I am building a house in lower Alabama. I have a wonderful 3 acre lot with a creek that runs on the back side. My problem is I have a small spring that runs about 20' from the back of my house to the creek. My lot slopes a pretty good bit and I need to build a retaining wall right in the middle of where the spring runs. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to either run the spring over the walls or under them or around them or ANYTHING!! I do not mind building multiple short walls. I have about 75-100' from the back of the house to where I want the first wall and its about a 9-10' slope to there. Any help is appreciated.

You could possibly put the spring into an underground pipe and go under the wall or create a waterfall with the water channneled to go over the wall. It would be great if the water could be used. Spring water is usually much sought after.

Hi White, just happened on your question and hope you get an answer. It really sounds like a good location for landscaping opportunity and a wonderful garden.

Normally someone answering here with any information will illicit some quick suggestions ! Good luck !

Dig trench in area or spring. Underground springs have a way of moving when you disturb soil. Put nylon fabric in trench, put in 3-6" of gravel. Put in drainage pipe. Put in more gravel, cover pipe 3-6". Cover with nylon fabric. Fill trench. The nylon fabric sold as weed block, at garden shop, works great. The fabric helps keep soil and sand from clogging gravel and pipe. Make trench deep enough to pass under footing of retaining wall.

Love the drawing, good idea. Here is a little more of my situation (hope you don't mind me using your art! ) Where the spring starts is about 10-12' above where the furthest wall would be so that would have to be a DEEP trench.

Trench at spring should only have to be deep enough to catch water and deep enough to not interfere with any shrubbery. Surface terrain slopes down toward creek doesn't it?

We are talking about an underground spring that seeps up to the surface in you yard, aren't we?

I guess I envision something about 18" deep but I can't see your house from here.

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Kind of. The spring runs at ground level all the way from out the side of the hill at the same level as the house down to the creek. It does not form a pool anywhere it is just a flowing spring on ground level.

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That would be nice but how to I get the water into the pond. It flows on top of the ground. I need to get it on top of something (rocks, pipe, etc) to make it flow over the top of the side. The spring does not form a pool anywhere it comes out the side of a hill and runs downhill on top of the ground the whole way. I have tried to put it in a pipe but the water just erodes around the pipe or ends up burying under it.

Digg a hole around the spring. How big and how deep depends on your back. Put in the liner, stack stones around the edge and put gravel in the bottom. The water will be there. Put the outflow pipe near the top of the hole. When the hole fills up the water it will flow out the pipe (under ground). How high the outflow pipe is above the bottom of the hole will determine the depth of the water in the pool. How big the outflow pipe needs to be is determined by the amount of water coming out the spring.

I can't dig a hole around the spring. It runs the length of my property front to back underground halfway then comes out of the hill and continues to the creek in a line. It is not seeping up through the ground in a particular point. It does not make a pool at any point. Ive tried digging a hole in front of the water flow but it just fills the hole in with loose dirt. I tried digging a hole and putting a large flat rock under the water flow but the water just found its way around the rock and ended up burying it with dirt.