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Garden like a bog
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Amberdarcy
Posts: 139 Forumite


in Gardening
Help! My garden is wet and soggy and full of puddles. What should I do to drain it? We have to walk over it to move our rabbit hutch so I don't think we've been doing it any good at all.
Should we prod it with a garden fork? and have I read somewhere that adding sand helps? (or would this just make quick sand!)
Should we prod it with a garden fork? and have I read somewhere that adding sand helps? (or would this just make quick sand!)
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We have the same problem. I got a "man" in to see but he said I would be wasting my time to try and drain ours. we are at the bottom of a hill. he said nothing would divert the amount of water which was draining by. and there was a lot of clay in the soil. our neighbour did get another garden design company in who put in some ditches etc....and they still get water gathering.
if the soil is mostly clay it can help to dig in lots of organic matter. we just learned to live with ours. planted lots of things which liked their feet wet. I do fork our lawn and brush in sharp sand.x x x0 -
I would definitely consider getting someone in to look at your problem to see if there is a way of tackling it. Our back lawn was always really muddy and full of puddles. Thankfully it is at a higher level than other parts of the garden. When the house was built they didn't put any drainage holes in the retaining wall so last year when we had a garage built the builder dug a narrow trench along two edges of the lawn and laid porous pipe approx 1 foot down which drains through the retaining wall onto a flower bed. Whilst I've not seen any water coming out of the drainage pipe the lawn has no mud, no puddles and the children have been able to play on it all winter without churning it up. Wouldn't have a clue as to how much it would cost as the builder didn't add any extra on to his original quote (the nice man).I like to live in cloud cuckoo land :hello:0
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Is it normally wet/damp or just due to all the rain we've been having recently? Most gardens I've been visiting this year are very very wet and muddy! Don't worry, lawns, etc will soon recover (you can fork if you want to) and the drought will soon return!I'm mad!!!! :rotfl::jand celebrating everyday every year!!!0
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My ground is basically clay, during the winter we stay off it, but this year we have two flippin ducks. When they spend their day free-ranging, they padded feet flat every blade of grass hence puddles everywhere, they they dig their beaks in it, and it's enough to make you cry. We've decided that at every opportunity we will airiate with a fork. ( I have told the ducks that they will soon feel what it's like to have salt/pepper & gravy on their backs if they don't behave).This is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com0
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Amberdarcy wrote:Help! My garden is wet and soggy and full of puddles. What should I do to drain it?
My neighbour cured his boggy garden full of puddles and I asked him how he had done it, because I'm going to do it too!
He dug a hole in the middle of his lawn, well away from the house. It was 1.2 metres deep and about 2 metres wide. (Any deeper than that and it would have needed some sort of reinforcement for safety reasons, he tells me.) He filled it in with broken bricks, rubble and all sorts. He replaced the soil and turves and you can't even see the joins.
All the water from his garden goes into this 'soakaway'. I don't understand the science, but what a difference it has made.
In other words, you won't get much joy from prodding with a garden fork (I've tried, oh boy have I tried) and a proper drainage system costs a fortune. But my neighbour's idea might be a solution.
Hope it helps
Kay0 -
That soakway has reminded me of something. There is something called a "french drain". You see these by the side of motorways where there is a steep hill either side. Seemingly a narrow ditch is removed and it is filled with shingle. So when rain water hits the hill, runs down, it flows into the gravel ditch and sinks, rather than flow over the road.
To an extent, we have used this idea in our clay garden. Because not only is our garden on a slope, but it is lumpy, with mini hillocks. But where the ground meets the area close to the house, I removed a great deal of this clay soil, wheelbarrowed it to the end of the garden (and made a raised area), but where there was now a 10" lower area, I filled it with tons of shingle and made a patio area. We no longer get puddling round the area close to the house. But it's that infernal unleavel grassed area that beats me, hence the forking. What I am thinking about, is where the situation is worst, I may stand a few shrubs in tubs in groups, like islands. That way I wont see the damned puddling.This is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com0 -
our garden is clay and dh dug in mushroom compost etc but we have a bit at the side of the house where the machinery came round when the house was built that was compacted down and they just put a load of topsoil on so it was very wet, we planted four apple trees and a plum tree and it solved the problem, the plum didnt fruit much but the apples do really well, trees absorb a lot of water even the mini apple trees might help0
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Ive just had an offer accepted on a property but today my grandad went round to view the garden as the property is empty and said it was one of the worst flooded gardens he'd seen. He used to be a builder but retired about 15 years ago. Now one thing about my grandad is he thinks he's always right! Sometimes though it is complete nonsence, not that he will ever admit it. However the garden is approx 120 foot by 50 foot and he says it is 1-2foot lower than the property alongside. He says it will cost around 5k as there are no manholes in the rear garden. Ok I admit I will have to pay someone to do it as my hubby and I are useless and do not have the time to do it but how much should I set aside to deal with the problem???Saving needed to emigrate to Oz*September 2015*
£11,860.00 needed = £1,106 in savings
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