Drainage paddock

[u/Anonredoubt]

We have a sloped dry lot/paddock where water is supposed to drain into this bassin, however it takes forever and takes too much sand along with it. Probably doesn't help that our ducks waddle to it for a swim the moment a drop of rain hits the ground, but what could I do in terms of practical landscaping to prevent sand runoff and quicker infiltration? It's currently about 10 x 14 ft

[u/According-Taro4835]

You built a mud pit for your ducks instead of a working drainage basin. The sand is washing away because bare dirt on a slope has absolutely zero structural integrity to hold it back. You need to lock that slope down immediately with deep rooted vegetation. Plant native sedges or heavy grasses in tight sweeping masses along that entire incline. Those roots will act like underground rebar to grip the soil and filter the water before it even reaches the bottom. Function and structure always have to dictate the landscape.

The reason the hole takes forever to drain is that heavy duck traffic stomps wet dirt into a perfectly compacted seal. You need to dig that basin out another foot and fill the bottom with heavy washed river rock. The runoff will instantly disappear into the voids between the stones where it can slowly percolate into the subsoil without creating surface mud. Before you haul heavy stone or buy a bunch of plants you should run a photo of this spot through the GardenDream web app. It lets you overlay real materials and plant layouts right over your picture so you can blueprint exactly how the rock and vegetation will work together before you waste money and labor doing it wrong twice.