soggy muddy lawn - help!

Sarahsaver

The lawn has disappeared it looks like mud with just a few shoots of grass sticking out. The garden has always got a bit boggy in the winter but nothing this bad. Is there something i can put on it? Sand? HELP!

GreenNotM

A few questions ?
Do you know where the water is coming from ?
Is the lawn heavily used - kids/pets/cars/etc ?
Is the lawn at the bottom of a slope ?
Where abouts are you in the UK ? What soil type do you have ? london clay ?

Any one in the house able to dig a deep hole ?

Sarahsaver

There are already 2 wells in the garden, it is on a slight incline but not much and not in heavy use because it is so muddy! There is a soakaway out the back too which I spose could be contributing.
I'm in leicestershire and we live on the top of a hill!

boogiemaster

The problem is your garden is water logged and your grass is drowning in water. You need to get the water away fast and allow the garden to breathe again.
In my garden it’s full of clay, and there is nothing worse than clay for holding water. I improved the drainage by digging in lots and lots of pea gravel.
The pea gravel broke up the clay and allowed the water to drain more quickly, one way is to put in drainage, but that costs money.
My garden isn’t holding water anymore and its really dry now.
The over way is to get a few ton of pea gravel and dig it into the soil and over time the water will drain away through that.
It sounds a lot of work but it’s not, once the pea gravel is dug into the garden with a spade or rotivator you can then level out the soil and re- grass the garden and the water should start to drain away.

Sarahsaver

I could plant rice LOL;)

calmgirl

(CG'S Hubby Here)

as boogiemaster has said its all about drainage. there are many ways to do so but you need to do something. as you have two wells in the garden Im guessing that there is a natural spring there and they dont always bubble up nicley as in the movies they sometimes just seep throught the ground. as you live at the top of the hill you shouldnt have much prob with local water table. As its in the winter frost can actually kill the grass of very quickly as it breaks up the ground just blow surface and the slightest trafic over the top will kill the grass ontop just look at a hill after kids have been sledging on it.

GreenNotM

GreenNotM wrote:

A few questions ?

Any one in the house able to dig a deep hole ?

I was going to suggest burying the mud .... :rotfl:

But as Boogiemeister and CG's hubby said it is drainage. And your spring is moving - are the wells dry ?

You need a new soakaway at the bottom of your slope - dig the deep hole - if it fills with water after a day or 2 - you are close to the water-table time for a new well - if it stays empty dig some trenches sloping to the hole to help drain the water fill these and the hole with gravel then top with loamy sand and reseed/turf. Easier then digging the whole slope - but if the hole does fill you will have to dig the gravel in ..

Puss_in_Boots_7

we have a soak away ... and hubby airiated the grass ... you can get boots with spikes on and every so often he puts sand on the grass... we have clay type soil too ... good luck

boogiemaster

It rains and soaks into the soil and eventually hits the clay, it cannot get through the clay so it just stays there.
With the build up of rain it turns into one big muddy bog that you cannot do anything with it.
One way is to dig some channels and put in some plastic pipes and then drill some holes in the top and then put a load of pea gravel over the top to stop dirt from blocking the holes.
You also can put some very fine mesh over the top of the pipes and then some pea gravel if you scared the holes will block up, they shouldn’t do as the pea gravel should be enough.
Just remember to have a slight slope on the pipes so that the water can run off.
Pea gravel will sink to the bottom until it finds the clay and then start to break it up improving drainage.
My garden has little clay now and its not a bog anymore, one other tip I can give you is to plant some shrubs small trees that like lots and lots of water as you will find they soon drink up the access water.
All these have worked for me.

Sarahsaver

It's really dark soil so doesnt look very much clay like, but I expect it has some in it. The soakaway and the wells date back to victorian times - 1876 - and have probably not had much done to them in that time. In the summer it's as dry as a ryvita!
Thanks for all your suggestions you have given me some excellent advice. I can see I am going to be busy...;)