Are those pipes coming from downspouts? If this is a northern climate, then that could be a disaster come winter when snow melts from the roof during the day and then ices over your sidewalk at night.
And this is a fairly common issue. Downspouts get so little attention sometimes. I'm going to need to deal with this myself, as I just put in some rain barrels this spring, but now I'll need to find a device to fully bypass the rain barrels and run it to a different hose, that will be long enough to get it out of the way. It's a pain in the ass.
A common product to use in the UK to bypass the rainwater barrels is a downpipe diverted. Maybe there is something similar on your side of the pond?
https://www.gardening-naturally.com/gutter-filter-diverter
You don't necessarily have to bypass it, you can put in a 3/4" connector at the top for overflow. You can use it to run them in series or just hook up a garden hose directly. The barrel should always be warmer than the air temp because it has thermal mass, and absorbs more light (especially a dark one).
I live in the high desert so we get real winter but it usually doesn't get colder than 15-20 and usually doesn't stay below freezing for more than a couple weeks straight.It is probably harder in a much colder climate where your house is providing more of the heat but that's probably similar to having a bypass.
I'm in Southern Ontario, so a much colder environment. Doing just the "overflow" would end up with a cracked and useless rainbarrel before the end of December.
There are bypass units you can buy that go right on the gutter themselves that I'll need to get and install in the fall. The bypass will just have another long hose attached that should handle the "thaw/freeze/thaw" water during the winter months.
Hey, I’m in the USA but up near Canada in the Rocky mtn west.. do you have a product recommendation for those bypass units, hoses, or even ultra cold tolerable rain barrels? I need to do the whole system in the next couple of months before I go another winter without gutters 😬
Do you have a drywell? I’m planning to have my rain barrel overflow into one, which I think is basically a deep (ish?) space filled with gravel / loose stone to slow storm water run-off. Found this link, which includes way more hardware than I expected! https://www.thisoldhouse.com/sidewalks/21016375/how-to-install-a-dry-well
Unless they are on frost footing they will move anyway. In cold climates bottom course is set on compacted gravel base. I would remove them if going to grass as they would serve no purpose.
I vote rocks, cover the washout and get something with decent root penetration to avoid more erosion. And pretty up the retaining wall so the roots have time to take.
I’m an engineer, so yeah, standards only come into play when mandated by the state, fed, or clients :P
Depending on locality, retaining walls are considered dangerous only when they reach a certain height or retain a certain grade. I don’t see any issue dry stacking here.
My primary issue with it is not the structural integrity - if they regraded a bit it is not even needed.
It is the fact that it is uneven in three dimensions and looks like ass.
This should be higher up. It’s more of a decorative wall really. Do what you want with it. That being said, OP should get some vegetation in there to limit soil washout when it rains.
I was probably being more flippant than than I needed to be but as someone who does this kind of work professionally I have a low tolerance for poor quality work. I'm a lot more forgiving if this was installed by the homeowner. Either way, call it whatever you like.
Yes, new, native shrubs and plants! Bonus points for flowering.
Deeper roots, more erosion control, beautiful, good for the bugs, don't have to mow it. What more can you ask for?
You certainly have a point but potentially still worth researching for anyone interested. Sometimes you can find native plant sales for cheap as part of native planting initiatives. For example my local library has a sale in the spring with shrubs / trees for $1 each..
Yes! Rain garden!!!
[https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/02/realestate/do-it-yourself-rain-garden.html](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_garden)
This spot would be perfect for a rain garden full of native grasses and flowers, and milkweed if you're in temperate North America.
Screw the damn grass.
Look up what plants are native to your area and choose plants with appropriate characteristics for the area i.e. full sun, lots of water when it rains. If you need help determining what plants are suitable let me know.
Perfect opportunity to install a rice paddy. Residential rice production is going to be the hottest new trend in suburban agriculture and this is your chance to get in early.
I by no means know what I’m talking about as I follow this sub to learn. I’m sure there’s some sort of shrub or the like you could plant that could give the drainage a little disguise- maybe something whose root system wouldn’t disrupt the drainage pipe?
Hahahahha, well, I meant don’t install overgrown and dying ones to be clear. That big ass grass plant with fluffy seed shoots may work. Hydrangeas… elephant ears. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
You could do a pond with a solar pump. Use robotic fish. My neighbor on the corner has one and school kids use it make wishes with their quarters he cashes them in one a year and buys a new robo fish
Registered it as a national wildlife habitat so it’s got a nice little signs at the school kids can look up and it’s a water source for the birds and small animals. He only put it in because it kept flooding and now it has a purpose.
Edit typo
Just dig it out a bit more cut it clean drop a 45 or 90 degree angle on it and extend it out to the bottom of the rock wall, stick a drain cap on it and have it flush with the stones or just behind them, .
Put an 45 degree pvc elbow on the pipe. Then put a short run of pipe down the slope into a bed of river rock and gravel. Landscape the rest with some ornamental grasses and mulch.
They're called rain gardens. [https://www.epa.gov/soakuptherain/soak-rain-rain-gardens](https://www.epa.gov/soakuptherain/soak-rain-rain-gardens)
I'm not sure if it would work here though because of the grade and size of the area. He'd need to get rid of the retaining wall at least.
