Digging In The Dirt

The first winter we spent in this house, twenty odd years ago, resulted in the garage turning into an indoor swimming pool thanks to a combination of heavy rain, a very steep drive and a lack of drainage. It wouldn’t have been too much of a problem if it wasn’t for the fact that because we hadn’t finished unpacking after the move there were a lot of full cardboard boxes in the garage, and we had gone to Spain for a week, during which time it rained every day back in the U.K. Anyway, we didn’t have to unpack said boxes, just had to chuck them and their ruined contents into the bin when we got back from Spain.
Lesson learned, we made sure that when the garage was re-roofed and had a new door installed the following Spring, we also had a proper drain dug across the bottom of the drive.
Which totally solved the problem - as long as it was kept clean. Mrs C spotted that it wasn’t draining that well the other day, so I took the grids off to investigate this morning. And, as you can see, discovered rather a lot of dirt in there, which stopped any water from quickly draining away.
After digging the bulk of the dirt out with a trowel, a high pressure hose had everything spotless within a few minutes. Grids replaced and the drive swept clean meant a very satisfactory end to our morning’s work. Even what I dug out wasn’t wasted - it made a lovely top dressing for one of the flowerbeds that was looking a bit bereft of soil.
Memo to self - check drain is running freely a bit more often than once every two years or so!