puddles to the left of me, drainage to the right....

maf20 · 1 Oct 2008

About to put some turf down in the next two or three weeks and I'm busy shifting about 7 tonne of earth out of the garden to get it somewhere level. The area to be turfed is only 8.5m x 6m. However, one side is really good soil and drains really well, and the other side is very bogged down with clay based soil. After last night's rain the clay side has quite a bit of standing water. I know that I'll need to do something with this side before I turf it. I was thinking of: -

1. Digging a bit further down on that side and laying more topsoil
2. Adding a few bags of sand to that side of the garden and turning it in

Any other siggestions?

Cheers

breezer · 1 Oct 2008

sorry i cant help what so ever, but i did like the title

deefadog · 2 Oct 2008

I agree nice title

Just had something done similar in my garden. I had some land drains put in (search on here, lots have had it done and pics). And it has worked a treat!

maf20 · 2 Oct 2008

Bummer

I was hoping I wouldn't have to bother. Would mixing some pea shingle/gravel and/or sharp sand in work as well?

Do these drains take much to fit?

maf20 · 2 Oct 2008

Does anyone have any links for the drainage suggestion?

Cheers

Thermo · 2 Oct 2008

if you put a land drain in, is there any where it can drain to?

its only a short run. The easiest way would be to dig a trench at the boggiest part and backfill it with shingle, then cover with topsoil.

maf20 · 2 Oct 2008

Yeah, basically it could drain out the bottom of the garden which is next to a road.

I've asked lots of folk and have had a fair few suggestions. They have included:

1. Leave it and just put the turf on
2. Mix sharp sand and/or pea shingle and gravel in
3. Put a land drain in

The turfed part of the garden will be about 8metres wide by about 7 metres long. As you look away from the house the garden slopes away slightly towards the patio at the bottom.

By backfiling do you mean just digging channels and filling with gravel with no piping?

Thermo · 2 Oct 2008

best way to do it is to dig a trench, land drain and backfill with gravel. If there is no where for it to drain, then you can do the trench without the pipe and it acts as a large soakaway.

mixing anything in the soil that will help to open it up will be of benefit, but it depends on how bad the soil is.

maf20 · 2 Oct 2008

I'm by no means an expert but the soil isn't dreadful. At least it's a soil colour instead of pure clay colour.

It's chucking it down now so I'll see how bad it is tomorrow. If it's really bad I'll go for the land drain, if not I might just break the soil up, I'll see. I've gone overkill a few time on this garden and just want to get it finished in the next 2-3 weeks, but also don't want to lay the turf at this stage of the year only for it to be drowned out a few months down the line.

Thanks for the advice

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puddles to the left of me, drainage to the right....

breezer

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