Waterlogged soil on the site is always a problem. Unpleasant fumes, hordes of mosquitoes in summer, soaking of garden plants poison the life of lovers of suburban rest. The swamp needs to be drained. How can I do that?
First of all, you should understand the causes of stagnant water in the soil. Depending on this, develop a strategy to combat this unpleasant phenomenon.
Reasons for waterlogging
It is not so easy for a specialist to figure out what caused the swamp. It is useful to explore the neighboring lands, get acquainted with the surroundings. There are 2 main reasons for excess soil moisture:
- The site is located in a lowland near a natural reservoir, groundwater comes very close to the surface;
- The natural runoff of water after rains is disturbed.
The first reason is less likely to be true - people usually do not take building plots in a swamp. Problems with insufficient drainage are much more common. The root of the problem may be as follows:
- there is a natural source on the site that feeds the swamp, which requires clearing and drainage of water;
- your garden plot is located below the neighboring ones, all the water after the rain flows down to you;
- structural features of layers and relief: a thick layer of clay is located close to the surface, which does not allow rainwater to be absorbed;
How to get rid of the swamp?
The first advice you will receive is to cover the swamp with sand or soil. This is the easiest, cheapest and most incorrect way. This method does not bring positive results, sooner or later the swamp will return to its former appearance. It is an unusually sustainable ecological system.
It is impossible to displace water with backfill. It will not work either. There is only one way to completely drain the swamp - to let the water leave the area. To do this, make drainages through which water will flow. It's good if she has somewhere to go, but it so happens that the site is below the neighboring ones or there are obstacles on the way of the running water (building, road). In this case, it is useful to choose a compromise option.
Here are some good ideas for drying out wetlands. Often these decisions are always the wisest.
Make a pond
As trees grow, they absorb and evaporate more and more water, acting as a constantly running pump. If the soil on the site is heavy, clayey, then the roots of the trees, penetrating it in different directions, gradually change its structure.
If the site is large enough, then planting such natural dehumidifiers around its perimeter will be effective, and the efficiency will increase every year.
Make a catchment well and drainage
If the site is small and there is no place for a pond, then a water intake well can be made. It is a construction made of concrete rings or a plastic container (this option is simpler and more practical). It is protected from clogging and silting by sprinkling and geotextile. Drainage pipes are brought to the well to collect water from the site.
The water that collects there can be used for irrigation in dry times or pumped out and discharged through pipes into a natural reservoir.
A water intake well is considered the best option for a site under which a clay layer lies, and a layer of fertile soil on top of it is small. Rainwater in such a place does not go into the depths, so in spring and during rains there is a swamp here, in summer heat the soil dries up. Mosquitoes, silt, the smell of rotting mud - these are the delights of such a site. Growing anything is difficult. What does not dry out in the spring will dry out in the summer, but there is no benefit.
You can also build a drainage system, including a water intake well and grooves for collecting water. The cost of such a facility is small, and the benefits can be invaluable.
In the event that these measures do not help to get rid of the swamp, then only a specialist can help solve the problem. A full-fledged drainage system with all the work is not cheap, but this is the only way to get rid of waterlogged soil.
If you are fortunate enough to become the owner of a wetland, do not despair! Take a closer look at the peculiarities of landscape design in the swamp. You have a unique opportunity to use moisture for good. A well-thought-out system of reclamation work and digging drainage ditches with your own hands, as well as planting vegetation, will turn the site into a blooming oasis. In 10-15 years ...
Boggy site: causes and solutions to the problem
It is known that experienced gardeners do not acquire wetlands for building and laying out a garden or creating a landscape design. Dislike for wetlands is explained by the laboriousness of drainage and creation of a drainage system.
Factors can be the cause of waterlogging:
The presence of a spring or source feeding the swamp
Features of the topography of the soil with a clay massif located close to the surface
Low, in relation to neighboring plots, the location of the site.
The main factor of waterlogging is a dense clay soil with a low filtration coefficient. Peat deposits, formed on a boggy area, absorb and accumulate moisture when the massif is compacted.
Naturally, a high level of groundwater and heavy soil do not have the best effect on the root system of trees and shrubs in wetlands.
