This short video explains the mini swale I dug into our yard. There’s a slight slope in the yard away from the house and down to the street. The water from the roof used to just splash onto the driveway or sidewalk and then rush down the concrete paths to the street… wasted. I noticed that both the sidewalk and the driveway have a slight grade to the right or left, directing water to one side and then down to the street. I dug a trench along that side of the driveway and filled it in with mulch. That trench is connected to the main swale. The main swale is 2.5′ wide 2.5′ deep and maybe 20′ long and actually runs from the driveway to the sidewalk. After the big swale was dug we called the local tree trimming service and asked if they’d dump a truckload of mulch in our driveway for us. I filled the swale in with over 4 cubic yards of mulch. Our swale also doubles as a nice path through the front of our yard. Now when water runs off the roof and down the driveway or sidewalk, it runs off into the swale instead of out into the street. Barely any of our roof water is lost to the streets now.

It’s hard to tell in the video but the swale and the mulch filled trenches along the driveway and sidewalk are actually slightly below the level of the concrete paths. That’s to make sure the water pours off the paths and into the mulch to soak deep into the ground.