What to do about a Flooded Lawn in Vancouver

How to Deal With a Wet Soggy Yard So You Can Enjoy Your Backyard Experience

Did you wake up to find a prehistoric swamp where your lawn used to be?

Vancouver experiences over 168 wet days per year. That makes it one of Canada’s wettest cities, so you could easily find yourself up the creek after some heavy rain or a thaw.

Below, we’ve put together some advice for dealing with a flooded lawn in Vancouver.

Drainage

If the deluge has hit already, you need to figure out what you’ll do with your lawn. Here are a few tips to help you through it.

Keep Off The Grass

Stomping all over a flooded lawn in Vancouver is a big mistake. It’s a sure-fire way to turn your waterlogged lawn into a mud bath, killing plants and making drainage even more of a challenge.

The end result will be a lawn that looks more like the later stages of a rock festival than a landscaped garden.

Let It Go

If the rains don’t last and your lawn shows signs of drying out, it’s better to let nature take its course.

This, of course, is an inexpensive method. It’s also low-risk for your lawn. It’s not a practical solution when your lawn remains waterlogged for more than a week or so, though. At this point, plants will die off and stagnant water will begin to pose a health risk.

Your lawn’s natural drainage will depend on its grade and any drainage solutions you have in place. Pay special attention to how it drains and you might figure out how to defend your lawn better next time.

Aeration

If you need to take more active measures, you can aerate your lawn by pricking or slitting the soil. You can do this with a garden fork, or a hollow tine aerator.

It’s better to aerate as a preventative measure, but it can also help to drain your lawn in a pinch. Fill the holes soil or sand for better drainage in the future.

Preventative aeration also means you won’t have to walk all over your sodden lawn to do it – as we mentioned above, disturbing your flooded lawn won’t do it any favors.

Prevention

If you’ve had a flooded lawn in Vancouver, there’s a good chance you’ll flood again. Prevention is much better than the cure, in this case.

Take steps to give your lawn proper drainage. Call the landscapers in to change the grade of your lawn to promote runoff. You can also incorporate artificial drainage like dry wells and French drains.

If things aren’t improving, you can splash out on a sump pump setup to control the water automatically.  Contact your Vancouver drainage services contractor with any questions you have about your lawn.

Even if you don’t make major changes, you can still help prevent flooding through regular maintenance. Aerate your soil, feed your lawn, and remove weeds regularly to keep it growing strong. Lawns with deep, healthy root systems can better tolerate a little flooding and will drain more quickly.

Prevent a Flooded Lawn in Vancouver

These are just a few tips for dealing with a flooded lawn in Vancouver, and a few more to prevent it happening again.

By following these, you can get back to enjoying your lawn to its fullest potential.

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Or contact us to find out how we can help.