Sustainable Landscaping for Dummies by Owen E. Dell

Author:Owen E. Dell [Dell, Owen E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: House & Home, Outdoor & Recreational Areas
ISBN: 9780470411490
Publisher: For Dummies
Published: 2009-02-09T05:00:00+00:00

Making the Grade: Doing Your Earthwork

One of the most important elements of your sustainable landscape is the underlying earth. How you grade your property determines how long water remains on the land; how it travels across the surface; and whether it soaks usefully into the ground or runs off to cause erosion, flooding, and pollution. Grading keeps your house safe from flooding, creates usable areas, and sculpts dull terrain into elegant sensual forms.

You grade your land only once — and you have to do it properly, because you can’t change it after the plants are in. For that reason, understanding how grading works is important. I walk you through the details of grading and drainage in Chapter 8. And see how to create grading and drainage plans in Chapter 6.

Grading the ground sustainably

The sustainable approach to grading is to do as little as possible (because soil is damaged by moving it around) and to have specific reasons to grade, such as conserving water on site, preventing erosion, or keeping the house from flooding. Here are some basic grading principles:

Check all existing grades with a sighting level or have the area surveyed; then plan a grading strategy to accomplish your objectives.

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