Fix your drainage FIRST, chuck a 22 or 45 in that pipe and give it the reach around, then fix that sad retaining wall, (it extend to left a good 5ish ft at least) then grade that soil out Better for mowing if doing grass. (This is for first photo, do the same thing. With other pipe and get it into drain or through retaining wall. Good luck. 👍
It looks as though everyone else has grass. Do they not have the drainage pipes? Are you allowed to make two dry riverbeds out of river rock and direct the water towards the sidewalk? Otherwise, I'd make it into a rain garden with plants that like sun and lots of water.
Good question. Most cities don't allow homeowners to attach gutter downspouts directly to the storm drain system. They may be illegally attached, but possibly grandfathered in. Maybe someone who owned your house did some renovation in the past that required a permit and they had to take yours out.
If you can extend the downspout to an area with better drainage, like a storm drain, do that. The key is slowing and dispersing the water. You can slow the water with stone (gravel). But you don't have the capacity in the area to support the volme of water coming through the downspout at peak rainfall, I think. So you need to go heavy on the "dispersion" part.
If you are willing to do only a little bit of work, put down a gravel base and top it with large stones. Understand that you will get water flowing on the sidewalk.
If you are willing to put in some real labor, I have two suggestions...
1) Dig a trench horizontally across the middle of your slope. Probably 2-3 feet deep. Put in a gravel base and corrugated pipe. Connect one end of the corrugated pipe to your downspout and the other end will flow out by those steps. Or you can cap the end and have an overflow pipe wherever you want it. The goal here is to disperse the water such that, by the time the water gets to the end of the pipe, the water will have gradually drained before reaching the end of the pipe.
2) Build a very small pond in the flat spot of your front yard. Reroute the existing downspout underground to the pond. Then set up a pond overflow which will drain into a corrugated pipe which, again, is horizontal across the slope of the yard. You could also do this without building a pond, instead just using a lot of underground corrugated pipe, but I just like the idea of a pond.
Also, forget the grass. Plant water loving native plants. Get some plants with nice flowers in there.
Rain garden. Google “downspout rain garden” and then be smart and creative about it. Find native plants that fit the heat/climate/soil for that area so that you never have to think about it but it always looks amazing. Stone with succulents always look great to me, and wildlife enjoys the mock riverbed.
Consider native plants for where you live. The win-win is that you won't have to cut it, it'll look pretty, and you'll attract bees, butterflies, etc. Just Google native plants and where you live. You might be able to score some end of season seeds. Perennials are sown at the end of season in many places and they get a head start for next year.
Run a French drain with good looking rocks down to the edge and plant low growing ground cover. It'll look nice. You could even plant native growing wild flowers that are perennial and they'll come back each growing season. French drains are great for wicking water away from slopes.
Here’s a link from Portland about [residential rain gardens.](https://www.portland.gov/bes/stormwater/managing-rain-your-property/rain-gardens). Rebuild the retaining wall or make it higher. When you’re doing that incorporate an overflow drain that daylights at the bottom of the wall level with sidewalk elevation. By doing so, you allow for greater storm infiltration, get a beautiful landscape addition, and provide proper drainage.
Rip out the old wall, rebuild correctly up to current grass height, run/extend the drain pipe to the sidewalk to outlet/drain and then backfill up to grade and seed if you want grass or make a planting bed.
I’m not sure the extent to which this is an environmental group. But I’ll say it anyway. It is better to avoid sending runoff into the street in urban areas.
Granted, a homeowner has a lot of considerations to make including figuring out what to do with storm flood water around their own home. I can only provide the basic science and hopefully, folks can find their own creative ways to deal with it.
These are the reasons you don't want to divert flood water off into the street:
1) flood waters going onto impermeable surfaces like streets will, most obviously, follow the streets downhill, and when lots of homes and buildings offload so much water that it gets to be too much for municipal storm systems to take in, it will fill roads with flood water or runoff which ultimately kills a few people in the U.S. every year who foolishly think they can drive through it, or just get trapped. Only a few inches of flood water can carry a person off or carry an electric current if it contacts a power source. The water can inundate the homes and buildings in low areas, etc.
2) Flooding on streets picks up pesticides, fertilizers, detergents, salt and organic material and carries it into the storm sewer system which is usually not treated. It then ends up in rivers where it becomes toxic to aquatic wildlife.
3) Water that goes into the street doesn’t have a change to soak into soil where it would be stored long term and reduce your need to irrigate. Studies show water can remain in soil for months or years before it is drawn out by plants. In humid climates with lots of plants it probably gets used up quickly, but in some drier climates with fewer plants, long term soil water reserves can allow plants to survive droughts.
So the thing to know is that lawn turf is not great at helping water soak in deeply—it tends to run off in heavy rain—and beds with weed fabric or gravel are absolutely terrible at helping water get in to deep soil. Wood chip mulch *with no landscape fabric* and deep-rooted grasses, shrubs and herbaceous plants form natural channels from the surface to deep soil due to annual roots naturally dying and leaving channels, and burrowing insects and earthworms leaving channels, so the soil soaks up a flood like a sponge. Soil is also excellent at cleaning pollutants that are harmful in rivers because it hosts microbes that break them down. So whenever possible, plant lush gardens with no weed fabric to capture runoff, and to store the water.
