Garden Drainage issue.....

[Bigtree]

Hi folks, my rear garden is approx 100ft long and is split in two at roughly the half way point with a raised bed and a willow tree.

The bottom half of the garden is a couple of feet lower than the top half and suffers water logging quite badly. (Clay soil)

As it would cost a lot of money to install drains and pump the water away, would it be possible to install raised decking over part and leave the water drainage problems underneath? It would still drain away in its own time but the decking would provide a useable space?

What are your thoughts?

 

[WalksWithTurkeys]

I had a similar problem, after heavy rain the lawn was very squelchy, almost bog like. I killed the lawn, rotovated in 1" of sharp sand, and reseeded the lawn. It cured the drainage problem. In my case the problem was a compacted lawn. I think it was the original from when the house was built, and builders just put down turf on ground compacted by their vehicles.

Putting down decking would take much less work, but might cost more.

 

[Kaymo]

You could dig in a soakaway pit in a corner and direct the water there either by sloping the lawn or digging in a few perforated pipes in gravel trenches. You can by plastic sections that you can dig into the ground or build a more traditional pit with limestone/gravel etc. One idea I have been toying with is making a gravel path that winds its way through the garden and having the perforated pipe buried in the gravel path.

Or direct the water to the corner but instead of a soakaway pit leave a boggy section and plant a load of damp loving plants.