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I discovered French drains while trying to dig a hole for a fruit tree a while back. The land was on a hill and about 30cm down I hit this huge pile of dirty gr
by aristus 2y ago
I discovered French drains while trying to dig a hole for a fruit tree a while back. The land was on a hill and about 30cm down I hit this huge pile of dirty gravel. Ok, so maybe someone filled that spot with gravel. Sunk another hole a bit farther down. More gravel, etc. It took me longer than i'd like to admit to figure it out.
Turns out it was the main drainage for the whole neighborhood. Heh. Moved my tree to the side and it thrived on all that lovely water.
- pfdietz 2y agoAnd, if people are fertilizing their lawns, all that lovely fertilizer runoff.
- aristus 2y agoOh, yes. No lawns in that neighborhood but I thought hard about what might be going into the fruits. Years on, no ill effects.
- phsau 2y agoWouldn't it be better to keep the tree and its roots away from the drain? That growth might come at significant cost!
- pfdietz 2y agoFertilizer would be welcome, pesticides less so. Fortunately, one doesn't really need pesticides on lawns, particularly if one doesn't have a dislike of non-grass species (like clover, which helps with fertilizing anyway).
- cmiller1 2y agoNot uncommon for people to have their lawns treated for ticks here in the NE US
- pfdietz 2y agoI live in a very high tick area in upstate NY, and I've never seen this. I certainly don't do it and have had no problems. Now, if I wander just off the lawn into the woods, I better be wearing my permethrin clothes.
- JohnFen 2y ago> Fertilizer would be welcome That might depend on where you are. In my part of the US, fertilizer runoff is causing very serious problems. This is mostly from farms, of course, but domestic lawn care is a major source as well. The push around here isn't to get people to stop using it entirely, but to follow proper practices that minimize the runoff.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- cityofdelusion 2y agoTree should be far away from the drain line. The roots will eventually grow into the pipe. Tree roots are incredible at finding water sources. Even a drop-at-a-time drip from a water pipe will be completely root wrapped in a few years.
- mannyv 2y agoFunny, that happened to a neighbor. There was this teeny crack in a pipe, and a tree root had squeezed into it then ballooned into this alien creature that blocked the drain in an attempt to suck out the water. Life finds a way.
- aristus 2y agoThere was no pipe, as such. Just a wide deep long trench full of rocks.
- bell-cot 2y ago> Turns out it was... Might I ask how well- (or ill-) documented the location of that kinda-important drain was?
- aristus 2y ago100 years on, everyone involved was dead. Happens a lot in old neighborhoods.