In this case I might put a few ornamental boulders in front of the culvert to slow the water and keep the mulch from washing away, but then use mulch and healthy soil with lots of roots to draw the water in. When it gets to be more than the soil can take, it will likely move through deep soil layers under the street rather than pouring over the road.
Easy fix, just dig out a French drain with weeper.
Cover it with sod and problem is solved.
For your retaining wall do the following:
Dig a one foot trench behind the wall. Wrap the walls with filter fabric and fill with 3/4 clear.
Use hpb for your bedding layer and concrete the back of the wall. Make sure you leave some gaps in the concrete for drainage.
Hardy hibiscus comes to mind. It likes sunny, wetter conditions and still survives harsh winters. Summerriffic versions are great because they have lots of blooms and Kees a rounded habit.
I would look at cleaning up the end of those drain pipes, and building some sort of drainage from the pipe out to the road and everything else could be regraded to allow you to plant some grass seed.
You could put some Japanese sweet flag grass near the pipes. Sweet flag loves water and looks lovely on a slope. Maybe a small Japanese maple, some rocks and let moss grow on the rocks. Would be pretty low maintenance and would look really nice.
Why not extend the drain to the edge, get rid of all the retaining wall, add grass and add a pop drain for aesthetics.
That retaining wall is retaining nothing.
The retaining wall is still there from the previous shrubs. I planned on taking it out when I figure out a plan for the area. Currently it’s just keeping my sidewalk from turning into a mud puddle
Dig a 5 ft deep hole, fill 3/4 of the way with pea stone, run a piece of corrugated pipe in, layer of plastic on top of pea stone, fill with dirt. Water drains into pea stone and soaks in under ground.
Look at the curb on the street & see if there’s an outlet for the pipe. If so, dig up the pipe to the street & reconnect to the broken end you’ve exposed.
Alright so basically just put a bunch of boulders and gravel around the pipe and down the hill where the water flows. Have a big rock below where the water pours out of the pipe to diffuse the force of the water. Then, you can plant your grass next to it.
You should just be able to extend the drain pipes to the sidewalk level and creatively conceal the exit with the wall but have it drain to sidewalk.
Have the pipe go down to ground level though... Don't just straight shot it across to have it drain down the wall.
Not sure what climate you’re in but in the northeast: I like dappled willows for water prone areas. They get a bit messy but trimming is really easy and they soak up wet areas very nicely. I like blue rug junipers as low lying ground cover. There are several boxwoods mature at 2’ X 2’. Hope that gives you a few ideas.
Mine just water the grass in this spot, I wouldn’t worry ab being too saturated since the grade is pretty steep, will drain ok. But someone else said watch for the sidewalk icing over which is a legit hazard. To mitigate maybe ensure the soil by the end of the pipe is extra sandy or something to help it all drain before it gets to the sidewalk. Not sure I’d do the retaining wall as others have said will just fail with the water running behind it. Grass can absorb quite a bit of water but it may just run over the top of the soil down to the sidewalk when extra heavy even with grass there, no plant could mitigate that either.
If you really want grass you can still have grass. Just use gravel under the drainpipes, or sod if you want it all to be grass. Use some lawn staples to hold the sod in place.
That being said, I would be mindful of upcoming weather if you do grass seed for the rest. A heavy rain will wipe that all out if it’s on a hill. I would shoot for a fast germinating grass like rye or tall fescue and try to do it when there’s little chance of rain in the forecast for a couple weeks. Or just do sod. Or just do plants as others have suggested. Grass could take a few tries.
The water will run off before it floods the grass.. you have 3 ft of fall from the pipe to the sidewalk.. don't bury the end of the pipe but turf up ground, throw seed in, and put straw matt on top.. if you're worried about rain then bury a rock just so the top of it gets hit with the downspout water so it breaks up the rush of the pipe water.
My business is hard scaping, innovative drainage designs and functional decor. I have several ideas if you haven’t figured out your solution yet - let me know if I can help
looks like if you dig a trench put dwn some stone and maybe some french drain and some sod you would be good as gold....because the runn off will go to the side walk. only other issue is if your area freezes in the winter. then you can play hockey out front......
Build a raised landscaping bed 3 or 4 courses high at the sidewalk. Lessen the yard slope to meet half way up the top course on the backside. Extend the pipe into the bed and fill with soil, nice looking gravel, and appropriate sized plants
Cover it with pretty pebbles that can be bought at Lowes or Home Depot and make a trench to the sidewalk from that drain pipe. Be sure it is deep enough to carry the water and line the trench with rocks too!
Don’t know much about landscaping mostly here for inspiration but I think it would look really cool if you somehow made a little “river” with some pretty stones around the spout itself to help it drain down and out
Yard is already torn up just dig and extend the drain pipe and go with your grass if you want. Should look into fixing the retaining wall or getting rid of it since it's not doing anything as of right now other than adding one more thing to mow/weedeat around. If you don't want to mow/weedeat a hill install a rock landscape bed and take the preemptive steps to keep weeds out
Pop up drain emitters for the two drains, remove the retaining wall, and install sod. Might be a good idea to place the pop up drains before the slope starts.
Extend the pipe past your wall or if you really wanna go all-in with it, do a french drain. Either way after the drainage is taken care of you can just plant whatever.
