You've got me fantasizing, Rosie! The virus is sure crazy bad, but the fantasies are totally delightful!

Woo hoo! Major thanks to you guys! I had the landscaper come in, pull the border, and put in a botannical trench filled with gravel and mulch. We had major rain last night, and while I have puddles all over my lawn, there are none in the bed that formerly held about 2"! You all are AWESOME!!!

Now you will be needing some water for those blooms come summer

You'll be absolutely right about that, Rosie! But for right now, my irrigation system is definitely shut down, and daylilies don't mind being pretty darn damp!

I love the saying "I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid ENOUGH?"

When I think about drainage, I look for solutions that will manage non-stop monsoons for months at a time.

But a solution that's good enough IS good enough!

And the "best" engineering is what gets the done with minimum cost and resources. Now instead of expending huge amounts of labor and effort to solve a bugger problem than it was, you can spend all that on MORE features and plants!

Congratulations! Especially for keeping a sense of proportion and seeking the most practical solution.

It sounds like your review for that contractor could be a good one after all! Along the lines of "when problems were discovered later, he DID make it right."

If you happen to recall, a few months from now ... might you post an "after" picture of how great it looks?

(I'm relishing my mental image of the REST of your yard under 2-3 feet of water, with waves and seagulls and a fishing trawler cruising by, but THAT BED is high and dry!)

As soon as the rain quits, I will post an after picture. Supposed to be decent tomorrow, but it's still raining tonight. After seeing it drain even during the rain today, though, I know it'll be fine! And yes, I'll post a good review for the landscaper as he did everything I suggested immediately and even wrote today to ask how the bed was doing. Most importantly, it's you guys I have a great recommendation for!! Mind you, in West Texas, we don't expect monsoons and seagulls, but whatever happens happens now!

We are glad to help and now you have a solution for someone else with personal experience to back it up. Those type trenches worked for me and provided a decent "edging" cosmetically too..not always wanting rocks or blocks and raised beds in developed areas wih trees. . I used what we call Chapel Hill gravel. Tiny smooh pea gravel and it stayed put.

I really don't think you will leave that bed alone..not with all the good digging opportunities you have now and that possible expqnsion space near and around it...I see it getting expanded and so plan the planting choices with that in mind ; don't think of it as the front of the garden with the shrubbery behind, but rather the middle 😊..and of course...don't disturb the trench as you expand.

Nope, Rosie, this bed is done. Mind you, I have visions for raised beds all over that lawn, but I won't go through the trouble this one caused again! While the bed drains fine now, the lawn itself sure puddles and doesn't drain.

I know better now, and I'll sure tell anyone about this experience who has clay soil and occasional rains, I don't know exactly what kind of gravel he put at the bottom of the trench, but it was on the small side. Oh, the joy of clay....

You know we have red clay.... And then maybe a foot and a half down...this horrible grey stuff...oh it is impossible to dig up or out.

Yuck! But I must say, mine is just a horrible brown clay..impossible for me to dig unless I water it well. And then it's horribly gooey. No fun no matter what color!

I keep thinking that I should make a pot!

Barbalee said:Nope, I sure didn't tell him what to do, Rosie. I told him I wanted a curved flower bed in front of the shrubs and even what I wanted to plant in it. I suggested pulling out 12" of clay and re-filling it with topsoil and compost + a bit of sand since daylilies like drainage. What's almost funny is that I told him to mix the sand, and he said that no, he thought he should use a bed of sand. I told him I'd never heard of doing it that way, but it was up to him to find the best way. He went to another landscaper to ask how the sand should be used to improve drainage and came back saying he'd been told to mix the sand. This is definitely not my fault. The only part that was my fault is that I told him the quantity of compost/topsoil/sand to mix (after asking about the mix I was had read about at the forum). The quantity I suggested wasn't enough, but he even added to it on his own dime.
Below is a picture from before he added topsoil to it.



I'm sure sorry about your well water cleaning issue!!

i dont understand this photo. The half of your patio (concrete area?) that is nearest the house is wet, the other half is dry? does the patio drain toward your planting area?

That is the patio, and no, it doesn't drain toward the planting area. The bed is the portion between the shrubs and the lawn. But since this photo, the landscaper has pulled the border that is shown and dug a botannical trench between the bed and the lawn. He also added several bags of compost to build up the bed. The trench was filled with gravel and mulch. We had another hard rain last night, and now I'm in good shape. The bed is draining! The rain is slated to stop tonight, so I'll be sending new photos in the morning. The bed now has a lot of plants and will be very wet, but it won't be puddling.

Thanks for asking!

Ah, the rain drain was successful. It still shows some paths of drainage, so there are a few places I need to add more compost to, but I'll just need to leave "drainage ditches" and plant around them. That's not a problem. The recently planted daylilies are undergoing shock, but I trust that they will prevail!! Once again, I sure appreciate all of you!


thanks to Jean's recommendation, I have ordered a rain barrel to gather rain from the "roof drip" problem I have next to the patio. That sure can't hurt a thing though rain will cease here all too soon!

That is a great idea.
We have our gutters running to a pond...duh!! Before that we used to BUY water when the pond got low...good potable water..... Who didn't have the ole brain engaged?? I guess me!!

Look who's talkin'! Water running downhill?? Whodathunkit?

maybe it's the photo? but the daylilies you planted look super close together. I usually space mine about 18inches to 2 ft apart. If you want the clumps to get bigger than that, 30 inches or 3ft is ideal.
depends on the kind, miniatures or the ones that get really large?

They aren't as close as they look. I went for 12" as they're grouped together by variety and I feel sure I'll need to cull some of them. They're named varieties and were given to me as leftovers from a sale day. I know little about the varieties and need to do some research asap, of course. I do want them close enough to choke out weeds down the road, but for now, I thought 12" would give them plenty of room to establish themselves before losing their brothers! In general, though, I sure agree with you!

The deer eat daylily ...like candy.
I am jealous.