Installing a Curtain Drain

September 29, 2018

This weekend, here in the Northeast, we’re expecting mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 60s to low 70s - a welcome forecast after a very wet week.

As many of you know, I have a new orchard surrounding my pool in a horse pasture just down the carriage road from my Winter House. The orchard includes a variety of apple trees, plum trees, cherry trees, peach, pear and quince trees - more than 200 in all. I also have a columnar beech tree hedge along the inside of the pool fence. To protect these precious plantings, I had extensive drainage work done to alleviate any flooding, ponding and over saturated soil in the area. Carmine Luppino and his crew from Luppino Landscaping and Masonry created a curtain drain around the pool. It was a very big project, but they did an excellent job - just in time for this week's drenching storms.

Here are some photos - enjoy. After the gallery is a video taken by my property director, Fred Jacobsen, showing all the rainwater flowing furiously, but properly, away from the orchard. You can also see the video on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48.

: This orchard surrounds three sides of my pool and a purple columnar beech tree hedge. Because this area is prone to over saturation, it was crucial to create a proper drainage system to make sure water was not damaging the specimens.

: I’ve known Carmine Luppino for many years. He and his talented crew are responsible for all the stonework at the farm and he always seems to know just what I’d like done. I put him in charge of the project and his team started right away – ahead of the pending rains.

: The crew began digging a trench that was about two-feet deep and about a foot-and-a-half wide.

: This trench went around the pool and then down an incline away from the pasture.

: Ditches may be dug by hand or with a trencher. Carmine had a team of more than 10 working on this project and digging by hand so as not to disturb the orchard. Everyone worked quickly and efficiently.

: This is four-inch wide solid pipe. More than 200-feet of pipe was used for the project. This solid pipe will be the main drain for any seeping water from the orchard.

: The pipe was installed at the bottom of the two-foot deep trench. Curtain drains are very similar to french drains – they both direct water away from an area. A french drain focuses on ground water, while a more shallow curtain drain deals more with surface water.

: While some of the team continues to dig the trench, one worker custom cuts the pipe.

: Here is one elbow of the pipe work. Do you know… The French drain was first explained by Henry Flagg French, a lawyer, judge, Assistant US Treasury Secretary, and author of the 1859 book entitled “Farm Drainage”? He was also the father of famed sculptor Daniel Chester French, who designed the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC.

: The pipe is then covered with backfill.

: And then gently walked on to pack in the soil around the pipe and level the earth.

: Once the outside drain was completely installed and covered, the crew raked over the backfilled trench.

: This is perforated drain pipe. The area needed 475-feet of this pipe to completely surround the space. The perforated pipe provides drainage along the full length of the pipe.

: The crew then moved to the inside of the hedge – first using landscaping twine to make a straight line from one end of the space to the other.

: The line was measured about a foot-and-a-half wide to accommodate the perforated pipes.

: The lines were spray painted, so everything was well marked before any digging began in this area.

: Then the crew came in – digging quickly to build more trench.

: The trench is perfect – completely straight and all my specimen beech trees are left undisturbed.

: The space left un-dug leads to one of several gates surrounding the pool.

: The crew lined more pipe along the trench building intersections and elbows wherever necessary.

: Here is one of the workman gently tamping down on the soil after the pipe was installed.

: The last very important step is to install a bed of gravel on top of the soil to filter the water to the perforated pipes. The gravel also helps to keep the surrounding soil from washing into the voids and clogging the drain.

: And this photo was taken midweek when we had more than six-inches of rain fall at the farm. This drain allowed for hundreds of gallons a minute to flow away from the orchard – a huge success. See the short video below. Thanks for the masterful job, Luppino Landscaping and Masonry!