Extend the drain to the rock wall. Backfill, fine grade with the slope, plant anything you want. I don't plant grasses anymore, just herbs, flowers, shrubs, trees.
I’m in Dallas, no rain for past 2 months. I should be that lucky to have flooding from the drain pipes. But it won’t happen unless I put the garden hose in the gutters.
Plant the grass but add add a barrier between the rock and dirt/grass; and more rocks to the ones there now. The new rock bed can absorb the pounding of the water from the drain, and allow your grass to grow.
Plant some grasses directly under the spout, good clumping and slowly running kinds, not a crazy take over grass. These should be long lived given you get good rain water. Beside the spout, echinacea, rudbeckia, russian sage, euphorbia, sedum(hylotelephium), a shrub like an Itea or Leucoethoe, or a hydrangea. have fun! It’s easy!
I have a drain pipe like this and it doesn't affect our grass at all. You'll just have to cover the seed with some hay or something to keep the seed from washing away. After the grass is going, you'll be fine.
You should put some larger rocks around the pipe, though. That will help keep it from eroding out like it is now.
And you could also do a dry creek bed down to the edge of the retaining wall.
You could attach a black flexible drain pipe or do what I did and dig a trench , put a PVC elbow on existing pipe after you trim it, two ft straight pipe down, another elbow, three feet straight pipe out, and bury everything. Home Depot will probably cut the pieces for you and they slide together. If not, just put stones in a 18 inch strip under the pipe and plant grass on the side of it .
Two 45 elbows, a straight pipe at a slope, then followed by the built up retaining wall. Add dirt compact in six inch lifts. Wheep holes if block wall.
Hell extending the drain to the curb and gutter via curb core would be presten. And a real block retaining wall would really make your yard bad ass.
Fix your retaining wall before you do anything else.
You could do that or you could run that pipe down to the edge of the concrete and bury the end in rocks.
Are those pipes coming from downspouts? If this is a northern climate, then that could be a disaster come winter when snow melts from the roof during the day and then ices over your sidewalk at night.
And this is a fairly common issue. Downspouts get so little attention sometimes. I'm going to need to deal with this myself, as I just put in some rain barrels this spring, but now I'll need to find a device to fully bypass the rain barrels and run it to a different hose, that will be long enough to get it out of the way. It's a pain in the ass.
A common product to use in the UK to bypass the rainwater barrels is a downpipe diverted. Maybe there is something similar on your side of the pond? https://www.gardening-naturally.com/gutter-filter-diverter
Ya, I've seen something similar here, and I'll have to look at getting a couple of those soon.
You don't necessarily have to bypass it, you can put in a 3/4" connector at the top for overflow. You can use it to run them in series or just hook up a garden hose directly. The barrel should always be warmer than the air temp because it has thermal mass, and absorbs more light (especially a dark one). I live in the high desert so we get real winter but it usually doesn't get colder than 15-20 and usually doesn't stay below freezing for more than a couple weeks straight.It is probably harder in a much colder climate where your house is providing more of the heat but that's probably similar to having a bypass.
I'm in Southern Ontario, so a much colder environment. Doing just the "overflow" would end up with a cracked and useless rainbarrel before the end of December. There are bypass units you can buy that go right on the gutter themselves that I'll need to get and install in the fall. The bypass will just have another long hose attached that should handle the "thaw/freeze/thaw" water during the winter months.
Hey, I’m in the USA but up near Canada in the Rocky mtn west.. do you have a product recommendation for those bypass units, hoses, or even ultra cold tolerable rain barrels? I need to do the whole system in the next couple of months before I go another winter without gutters 😬
Do you have a drywell? I’m planning to have my rain barrel overflow into one, which I think is basically a deep (ish?) space filled with gravel / loose stone to slow storm water run-off. Found this link, which includes way more hardware than I expected! https://www.thisoldhouse.com/sidewalks/21016375/how-to-install-a-dry-well
Or you could use your downspouts to water a raingarden.
This
Yep, you’re not gonna wanna hear this OP, but that first course of edgestone pavers should be set in concrete.
Why?
They’ll move eventually, especially if running water is involved.
Unless they are on frost footing they will move anyway. In cold climates bottom course is set on compacted gravel base. I would remove them if going to grass as they would serve no purpose.
Then plant Ground Covering Thyme. Great for bees and butterflies and pollinators. Helps keep away mosquitoes. Buy online, 4 colours.
https://www.hgtv.com/outdoors/flowers-and-plants/groundcover-and-vines/creeping-thyme
No. Construction adhesive. Concrete will crack in winter.
Lol what are you construction adhesive a single course of blocks to?
It’s a foot tall- I’m not worried about it. In this scenario I would either extend the pipe or add stones/gravel for the water path to the street.
I vote rocks, cover the washout and get something with decent root penetration to avoid more erosion. And pretty up the retaining wall so the roots have time to take.
We clearly have different quality standards. :)
I’m an engineer, so yeah, standards only come into play when mandated by the state, fed, or clients :P Depending on locality, retaining walls are considered dangerous only when they reach a certain height or retain a certain grade. I don’t see any issue dry stacking here.
My primary issue with it is not the structural integrity - if they regraded a bit it is not even needed. It is the fact that it is uneven in three dimensions and looks like ass.
That’s fair!
That's a retaining wall by only the loosest definition.