To get rid of the boggy area, it is necessary to take a number of measures, namely to drain the soil, taking into account the redox properties of groundwater
Ways to drain a swampy area
There are several ways to drain wetlands:
Backfill with soil or sand mixture
Create a drainage system.
dumping of a wetland
The most accessible, at first glance, are activities when we fill up a wetland. This statement is incorrect, because the swamp is a sustainable ecosystem, and backfilling does not bring the desired results. Over time, fed by groundwater and discharges, the swamp returns to its original form.
More effective are measures to create drainage systems and open drains. Of course, if there are no obstacles and trees of wetlands in the way of water runoff. By the way, a specific formation of a planting hill is expected in the area with a high groundwater table.
drainage systems and organization of water collection for wetlands
Natural drainage in swampy areas is complicated by the features of the relief and the granulometric composition of the soil. Therefore, it is necessary to create a system capable of producing runoff and ensuring the redistribution of moisture. There are open and closed types of drainage.
Open drainage for a swampy area is created in the form of ditches, channels and drainage channels (herringbone pattern). This type of drainage is possible to create episodic runoff (flooding and floods).
The technology for creating a drainage system is standard: the central route is made underground, and excess water flows into it through ditches.
The closed type of drainage of the problem area is carried out by burying pipes into the ground with an open hole to collect water. Trenches for closed drainage are lined with geotextiles, followed by a layer of gravel up to 30 cm.
After placing the pipes, the geotextile is covered with a layer of coarse sand and turf. The depth of the trench relative to the water level is
Traditionally, a closed drainage system is located with a slope towards a collecting drainage reservoir or well. Distinguish the following organization of water collection and drainage facilities:
Drainage system for general use
Drainage well with subsequent use for irrigation
Man-made creation of an artificial reservoir.
The obvious advantage of a wetland is the construction of a drainage well with the subsequent use of the collected water for irrigation. You can build this type of well with your own hands at the lowest point of the site with a diameter of up to 1.2 m and a depth of up to 3 m. A pump is installed to use the collected water.
To create a drainage system, plastic pipes with holes in the walls are used and inspection wells are installed at the corners of the line. Pipes are laid in trenches up to 70 cm deep for clay soil, up to 85 cm for loamy soil and 1 m for sandy soil.
How to drain is shown in the video.
arrangement of canals and ditches (French drainage)
It is easy to become a builder and owner of your own Cross Canal (almost like in Versailles) on the wetlands of the site. You will only need some schemes for creating drainage channels filled with rubble and a shovel. The ditches covered with gravel do not bloom and are not clogged with silt masses.
The outer part of the channel or ditch is covered with large pebbles or laid out with rubble. The fill ditches are combined with the paths of the site.
In addition to the possibility of using the collected water for irrigation, there is a good opportunity to create an artificial reservoir or pond in a swampy area.
creating a pond
The pond should be located at the lowest point of the wetland, taking into account the collection point and drainage system. Pre-existing ditches, ditches and hillocks should preferably be leveled.
In the case of an existing pond or swamp, it will be necessary to reinforce the shoreline with retaining walls and boulders.
The video will help to build a pond.
planting trees and shrubs
Planting plants and trees can be considered an effective measure for draining wetlands. Naturally, you need to know what to plant in a wetland. Suitable trees and plants that can save the soil from waterlogging are willows, irga, hawthorn, fern and Amur lilac. Weeping willows have a developed root system, with the help of which the soil is dried.
lawns, lawns and flower beds
To create and lay out lawns, lawns and flower beds, additional drainage is carried out and the type of plants is selected: calamus, cattail, irises, clover and ornamental cereals.
Let us suggest that the swampy soil is black-brown and brown in color with a predominance of an acid reaction. Therefore, when creating flower beds and lawns, it will be necessary to transform the soil layer and alkalinize it. For this, imported soil and alkaline additives are added to the site.
Thus, a wetland requires close attention and diligence. However, for those who do everything with their own hands it is available.
In our large country, marshes and wetlands occupy significant areas. On swampy soils, ordinary plants cannot grow and develop, which need oxygen all the time to feed their underground parts - roots and rhizomes. Stagnant, still water is quickly deprived of oxygen, and most plants die. Only those who have managed to adapt to life in the swamp survive - bog plants.
