# Lawn Gravel Trench



## stacik84 (Feb 27, 2018)

Hi All,

Since I have some water runoff coming from the side of the house, it washed away most of the grass seeds that I planted last fall. I am currently overseeding now and leveling off the soil that has been washed away lately from the rain in the Boston area.

I dug up about 4" of soil and plan on installing a weed fabric, small gravel as a base layer, then topping it off with 1-3" river rock. To keep the rocks in place, I will also install steel edging; https://www.homedepot.com/p/COL-MET-...-814/100327736

Is there anything else I should thinking about? Should I try to kill off any weeds prior to installation?...using Glyphosate, or would the weed fabric be sufficient?

Thanks in advance!


----------



## JWAY (Oct 16, 2018)

stacik84 said:


> Hi All,
> 
> Since I have some water runoff coming from the side of the house, it washed away most of the grass seeds that I planted last fall. I am currently overseeding now and leveling off the soil that has been washed away lately from the rain in the Boston area.
> 
> ...


Hard to tell from the pics which way the lawn slopes from left to right. 
I'm assuming your house is on the left side of the picture...did the water coming off the house wash the seed away by moving all the way across your yard towards the building on the right? If so you'll need a deeper trench to handle that much water. If the water from your house just collected and sat where you have the trench now you should be OK with the plan you have now but it doesn't hurt to trench deeper just in case. It's a pain to have to dig it out and do it again.

If you can find it I suggest using a rubber liner to for the bottom of the trench. Landscape fabric will degrade eventually. Also wouldn't use small gravel in the bottom because it will silt up faster. 1" to 2" rock all the way is your best bet.


----------



## stacik84 (Feb 27, 2018)

JWAY said:


> stacik84 said:
> 
> 
> > Hi All,
> ...


Thanks Jway! Yes, water from the left washed away the seeds, which carried it away to the right, close to the shed. All the rain that we've been getting lately (Boston), has just pooled within the trench. No excess water has ruined the newly seeded area. Looks much better!

I am just curious on what kind of rubber liner you recommend? Would it be perforated? I need some draining in there


----------



## JWAY (Oct 16, 2018)

The purpose of the solid rubber liner would be to move the water quickly to wherever it eventually drains to. 
However if you haven't seen any water after a hard rain overflowing the trench at it's current depth you could be OK without a rubber liner.
But when you put rocks in the trench they will take up a lot of volume compared to an open trench like in your picture. So drainage capacity and rate will be less. Probably need a deeper trench to account for that.
If you're going with rocks in a trench you can line the bottom with a non woven geotextile fabric that allows water to pass thru much better than landscape fabric.
https://www.justliners.com/pondgardepdm.htm
https://www.ads-pipe.com/products/geosynthetics/non-woven-geotextiles


----------