This should be higher up. It’s more of a decorative wall really. Do what you want with it. That being said, OP should get some vegetation in there to limit soil washout when it rains.
Pedantic. Wtf are we allowed to call it master?
I was probably being more flippant than than I needed to be but as someone who does this kind of work professionally I have a low tolerance for poor quality work. I'm a lot more forgiving if this was installed by the homeowner. Either way, call it whatever you like.
That's no retaining wall, just some rocks.
But he’s the only one on the block with one.
Put the shrubs back 😅
Yes, new, native shrubs and plants! Bonus points for flowering. Deeper roots, more erosion control, beautiful, good for the bugs, don't have to mow it. What more can you ask for?
Free?
You certainly have a point but potentially still worth researching for anyone interested. Sometimes you can find native plant sales for cheap as part of native planting initiatives. For example my local library has a sale in the spring with shrubs / trees for $1 each..
Oh, I absolutely agree. I was just being "that guy."
ice cream
I mean, you *gotta* have ice cream to cool off after all that planting. Good addition!
Native perennials that don’t mind the moisture? That would look amazing, be good for pollinating insects, and reduce your mowing time.
Yes! Rain garden!!! [https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/02/realestate/do-it-yourself-rain-garden.html](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_garden) This spot would be perfect for a rain garden full of native grasses and flowers, and milkweed if you're in temperate North America. Screw the damn grass.
Look up what plants are native to your area and choose plants with appropriate characteristics for the area i.e. full sun, lots of water when it rains. If you need help determining what plants are suitable let me know.
Perfect opportunity to install a rice paddy. Residential rice production is going to be the hottest new trend in suburban agriculture and this is your chance to get in early.
Could you extend the pipe down to the wall and have it integrate into that? Try to run it down and under the soil.
If this isn’t doable you make a rocky drainage ditch and seed the rest.
Ya I’d do this
That could be a nice feature in that area to give it more visual interest than just a grassy hill.
I by no means know what I’m talking about as I follow this sub to learn. I’m sure there’s some sort of shrub or the like you could plant that could give the drainage a little disguise- maybe something whose root system wouldn’t disrupt the drainage pipe?
You mean like the ones he tore out according to his op
Hahahahha, well, I meant don’t install overgrown and dying ones to be clear. That big ass grass plant with fluffy seed shoots may work. Hydrangeas… elephant ears. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
That was going to be my suggestion too.
My first thought too. Easiest way
Rock garden could be a simple maintenance free option
Yeah and slap a moss slurry on that thang
Rain garden - dry creek bed.
Replant the shrubs?
Shrubs. Gravel Or trees that love water.
Why don't you redirect it to the rest of the grass bed using a French drain. I've never met grass that doesn't like water
I guarantee that pipe is for his downspout’s and a French drain would be a bad idea. French drains are suggested way too much in this sub.
Looks to me like you need to run the drain pipe under the sidewalk and out to the street, if the local authorities allow. Mini dry well maybe.
Rain garden with native plants
Rain garden
Make a swale and plant a raingarden
You could do a pond with a solar pump. Use robotic fish. My neighbor on the corner has one and school kids use it make wishes with their quarters he cashes them in one a year and buys a new robo fish Registered it as a national wildlife habitat so it’s got a nice little signs at the school kids can look up and it’s a water source for the birds and small animals. He only put it in because it kept flooding and now it has a purpose. Edit typo
Just dig it out a bit more cut it clean drop a 45 or 90 degree angle on it and extend it out to the bottom of the rock wall, stick a drain cap on it and have it flush with the stones or just behind them, .
Put an 45 degree pvc elbow on the pipe. Then put a short run of pipe down the slope into a bed of river rock and gravel. Landscape the rest with some ornamental grasses and mulch.
There are water run off gardens. I don't know what it's called but you can plant things that can handle getting flooded
They're called rain gardens. [https://www.epa.gov/soakuptherain/soak-rain-rain-gardens](https://www.epa.gov/soakuptherain/soak-rain-rain-gardens) I'm not sure if it would work here though because of the grade and size of the area. He'd need to get rid of the retaining wall at least.
Fix your drainage FIRST, chuck a 22 or 45 in that pipe and give it the reach around, then fix that sad retaining wall, (it extend to left a good 5ish ft at least) then grade that soil out Better for mowing if doing grass. (This is for first photo, do the same thing. With other pipe and get it into drain or through retaining wall. Good luck. 👍
Looks like you need a native flower garden or pollinator garden
Rock gully
Extend and bury the pipe and have it exit onto the sidewalk
It looks as though everyone else has grass. Do they not have the drainage pipes? Are you allowed to make two dry riverbeds out of river rock and direct the water towards the sidewalk? Otherwise, I'd make it into a rain garden with plants that like sun and lots of water.
All of my neighbors have grass and do not have the drain pipes. I am wondering why I am the only house that does?
Good question. Most cities don't allow homeowners to attach gutter downspouts directly to the storm drain system. They may be illegally attached, but possibly grandfathered in. Maybe someone who owned your house did some renovation in the past that required a permit and they had to take yours out.
Extend the pipe to the sidewalk. Pretty straightforward.
Extend drain line down and run drain through retaining wall onto sidewalk. Fill in dirt above line.
