A couple months after the patio went in, we did extend the drain pipe on the right side of the house through the front yard. Yes, through the yard. We spent quite some time digging through the compacted clay while maintaining a constant slope in order for the runoff water to actually exit the lot. The right side of the front yard ends on a hill, so we dug until we punched through the side of the hill.
Once punched through, we dug a shallow trench to guide the pipe down the slope and buried it with the end butting against the sidewalk.
Putting in that twenty feet or so of pipe wore us out. The ground was extremely hard and we couldn't fathom digging on the other side of the house in order to finish the drainage task. We called the one-sided exit good enough and left it at that. Of course, we promised ourselves to come back after the following wet season to properly finish the job.
2011 came and went with little thought put to the drainage. We were still hung up on the daunting task of digging through that awful clay and the potential pvc maze of the sprinkler system. Neither of us felt very motivated.
Now that we're in the spring of 2012 and the wet season was minimal but enough, I felt the opportunity was here to dig through the clay to get some tasks done. My main motivator was a sand cherry shrub that desperately needed to be planted. I purchased a pair last year and planned their locations, knowing one needed to go on the left side of the house where that drainage pipe abruptly ended. After procrastinating by installing flower bed liner on the right side of the house and successfully staking through the pvc pipe that feeds the drip lines in the front yard (a story for another time), I was ready to do some real damage.
With shovel in hand, I longingly gazed upon the bright green grass that was filling in so nicely. I have to admit that a partial reason for putting off installing that drain pipe was that I simply did not want to muss up the yard on the left side. When we first moved in, all the grass was dead (see image below) and it was finally looking like a lawn again.
But I knew I couldn't let that hold us back from actually completing the drainage job. So, yesterday we strung a line and I cut out a length of sod stretching from one corner of the yard to the other. I was actually quite surprised that the sod stayed intact and lifted cleanly - it was a good motivator to keep going. Ced and I took turns shoveling out semi-soft clay and guzzling fluids. By early afternoon we were able to test fit the pipe, make minor adjustments to the slope of our trench, and install the thing for good.
We gently filled the trough with clay and fit the sod back in place. We were both quite pleased by the cleanliness of the whole ordeal. Although the yard was obviously disturbed, the end product is much better than the torn up and muddy patch of grass I anticipated.
It was nice to finally cross a large task off the to-do list that has been hovering over us for a year and some change now. Wet season - we are ready!
