We were having a problem with our landscape that many people have. During a really heavy rain, a downpour, the rain water was coming rushing off the roof so fast that it was shooting right over the gutters and onto the landscape and washing the mulch right out of the bed on to the sidewalk and driveway.
For us this is an issue because we have a ranch home which means that we have a lot more roof area than say a two story home of the same number of square feet. That big roof collects all of that water and directs it to the gutters and downspouts but when the rain is really heavy, the gutters can not carry the water away fast enough and the gutters over flow causing the issue of mulch getting washed out of the beds.
After every heavy rainfall there would be a big mess on the sidewalk and the driveway. We had this happening in two different places in our landscape.
The solution? Remove a section of mulch and replace the mulch with decorative stones from 2″ to 3″ in size. Of course these stones are not going to float away when they get hit with that amount of rain water. They stay put and the rest of the mulch in the beds also stays put.
On top of that it creates a very attractive look in the landscape by breaking up the monotony of all mulch simply by adding two small areas of directive stone.
Questions, comments, mean things to say? Post them below and I will respond.
Until then, by any and all means stay inspired!
I have a lace capped hydrangea that grows on old wood. One year the cold got it but it survived. There were about 3-4 stems left. This year the landscapers cut the stems now I have a very small plant left. What will happen next? Is there anything I can do to help it?
I used to live on 10 are farm but I now live in a condo community and they are very strict about what we can do in our small yards. I have been following you forr years and still enjoy your videos,
Thanks Mikw
Jo,
Nothing to do, just let it grow out and tell them not to prune it, you’ll take care of it.
I have do have that problem, thank you for solving it. But I have another problem I hope you can help with. We have a cape cod house with a flower bed on either side of the front door. The beds are higher than the sidewalk. Which leads to the problem of mulch and dirt sliding down onto the sidewalk. Should I lower the flower beds or trench it like you showed in one of your videos? We live in PA, it’s very hilly in the area so we have water run off too
Beth,
You can dig an edge but that can be a bit dangerous for people walking along the walk. Or build some kind of a border to retain the mulch in the bed. Stones, bricks, plastic edging.
There is no downspout in the picture!
Jim,
The water isn’t coming from a downspout, there are two places where the gutters overflow because they cannot handle periods of really heavy rain. The mulch no longer washes out onto the sidewalk.
Hi Mike,
I love your videos! I have a couple Japanese trees, one is beautiful with a large trunk, approximately 15 years old, I trim it but very little, now that I saw your videos I will trim it a little more! I have another one the same age but for some reason half of it died years ago and it doesn’t get big, only about a foot high, After watching your video I will trim it!
Thank you very much, you and your family have great holidays! William