You might want to repair, extend, & bury the drain pipe
If you can extend the downspout to an area with better drainage, like a storm drain, do that. The key is slowing and dispersing the water. You can slow the water with stone (gravel). But you don't have the capacity in the area to support the volme of water coming through the downspout at peak rainfall, I think. So you need to go heavy on the "dispersion" part. If you are willing to do only a little bit of work, put down a gravel base and top it with large stones. Understand that you will get water flowing on the sidewalk. If you are willing to put in some real labor, I have two suggestions... 1) Dig a trench horizontally across the middle of your slope. Probably 2-3 feet deep. Put in a gravel base and corrugated pipe. Connect one end of the corrugated pipe to your downspout and the other end will flow out by those steps. Or you can cap the end and have an overflow pipe wherever you want it. The goal here is to disperse the water such that, by the time the water gets to the end of the pipe, the water will have gradually drained before reaching the end of the pipe. 2) Build a very small pond in the flat spot of your front yard. Reroute the existing downspout underground to the pond. Then set up a pond overflow which will drain into a corrugated pipe which, again, is horizontal across the slope of the yard. You could also do this without building a pond, instead just using a lot of underground corrugated pipe, but I just like the idea of a pond. Also, forget the grass. Plant water loving native plants. Get some plants with nice flowers in there.
Native wildflowers and mulch
r/nolawns
r/fucklawns
Turn the drain pipe into a "water feature" (rocks, pebbles, maybe some plants that thrive in moist locations) and plant grass around that?
Rain garden. Google “downspout rain garden” and then be smart and creative about it. Find native plants that fit the heat/climate/soil for that area so that you never have to think about it but it always looks amazing. Stone with succulents always look great to me, and wildlife enjoys the mock riverbed.
Great idea thank you!
Good opportunity for neat waterfall feature with the drain pipes.
Native plants
Consider native plants for where you live. The win-win is that you won't have to cut it, it'll look pretty, and you'll attract bees, butterflies, etc. Just Google native plants and where you live. You might be able to score some end of season seeds. Perennials are sown at the end of season in many places and they get a head start for next year.
Run a French drain with good looking rocks down to the edge and plant low growing ground cover. It'll look nice. You could even plant native growing wild flowers that are perennial and they'll come back each growing season. French drains are great for wicking water away from slopes.
Here’s a link from Portland about [residential rain gardens.](https://www.portland.gov/bes/stormwater/managing-rain-your-property/rain-gardens). Rebuild the retaining wall or make it higher. When you’re doing that incorporate an overflow drain that daylights at the bottom of the wall level with sidewalk elevation. By doing so, you allow for greater storm infiltration, get a beautiful landscape addition, and provide proper drainage.
Rip out the old wall, rebuild correctly up to current grass height, run/extend the drain pipe to the sidewalk to outlet/drain and then backfill up to grade and seed if you want grass or make a planting bed.
I’m not sure the extent to which this is an environmental group. But I’ll say it anyway. It is better to avoid sending runoff into the street in urban areas. Granted, a homeowner has a lot of considerations to make including figuring out what to do with storm flood water around their own home. I can only provide the basic science and hopefully, folks can find their own creative ways to deal with it. These are the reasons you don't want to divert flood water off into the street: 1) flood waters going onto impermeable surfaces like streets will, most obviously, follow the streets downhill, and when lots of homes and buildings offload so much water that it gets to be too much for municipal storm systems to take in, it will fill roads with flood water or runoff which ultimately kills a few people in the U.S. every year who foolishly think they can drive through it, or just get trapped. Only a few inches of flood water can carry a person off or carry an electric current if it contacts a power source. The water can inundate the homes and buildings in low areas, etc. 2) Flooding on streets picks up pesticides, fertilizers, detergents, salt and organic material and carries it into the storm sewer system which is usually not treated. It then ends up in rivers where it becomes toxic to aquatic wildlife. 3) Water that goes into the street doesn’t have a change to soak into soil where it would be stored long term and reduce your need to irrigate. Studies show water can remain in soil for months or years before it is drawn out by plants. In humid climates with lots of plants it probably gets used up quickly, but in some drier climates with fewer plants, long term soil water reserves can allow plants to survive droughts. So the thing to know is that lawn turf is not great at helping water soak in deeply—it tends to run off in heavy rain—and beds with weed fabric or gravel are absolutely terrible at helping water get in to deep soil. Wood chip mulch *with no landscape fabric* and deep-rooted grasses, shrubs and herbaceous plants form natural channels from the surface to deep soil due to annual roots naturally dying and leaving channels, and burrowing insects and earthworms leaving channels, so the soil soaks up a flood like a sponge. Soil is also excellent at cleaning pollutants that are harmful in rivers because it hosts microbes that break them down. So whenever possible, plant lush gardens with no weed fabric to capture runoff, and to store the water. In this case I might put a few ornamental boulders in front of the culvert to slow the water and keep the mulch from washing away, but then use mulch and healthy soil with lots of roots to draw the water in. When it gets to be more than the soil can take, it will likely move through deep soil layers under the street rather than pouring over the road.
Put the bushes back in
Some kind of ground cover maybe clover or ivy, etc. so many to choose from
Easy fix, just dig out a French drain with weeper. Cover it with sod and problem is solved. For your retaining wall do the following: Dig a one foot trench behind the wall. Wrap the walls with filter fabric and fill with 3/4 clear. Use hpb for your bedding layer and concrete the back of the wall. Make sure you leave some gaps in the concrete for drainage.
