Poor Garden Drainage

Furts

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

And that is the issue, unless you can drain the water by gravity you will still have issues.

Yes, raising the problem area on good drainage can work, BUT, that same water will sit under the surface, it needs to drain away.

The water drains by travelling through, or across, the new layer of sand/ sandy soil, Hence there is not a problem of water pooling, plus the lawn becomes more robust. Others like my neighbour have done nothing and there lawn is mostly moss.

[Deleted User]

Can you dig up some of the grass and turn it into a bog garden - then drain the remaining grass into the bog area?

Davesnave

Alias_Omega wrote: »

..

The soil round here is made of Clay, therefore we expect it to be a bit soft under foot when wet. The solution for us would be a French drain, however running into the surface water sewer system...

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the creation of new surface drains running into sewers is allowed any more.

That doesn't mean people won't do it on the quiet, but there isn't typically a 'surface water sewer system,' just sewers, which lead to a sewerage works, so there are cost and environmental considerations (flooding.)

Davesnave

Credit-Crunched wrote: »

Does anyone have any suggestions for a grassed garden, that just holds water and becomes sodden very easily.

If life gives you lemons etc etc ......

Rather than fight with the environment you have, you could perhaps garden with it by creating a bog garden, pond and fernery, possibly using the excavated material to make a higher part, which could be a patio/sitting out area overlooking it.

It could have quite a tropical feel.

It's a matter of landscaping and then selecting the correct plants that like those conditions.

moneyistooshorttomention

One slight snag to that idea, ie bog garden and all that, and its certainly a thought that has crossed my mind more than once.

I'd quite possibly think it might be the easiest/cheapest option to just go for that, but all my googling around revealed very few edible plants for bog gardens:(. So for people like myself who are determined to use our gardens for foodgrowing then there's a problem there...or an awful lot of eating of watercress and bulrushes and, just for a change, bulrushes and watercress:rotfl:. Failing that, ramsons I guess and watch them proceed to take over the rest of the garden too..

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

...all my googling around revealed very few edible plants for bog gardens:(. So for people like myself who are determined to use our gardens for food growing then there's a problem there.....

If growing fruit and veg is very important, the garden should, perhaps, have been chosen with that in mind.

We always had a spade available when viewing houses, but we rarely had to use it , because some soil is usually exposed in most gardens and existing use/vegetation gives plenty of clues.

That was after learning the hard way. At our last house, I removed the entire front garden to a depth of about 18" and replaced the soil. It was expensive and tough work, but it was that, or give up what we'd planned to do with it.

EDIT: In your case, you've identified one possible solution. The other is an allotment.

moneyistooshorttomention

Thankfully it's not all the garden that might need such drastic treatment Dave, but there is a sizeable proportion of it that I fear might need such drastic stuff. Everyone seems to have that thick clay soil round here...gardens like I've been picturing abound in the (rather more expensive) area I've come from. I'll get a "garden from Home" set up here yet.....LOL.

As for the rest of the garden, I've to date been able to get some of it pretty workable and just pick up a nice handful of loose soil from it, so there's something to be going on with..

Am doing a lot of "chop and drop" on it. Every plant gets its usable bits chopped and dropped right where it stands once I've finished with it so to say.

I_have_spoken

I bought a house with a seriously waterlogged garden with heavy clay, there were bull-rushes growing the 'lawn' which you could only walk on using wellies. However, as the garden faced south I knew it could be decent if the water was controlled.

Just had to go the full-monty with perforated pipes off Ebay wrapped in geo-textile on gravel beds at the high side to catch water migrating down the hill. More of the same at the side and front of the lawn. The pipes discharge into mini drywells filled with 10mm gravel, however once they fill up the overflow joins the run-off from the gutters.

Old lawn was skimmed off then 2 tonnes of sharp grit laid in a 9cm bed and new turf on top of that. IIRC cost of that was about £8sqm all up.

Easter 2014, trenches being dug for pipe, stream forms right away... -



Grit going down -



Early summer, enjoy... -

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Thankfully it's not all the garden that might need such drastic treatment Dave,
....
As for the rest of the garden, I've to date been able to get some of it pretty workable and just pick up a nice handful of loose soil from it, so there's something to be going on with..

Good. All around where you came from, there is a lot of heavy alluvial clay, and even if one has acres to work with, there are always some places that are challenging.

Here, I might have light, workable soil, but the presence of voles and moles means I will never have a good lawn. Seasonal underground springs also move about with unpredictable consequences, creating problems one year and disappearing the next.

I believe that raised beds are the answer for many of the most difficult gardening woes. Smaller area, greater density of crop etc.

moneyistooshorttomention

- now wondering about the necessity (or otherwise) of putting permeable membrane round drainage pipes. Thoughts on whether its necessary to put it all around it/on top of it only/on bottom of it only??

- more googling around later and seems that chokeberries (aka aronia) have a natural habitat that is on the swampy side and they might do nicely for soggy gardens? (yep...they are edible and apparently pretty prolific):)