boggy garden - advice please

weemissy

We went to view a house today - a second viewing and a big attraction is the large south facing garden. However today we went out and walked about the garden and it was very boggy and very mossy. It is slopped in bits from the back of the garden. The owner says it is because it has been so rainy this week and that there is drainage underneath but I was concerned because it was so wet and mossy. So am I right in thinking there may be a drainage problem there, how easily would this be rectified (OH useless at this sort of thing) and would this break the already fragile bank?
Many thanks

libra10

We had a similar problem in our rear garden. Last year my OH dug a couple of trenches, fitted drainage and a pump, then filled with gravel and replaced top soil.

It involved a lot of digging but it certainly worked. Garden is quite dry now.

Good luck

weemissy

thanks libra - was wondering if I should have posted this in the garden section.

libra10

Might be a few experts there.

Good luck

Pink.

Hi weemissy,

I'll move this over to the greenfingered board where you should get more replies.

Pink

knightstyle

A tip for boggy ground, plant trees and shrubs in a mound, then when surrounding ground is waterlogged they stay a bit dryer.

Mr_Warren_2

If drainage is not working, (and all depends how wide the garden is), have some trenches dug up and lay some rolls of plastic pipes specially designed for that purpose (they are manufactured holes)(about 20cm/25cm in diametre) with trenches set about 5 metres apart. Water will drain away no bother and it does not have to bean expensive job.

weemissy

thanks everyone - will follow my thread over

emptygrape

A next door neighbour at an old house used to have problems with a garden that would regularly flood and be a good few inches deep in water for weeks on end. A few trenches filled with gravel and finished with top soil sorted their problem out.

choille

It is incredibly wet here, that's why I have raised beds - one of the reasons - the main reason really, but drainage helps. When I dug out my paths for the beds, I riddled the soil. Big stones on the bottom of the trench - path, graduating up to smaller stones - like pea gravel & then a topping of weed suppressing sand - that way my paths drain & so do my raised beds.

Moss & lichens thrive in damp conditions that are pollutant free - so there's a bonus.

weemissy

thanks everyone - the owner says he put in the plastic pipes for drainage, the problem is it is a very large garden