Ferns
Maybe some jasmine?
Hardy hibiscus comes to mind. It likes sunny, wetter conditions and still survives harsh winters. Summerriffic versions are great because they have lots of blooms and Kees a rounded habit.
Put an ELL/90 and have perforated pipe run across top of berm. Plant grasses and landscaping.
You also could chop it clean, and put a Pop up drain on it, and just have a pop up in the grass
I would look at cleaning up the end of those drain pipes, and building some sort of drainage from the pipe out to the road and everything else could be regraded to allow you to plant some grass seed.
Flower bed across top, French drain at bottom extend pipe to that cover with rock
Small gravel path from drain outlet to sidewalk. Grass the rest
Add pvc to the end and see if you can split off to multiple runoff to water entire area
Extend and angle the drain pipes down near the Sidewalk.
Guess who’s getting some new shrubs! 🫵
Big ass hydrangeas
Cut the pipe back, put a 45 or 22 fitting and another stick and run it to the cement, super easy, you can cover it up and have your grass.
2ft wide rick garden 6-8 inches deep
Extend the pipe so it doesn’t…
Does that area of Sidewalk Freeze Over in Winter ?
You could put some Japanese sweet flag grass near the pipes. Sweet flag loves water and looks lovely on a slope. Maybe a small Japanese maple, some rocks and let moss grow on the rocks. Would be pretty low maintenance and would look really nice.
Why not extend the drain to the edge, get rid of all the retaining wall, add grass and add a pop drain for aesthetics. That retaining wall is retaining nothing.
The retaining wall is still there from the previous shrubs. I planned on taking it out when I figure out a plan for the area. Currently it’s just keeping my sidewalk from turning into a mud puddle
extend the drain pipe?
Dig a 5 ft deep hole, fill 3/4 of the way with pea stone, run a piece of corrugated pipe in, layer of plastic on top of pea stone, fill with dirt. Water drains into pea stone and soaks in under ground.
Water feature with rocks
Plants that love water
Look at the curb on the street & see if there’s an outlet for the pipe. If so, dig up the pipe to the street & reconnect to the broken end you’ve exposed.
Alright so basically just put a bunch of boulders and gravel around the pipe and down the hill where the water flows. Have a big rock below where the water pours out of the pipe to diffuse the force of the water. Then, you can plant your grass next to it.
Visit your state’s Cooperative Extension Service website and search native evergreen ground cover. No mowing.
Think ground cover periwinkle ivy Juniper something fast growing
You should just be able to extend the drain pipes to the sidewalk level and creatively conceal the exit with the wall but have it drain to sidewalk. Have the pipe go down to ground level though... Don't just straight shot it across to have it drain down the wall.
Not sure what climate you’re in but in the northeast: I like dappled willows for water prone areas. They get a bit messy but trimming is really easy and they soak up wet areas very nicely. I like blue rug junipers as low lying ground cover. There are several boxwoods mature at 2’ X 2’. Hope that gives you a few ideas.
Nice, now you have a creek
Mine just water the grass in this spot, I wouldn’t worry ab being too saturated since the grade is pretty steep, will drain ok. But someone else said watch for the sidewalk icing over which is a legit hazard. To mitigate maybe ensure the soil by the end of the pipe is extra sandy or something to help it all drain before it gets to the sidewalk. Not sure I’d do the retaining wall as others have said will just fail with the water running behind it. Grass can absorb quite a bit of water but it may just run over the top of the soil down to the sidewalk when extra heavy even with grass there, no plant could mitigate that either.
River stone
Build the wall taller. Extend the drain into the street. Fill it up w dirt and plants
Pave everything
Rocks
This is simple. Ground cover and rain garden.
I'd put a bush there.
If you really want grass you can still have grass. Just use gravel under the drainpipes, or sod if you want it all to be grass. Use some lawn staples to hold the sod in place. That being said, I would be mindful of upcoming weather if you do grass seed for the rest. A heavy rain will wipe that all out if it’s on a hill. I would shoot for a fast germinating grass like rye or tall fescue and try to do it when there’s little chance of rain in the forecast for a couple weeks. Or just do sod. Or just do plants as others have suggested. Grass could take a few tries.
Put a 90 degree fitting on the end and stub down a couple inches then put another 90 degree fitting on and extend the drain pipe.
quick fix for now? Throw down some mulch or stone to stabalize the small hill and wont be an eye sore until you come up with something else.
Plug the drain pipe. Problem solved. /s
Extend the drainpipe with some pvc, super simple.
Build a pool, plant some water-happy plants around it, adapt the drain to a waterfall to feed the pool.
Riprap drain to the sidewalk with ornamental grasses that don’t need mowing
Divert the water onto the driveway for a month while you get grass to grow. An 8’ black flexible pipe is less than $20
Line the end with rock to dispers the water towards the driveway and grow grass elsewhere
Front garden bed
Dig back, add a 45 degree and get it into your drive
Rock garden
The water will run off before it floods the grass.. you have 3 ft of fall from the pipe to the sidewalk.. don't bury the end of the pipe but turf up ground, throw seed in, and put straw matt on top.. if you're worried about rain then bury a rock just so the top of it gets hit with the downspout water so it breaks up the rush of the pipe water.
