My attempt to fix a soggy lawn with a kiddie pool actually worked

So my backyard in Portland has this one spot that's always a muddy mess, right where the downspout empties. After three straight weekends of trying to dig a French drain and just making a bigger hole, I got desperate. I had an old plastic kiddie pool from my niece's visit, the kind with the fish print on the bottom. I cut the bottom out of it, buried it about a foot down in the soggiest part, filled it with gravel, and put the dirt and grass back on top. It sounds completely stupid, I know. But we got our first big rain since then, and that spot is bone dry. The pool acts like a little holding tank that lets the water sink in slow instead of just sitting. Has anyone else tried a weird hack like this for drainage, or did I just get lucky?

3 comments

3 Comments

lee84714d ago

Honestly that's genius, you basically built a mini dry well for free.

piper_kim13d ago

My neighbor's sump pump failed last year, and his basement turned into a kiddie pool.

karen_sanchez4914d ago

Thanks lee847, but it was more like a desperate attempt to stop my basement from flooding. I'm just glad it sort of worked.