Meanwhile, in terms of their chemical composition, bog soils are extremely fertile. They can produce high yields of a wide variety of agricultural crops. But for this you must first drain the swamp. Then barren lands harmful to human health will turn into richest fields and pastures. Fat fields will sprinkle where only stunted marsh grasses and stunted bushes have recently grown.
A lot of work is being done in our country to drain and reclaim swamps. The agriculture of the socialist country has already received millions of hectares of new fertile land.
The drainage of swamps is now almost completely mechanized. Soviet scientists and engineers have created many wonderful machines that perform all the hard, tedious and monotonous work for people.
How are swamps drained?
First of all, you need to remove excess moisture from the soil, that is, give it a runoff. And the water should, of course, drain into the nearest river. Therefore, first of all, it is necessary to deepen and widen the bed of such a river, and in some places to straighten it. Here you have to remove the soil mainly from under the water.
Nowadays, floating and land excavators, as well as dredging installations, take out soil from the river.
Floating excavators are used when the width of the river allows the excavated soil to be dumped ashore. This soil thrown out by the excavator is leveled with bulldozers.
Floating dredgers, depending on their performance, are used both on large and small rivers. The soil they extracted from the bottom of the river, mixed with water - the pulp - is pumped through pipes to the shore and spills over the soil surface. You don't need a bulldozer here.
But stagnant bog water will not flow into the river by itself, even after its channel is deepened and widened. For drainage, it is necessary to lay more channels throughout the swamp area. First, they dig the main, that is, the main, channels, then the collector ones. The latter collect water flowing down from the swamp through a shallow closed or open drainage network and drain it into the main canal.
An open network of shallow drainage ditches serves to receive and drain surface water into collector canals, as well as to lower the groundwater level in the area to be drained.
Along with an open network of ditches, a closed network - drainage is used for draining swamps. They are boardwalk, pottery, fascinated, or mole. Board drainage is made from planks that are hammered together in the form of rectangular pipes. The potter's one consists of pottery, i.e., burnt, clay pipes. Fashinny drainage - from brushwood of various tree species, cleared of leaves and small twigs. And, finally, the mole is a system of underground canals that resemble mole passages.
Trunk and collector channels with a depth of 1.5 to 2.5 m are laid by excavators specially adapted to work on swampy ground.
Plow trenchers work on the laying of an open shallow drainage network of ditches. This is a high-performance machine: in an hour it can dig ditches up to 2 km long and up to 80-100 cm deep.
A trench for laying drainage is dug with the help of a bucket excavator or a plow trencher, then drainage is lowered into it and covered with earth from above.
Mole plows and mole-drainage machines have been created for laying mole drainage. They are set in motion by a tractor specially equipped for work on swampy ground.
Immediately after the canals are laid, their slopes are reinforced with sod or sowed with grasses in order to avoid collapses and landslides.
But time passes, and open canals and ditches are gradually covered with sand or silt, overgrown with marsh grasses, become shallow, destroyed and, as a result, begin to drain water poorly, or even become clogged. We have to periodically clean and repair them.
So the swamp has been drained. All of it was covered with a network of large and small canals. Stagnant water, accumulated in the soil for years, flows freely through these channels into the nearest river. But this is only the first part of the work of ameliorators - this is the name of the people involved in the radical improvement of the natural conditions of lands with an unfavorable water regime. Now the drained swamp must be mastered, prepared for sowing cultivated plants. For the repair and cleaning of ditches and canals, special cleaning machines are used: some for cleaning the ditches of a shallow drainage network, others for cleaning collector and main canals.
The first step is to clear the soil from small shrubs, stumps, bumps and wood debris. You can't do much here with an ax and a shovel - this is a very laborious task.
A brushcutter mounted on a tractor easily cuts off bushes and small trees, removes hummocks.