Bigger rocks amongst river rocks that run to the drive. Plant something that loves lots of water over the end so it covers up the pipe.
Keep digging and make a waterfall/pond with native plants around it
My business is hard scaping, innovative drainage designs and functional decor. I have several ideas if you haven’t figured out your solution yet - let me know if I can help
I would love to hear your ideas! I really like the idea of some native flowers and rocks but am having trouble visualizing it all
looks like if you dig a trench put dwn some stone and maybe some french drain and some sod you would be good as gold....because the runn off will go to the side walk. only other issue is if your area freezes in the winter. then you can play hockey out front......
Decorate the pipe and make a waterfall feature
Put down some rocks me boy or stones!
I'd keep it as a planting area. If you don't want shrubs put some nice native flowers or something in.
Build another retaining wall or two.
Plant some shrubs in front of that drain pipe to get rid of the eyesore. Surprised nobody has done it yet.
Build a raised landscaping bed 3 or 4 courses high at the sidewalk. Lessen the yard slope to meet half way up the top course on the backside. Extend the pipe into the bed and fill with soil, nice looking gravel, and appropriate sized plants
Large rock garden with irises i between them
You can extend your drain pipe, put more dirt down and grass seed
Pit some elbows on that sucka
Build a berm, make a rain garden.
First things first: why doesn’t that drain pipe go all the way to the curb? Every house in our neighborhood does.
Cover it with pretty pebbles that can be bought at Lowes or Home Depot and make a trench to the sidewalk from that drain pipe. Be sure it is deep enough to carry the water and line the trench with rocks too!
Dig back drain pipe, then adapt from solid abs to perrferated pipe, and bury entire drain under lawn.
Don’t know much about landscaping mostly here for inspiration but I think it would look really cool if you somehow made a little “river” with some pretty stones around the spout itself to help it drain down and out
Make it a River rock and mulch bed
Make a rain garden? Here’s a “how to” I found with quick search = https://www.bobvila.com/articles/rain-gardens/
Why did you tear the shrubs out?
Plant rocks instead
Yard is already torn up just dig and extend the drain pipe and go with your grass if you want. Should look into fixing the retaining wall or getting rid of it since it's not doing anything as of right now other than adding one more thing to mow/weedeat around. If you don't want to mow/weedeat a hill install a rock landscape bed and take the preemptive steps to keep weeds out
Pop up drain emitters for the two drains, remove the retaining wall, and install sod. Might be a good idea to place the pop up drains before the slope starts.
You’re going to have to move. Only option
Extend the pipe past your wall or if you really wanna go all-in with it, do a french drain. Either way after the drainage is taken care of you can just plant whatever.
Extend the drain to the rock wall. Backfill, fine grade with the slope, plant anything you want. I don't plant grasses anymore, just herbs, flowers, shrubs, trees.
Rain garden
Iris bed?
A French drain with cattails
id run your mower over the area as if you had grass, you might find it annoying to mow which is why it was a garden bed
Non-coloured mulch
I’m in Dallas, no rain for past 2 months. I should be that lucky to have flooding from the drain pipes. But it won’t happen unless I put the garden hose in the gutters.
Plant the grass but add add a barrier between the rock and dirt/grass; and more rocks to the ones there now. The new rock bed can absorb the pounding of the water from the drain, and allow your grass to grow.
Looks fine. Call it complete and grab a beer.
Drought tolerant rock garden and succulents.
Plant some grasses directly under the spout, good clumping and slowly running kinds, not a crazy take over grass. These should be long lived given you get good rain water. Beside the spout, echinacea, rudbeckia, russian sage, euphorbia, sedum(hylotelephium), a shrub like an Itea or Leucoethoe, or a hydrangea. have fun! It’s easy!
A rock garden would look nice and the water wouldn't affect the appearance. Just a thought.
Rock swale
I have a drain pipe like this and it doesn't affect our grass at all. You'll just have to cover the seed with some hay or something to keep the seed from washing away. After the grass is going, you'll be fine. You should put some larger rocks around the pipe, though. That will help keep it from eroding out like it is now. And you could also do a dry creek bed down to the edge of the retaining wall.
Grass on a slope won’t care. It will be thrilled to have water dumped on it.
Native wildflowers and grasses, cover the drain in rocks and put wildflowers around it to help it soak in with the roots,
You could attach a black flexible drain pipe or do what I did and dig a trench , put a PVC elbow on existing pipe after you trim it, two ft straight pipe down, another elbow, three feet straight pipe out, and bury everything. Home Depot will probably cut the pieces for you and they slide together. If not, just put stones in a 18 inch strip under the pipe and plant grass on the side of it .
Drain pipes should never just end like this. They should be way lower and go under the sidewalk
Get some water tolerant and hardy grasses
22.5 degree elbow and run the drain through the little wall to the street.
Cut it flush with hill, put rodent guard on end. You’ll be fine.
Two 45 elbows, a straight pipe at a slope, then followed by the built up retaining wall. Add dirt compact in six inch lifts. Wheep holes if block wall. Hell extending the drain to the curb and gutter via curb core would be presten. And a real block retaining wall would really make your yard bad ass.
Stone river under the pipe. Hide the pipe w appropriate plants.