Into the Vault: Summer Yard Work & Flood Control

Summer is here! With this season often comes the need for backyard cleanup before inviting friends and family over for pool parties, cookouts and summer fun. Before breaking out the lawn mower and weed trimmer, there are a few things to keep in mind in helping us maintain our flood control system and the quality of life in Valley Ranch.

Let’s go into the WaterWays vault for a few reminders about summer yard work.

When you throw your grass clippings in the trash, they are sent off to a landfill. Even though they are a natural material, they can clog landfills. If you opt for leaving them in the yard or blowing them into the street, they will be washed down the storm sewer during the next rain, leading them right to our flood control system. There, the clippings add to silt in sumps, ponds and other IFCD 3 water assets. This lessens the system’s water holding or carrying capacity and increases dredging costs. Discharge into the IFCD 3 system also can change the chemical composition of our waters, encouraging growth of algae.

How can these challenges be avoided? Taking a few simple steps can make a world of difference:

• Don’t put clippings out for waste removal. Instead, allow them to naturally return to the turf during mowing.
• Cut your lawn areas in a loop, starting around the outside boundaries and keeping the discharge from your mower pointed inward – this creates the smallest sized clippings, further facilitating absorption of nutrients back into the soil to further feed your lawn.
• Blow any clippings or dirt that may land on patios, sidewalks or driveways back onto the lawn, not into the street. These grass clippings are rich in the fertilizer originally spread onto the grass, so returning the clippings to the turf helps gain the greatest value from feeding your lawn.

Visit the City of Irving yard care page for additional information on these and other best practices.

Remember, you can get up-to-date information on a range of IFCD 3 news and activities through our growing library of WaterWays blogs and IFCD 3’s social media channels, including Facebook and Twitter.