Gutter drainage ideas for front of house

10 years ago

Hi, I'd appreciate any ideas I can get to deal with gutter drainage.

Bit by bit I've been working on the front yard this summer and one of the first things I did was to tear out the front walk and replace it with a larger, more inviting walk. In the first picture below you can somewhat see the outline of the old walkway, it was not very nice and also water from the gutter caused it to crack. I replaced it and had a trench grate installed in the new walkway.

The gutter is in an odd location along the driveway and can't be rerouted anywhere else. A small amount of rain will wash away anything loose so I laid down some river rock as a dry creek to deal with water drainage, which isn't too much in Colorado.

I'm not crazy about what I've done - the straight lines make it look bad, unnatural. I bought an 'InvisaFlow' downspout extension that I put under the rocks to take water away from the house but it looks bad too.

Does anybody have an idea to improve this? Maybe it's too much or not the right type of rock? How about another material?

A bit more info; I am planting a small tree and three shrubs that will be in the area along where I have the rocks. Not planning to stay at this house long so less expensive is best.

Thanks in advance for any ideas or pointers!

Outline of old walkway and awkward gutter location:
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Small rain washes away loose material
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Rocks look strange
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Buried downspout didn't turn out as great as I expected.
Planning to plant a tree close to this edge and three shrubs in this area too.
{{gwi:42602}}

Another angle, still doesn't feel right.
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Yardvaark

10 years ago

I'd rather see your original white downspout extension going into the rocks than the black thing that's there now. Since there are many straight lines from existing elements (such as the driveway edge) in the picture, I am not bothered by the fact of the rock element being straight also. I think what makes them look not so good is that they appear almost to be dumped, rather than placed. I would take take them all out and reset them in a more careful way ... so that the larger stones are half buried, not just sitting on top. And the smaller/medium sized stones were more like in a uniform layer with the orientation of each stone more uniform (as if they were being set in mortar, though you would not actually embed them in anything.) The gravel size rocks could be filler, without care to their orientation. In order to test my theory, you could merely remove and reset a few square feet of rocks and appraise the difference.

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Comments (6)

louisianagal
10 years ago
I am not a landscaper by trade, but have landscaped a couple of my homes and am an avid gardener. But I really like the walkway and especially the grate - brilliiant. And looks great with the house's architecture. I also like the rocks quite alot but the straightline is unnatural. So you probably should experiment with a more natural or curving configuration of the dry creek bed. And possibly plant something very tiny in amongst the rocks and carry it over into the main bed? I cannot really comment on the plants becoz I am only familiar with the southeast U.S. However consider mature size if you are putting 3 shrubs and a tree, becoz the bed is not very big. Good luck.
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Billy753
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks for the comments. I'm going to take the advise to get rid of the downspout, maybe look for something that folds down when it rains.

The tree will be an Autumn Brilliance Serviceberry and the shrubs will be Emerald and Gold Euonymus.

Perhaps if I remove all the rocks and plant the tree and shrubs it will look nicer if I replace rock more carefully, and maybe fewer. Maybe after getting the plants in I can put something around them or i can put one on that line where the rocks are now. I think the Emerald and Gold Euonymus will spread out as it matures and maybe break the uniformity too.
duluthinbloomz4
10 years ago
I just googled dry stream bed pictures. There are any number of images - some a really nice, others not so much. The nicest ones have a pleasant mix of big and little in a well planned "random" placement. I can see where your tendency was to make a border with the big rocks to hold back the mulch - nature wouldn't necessarily do this. But plants spilling over (or a buried edging) would.

I also don't think you need curves or have it wend its way through the yard. I'd start by pulling away the big bordering rocks and do a little size mixing. Its not easy - takes a lot of stepping a distance a way and looking at it a foot at a time with a critical eye.

You could even experiment with putting plants among the rocks - a few patches of Siberian Iris would be a touch of drama. Foliage stays upright after blooming. A fern would hide the downspout connector. There are a lot of plants that would enhance a dry stream bed edge; more pleasing to look at than a sea of mulch.

Here is a link that might be useful: a few edging pictures in article
mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
10 years ago
I really don't know why you don't bury the downspout properly. Dig a trench between the downspout and the grate, and put in a pipe to connect the two. Then you can visually (at least) extend the bed to the driveway, without any awkward rocks.
frankielynnsie
10 years ago
I second Mad gallica. Now what to do about the low windows--basement? would be the next factor. Are you going to plant so they aren't covered?