much to maintane it. At this point it's the only hing keeping our horses on something that's not mud. As long as we stay on top of it, it'll be great for keeping them on dry ground.

Chris


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## CDennyRun (Nov 26, 2015)

mlappin said:


> A subsoiler might work for a bit until it seals shut again.
> 
> Bite the bullet and have some tile installed, has to be a place some where the you can tie into an existing main or run it to a creek.
> 
> More than likely if the water won't move thru a few inches of clay it's pretty wet underneath as well. We have sand in town that we could only grow hay on for years because of the quicksand, some of the proper tile placed in key locations and now we can pull the 16 row planter across it no problem.


The good news is, the water does move threw the clay, but just not as fast as we would like. With two weeks of no rain, the pond will disappear. My hope is that if I punch a ton of holes in the bad areas with a auger, the water will have a place to go. Just my simple ******* way of thinking. I have very little land management knowledge!

Chris


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

CDennyRun said:


> The good news is, the water does move threw the clay, but just not as fast as we would like. With two weeks of no rain, the pond will disappear. My hope is that if I punch a ton of holes in the bad areas with a auger, the water will have a place to go. Just my simple ******* way of thinking. I have very little land management knowledge!
> 
> Chris


You can try, from my experience on our soils, wouldn't work for long as silt finds it way into the holes and seals the rocks or the subsoil up.


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## pede58 (Oct 27, 2015)

Digging a bunch of French drains won't work without an outlet and may make it worse by giving water an easy way out of the subsoil. Adding chips may get you higher ground but will hold the water not really improving things. From what I see you have 3 options, surface drainage, tile or clay fill, best would be a combination of all three.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

If you dig a hole into the sand, how far down in the sand to the water table? If the water table is low ripping it every few years will likely work. If you have enough chips, churning the sand, clay and chips will eventually result in thicker topsoil and no clay layer.

Post hole digger isn't going to make enough drainage area to drain a pond.

Escavator laying tile will likely churn up the area over the tile to allow good permeability. If the water table is low enough under clay you can discharge to a dry well.


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## CDennyRun (Nov 26, 2015)

pede58 said:


> Digging a bunch of French drains won't work without an outlet and may make it worse by giving water an easy way out of the subsoil. Adding chips may get you higher ground but will hold the water not really improving things. From what I see you have 3 options, surface drainage, tile or clay fill, best would be a combination of all three.


I'm not familiar the "clay fill" approach. I tried looking around on the web, but can't find anything on it. Tileing would be great, but we can't afford it. Surface drain might be the way I need to go.

You did forget the 4th option... buying different property! Ha ha.



slowzuki said:


> If you dig a hole into the sand, how far down in the sand to the water table? If the water table is low ripping it every few years will likely work. If you have enough chips, churning the sand, clay and chips will eventually result in thicker topsoil and no clay layer. Post hole digger isn't going to make enough drainage area to drain a pond. Escavator laying tile will likely churn up the area over the tile to allow good permeability. If the water table is low enough under clay you can discharge to a dry well.


I'm not totally sure about the water table. I'd love to know though. Maybe I'll dig until I hit it when the giant puddle goes away. I think it might be kind of high. Thanks for the input! I have a lot to think about.

Chris


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## pede58 (Oct 27, 2015)

Clay fill is nothing more then filling the low spot with clay to obtain surface drainage. As for option 4, if you can afford that then you can afford tile. Your best bet is surface drainage, speaking as someone that's been doing this for over 40years, might have to take some trees out to do it but that's just me looking at the picture. You have to find a point lower than the bottom of this pond and make a cut towards that, using the cut dirt to fill in the pond and increasing the fall, the more fall the better it will drain. Find you a good contractor and get his advice, or check with the county NRCS.


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## CDennyRun (Nov 26, 2015)

pede58 said:


> Clay fill is nothing more then filling the low spot with clay to obtain surface drainage. As for option 4, if you can afford that then you can afford tile. Your best bet is surface drainage, speaking as someone that's been doing this for over 40years, might have to take some trees out to do it but that's just me looking at the picture. You have to find a point lower than the bottom of this pond and make a cut towards that, using the cut dirt to fill in the pond and increasing the fall, the more fall the better it will drain. Find you a good contractor and get his advice, or check with the county NRCS.


Thanks Pede58! I think surface draining is going to be the way to go. The drainage ditch in front of our property is lower, but it's going to take a heck of a lot of excavating to rout it there. But if that's the least expnsive option, I'll just have to do it.

As for selling the place, it's on our minds. It'll be five-ish years until we get serious about that. We really do need more property. It would be great to pasture four acres, and have another four or five to hay. A bigger barn is much needed too!

Thanks for the help!

Chris


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