However, hedge trimmers are beneficial to use in cases where the swamp is overgrown not only with shrubs, but also with small forests. If the shrub is without undergrowth, it is simply buried deep into the ground. This work is performed by a bush plowing unit. Such a hydraulically controlled unit, driven by a tractor, consists of two parts: a hollow drum and a ski with a knife are hung in front of the tractor, and the plow body is behind. The drum, rotating, tilts the bush forward and presses it to the soil surface; the knife cuts the layer with rhizomes in a vertical plane, and the plow body wraps the layer and plows the bushes to a depth of 20 to 50 cm.
Grubbing up stumps and removing wood debris is one of the most difficult jobs in reclaiming drained bogs. Stumps are uprooted with a straight pull of a tractor with hooks on chains or cables, or with a grubber, or a powerful bulldozer that turns out huge stumps, or with a grubber-collector.
After cleaning the drained area from shrubs, stumps, bumps and wood residues, it begins to be prepared for agricultural use. It includes three processes: plowing, cutting, and rolling.
The plowing of peat soils in a drained bog should be deep, with full coverage of the surface vegetation cover. For this, special swamp plows with a wide grip are used, which plow the soil to a depth of 50 cm, while wrapping the layer and embedding all the vegetation deep into the soil.
The layer of earth wrapped in a plow must then be loosened to the greatest possible depth so that oxygen can freely penetrate into the soil. The seam is loosened with disc harrows or special milling machines.
Then the surface of the drained bog is rolled - leveled with special swamp filling rollers.
There are many negative points that a summer resident has to face. Now the land is not fertile and the plants do not want to grow, then the summer drought destroys the entire crop, then pests and diseases do not give rest.
For some, the site is a steep slope and it takes a lot of time and effort to turn it into a convenient and beautiful place. Flooding is an equally important problem.
Only by carrying out activities aimed at draining the suburban area, you can get rid of this trouble. Today we will consider what needs to be done for this in order to forget about excess moisture for a long time.
How to dry the area with your own hands? Basic ways
The degree of swampiness of the site is different and can be caused by various factors. For example, there is a case when excess moisture is largely due to the relief and type of soil. Those. water cannot leave the site along a natural slope. Then you need to create this bias artificially, planning the territory. If necessary, lift up the earth, fill in the recesses.
It happens that water costs only because you have heavy clay soil.... In this case, if it is not possible to make a bedding, it is necessary to arrange drainage. With it, you can drain the swamp on the site. To get the job done drainage system, you will need some knowledge, competent calculation, accurate planning.
There are many companies that, for a fee, will perform not only the calculation, but also all the earthworks and installation work. An alternative option is to do everything yourself, having previously studied all the necessary information.
Moreover, water from the drainage system can flow into the reservoir, which is arranged at the lowest point of the cottage. The purpose of the reservoir can be anything: for irrigation, a decorative structure with plants, etc.
Related article: Protective grounding device
Almost all methods of draining a garden plot are to drain water from the territory... It's just fine if the water has somewhere to leave the site, but it so happens that in relation to the surrounding area, the dacha is located lower, or there are any structures on the way of the running water (buildings, fence, etc.). In this case, the water must be collected centrally. This can usually be done by constructing a system of channels and ditches.
It should be understood that water must also leave the ditch, which is determined on the spot, depending on the location of neighboring areas. Dig it up in the lowest place.
If the site is more or less level and has a clearly directed slope, then the ditch is placed along the fence in a low place, and it should have a width of about 50 cm and a depth of at least 1 m, a length of 2-3 m. The excavated soil should never be removed, it is better to distribute it in the country at the lowest places.
Then, during the year, the ditch must be gradually filled with various construction and other solid waste (broken brick, stones, broken glass). It is laid quite tightly, and when the ditch is filled to the lower border of the fertile land, a similar ditch is dug next to it, which will be a continuation of the old one.
The removed vegetative soil from the new ditch is placed in the old one. In doing so, you will get a good drainage system around the perimeter of the site. You may be wondering why make a ditch (drainage) in the highest place? You may not, however, if another one located above is adjacent to your site on this side, then there is a point in such a closed ditch, because it will intercept water from the neighbors, not allowing it to flow through the entire cottage.
As you can see, in order to properly drain the wetland, you need to combine several methods with each other. This includes bedding, drainage, and construction of ditches and canals. Another additional method, which is called biological, is to use moisture-loving plants, which will absorb some of the moisture.
