How to Protect Landscapes from Heavy Rains

You put a lot of time and careful thought into your landscaping design. You trim, you weed, you work in the sun and the cold to get everything looking perfect. That’s why it’s so distressing when heavy rain comes along and destroys all that hard work in mere moments. Don’t end up cleaning up a big mess later when you can start protecting your landscaping from heavy rain right now and keep your yard safe before bad weather hits.

Protecting Your Lawn from Heavy Rain

Some of the best ways to help protect your lawn from heavy rain include:

• Creating Proper Runoff

One of the easiest ways to help protect your garden from heavy rain is to ensure that it has a proper runoff to prevent water from pooling up in the middle. Without having proper runoff around the base of the garden, water can soak into the soil and drown the plants. This can easily be prevented by creating a sloped runoff that guides water away from the garden.

• Add Stakes

If you're worried about high winds that may damage or uproot plants, bury stakes in the ground about 3 inches deep and tie your plants to these stakes. This will help keep them rooted in the face of high winds and heavy rain. Giving plants an anchor will help them withstand the ravages of the storm.

• Providing Plant Coverage

Something as simple as choosing the right location for a garden can go a long way in protecting plants from heavy rain. If you live in an area that frequently deals with heavy rain, try creating a temporary shelter by covering your plants with a large tarp. As long as the tarp is removed once the storm passes, it should prove beneficial in keeping the plants safe and healthy.

• Be Proactive With Landscape Maintenance

While you can’t control the weather, there are steps you can take to reduce the amount of damage inflicted on your landscape during the next surprise storm. If you haven’t already, it’s important that you create a maintenance routine for your landscape. During this time, you can inspect your landscape and eliminate potential problems before they even happen.

• Building a Rain Garden

Building a rain garden is another great way to help protect your lawn because it is specifically designed to capture and retain excess water for a short period of time. Water that is captured by the rain garden will slowly soak into the soil and will be absorbed by the gardens plants. When building a rain garden, it is important to choose plants that enjoy a slightly wetter environment, such as blue-flag iris.

Final Thoughts

Don’t let heavy rains come along and destroy your pretty landscaped areas. Take the steps to keep your landscaping safer against the weather, and try to design a plan that will stand up to heavy rains to save yourself a lot of headaches. When your yard can weather the storm, you’ll have a piece of property that everyone else in the neighborhood envies.