dampness next to house

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alyrics Beachwood, OH Sep 25, 2006

I've posted this twice but its not showing up - so sorry if it decides to duplicate.

I think maybe this forum might be the best place to post this question. I can't re-waterproof the front of my house this year but I desperately need to dig up the bed that runs half way along the house and replant it. I'm determined to get this done before snow flies. This bed remains damp year round no matter how much we work to keep the gutters clear etc. Partly I think its a problem of how steep one of the roofs is, when it rains too hard the water over runs the gutter and spills onto the bed below just keeping it wet. However, hosta, and other moist shade loving plants do fine.

I want to dig out the existing things and add carex, astilbes, hosta, pulmonaria, and hellebores to this bed.

Heres my question. Knowing that the bed remains damp, and that you shouldn't raise soil height next to the wall ( moisture will wick thru the cement block above the line where the previous waterproofing was done) I want to leave the soil height as is for about 6-10 inches away from the wall. Then I want to raise the bed about 4 inches all the way out to the sidewalk, where it would decline in height to meet the sidewalk.

My question is whether this will increase dampness next to the house, or keep it the same. Since we run the dehumidifier all the time I definitely don't want to increase the dampness up against the house.

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