Lawn spongy/squidy under foot

[loply]

Hi folks,

I've got a house which has 3 lawns side by side, two of them are totally fine but the third is being strange.

It's really soft under foot, and in certain areas is totally sponge-like, the soil appearing to have no density at all and just squishes as you walk on it. Your foot sinks in quite far. It never seems to dry out.

The grass is growing fine on it though there is moss too.

Any ideas what I can do about this? The tenant would like this lawn sorted as it's the only one big enough for his kids to play football on.

There's no obvious cause that I can see, this lawn is a tiny bit lower than the others but isn't positioned such that you'd expect water to drain on to it. Neighbours don't have the same issue and there lawns are level with it.

Was thinking about simply rotavating it fully and re-turfing it?

Cheers for any advice,
Rich

 

[gregers]

sounds like the water tables is a tad high in that area?
either that or theres a leak somewhere

 

[r896neo]

rotovating and re turfing will not solve the problem.

A leak as suggested is the first port of call to check for.

Is it worst after rain or constantly sodden.

First try to eliminate leaks then dig a test hole a couple of feet deep and see whats under there.

 

[loply]

It does dry out if it's sunny for say a week solid, however, the ground is still soft and padded.

It definitely gets worse when it rains, it almost forms a pond if it really chucks down.

I'm unsure how to go about checking for leaks - as this is the back of a back garden I'm thinking no water main is likely to be there, the outside stopcock is in the street at the front, and the back garden backs onto other back gardens from around the block.

Would like to know how to check though... The area is a bit too big to dig the whole thing up 'just in case'.

 

[kbdiy]

I agree that rotovating won't help as that will just lift and aerate the soil.

Any chance there could be a soakaway lurking underneath? Are there any rainwater drains in that area that could feed into a soakaway?

 

[loply]

Just spoke to the water board and they've confirmed there's no fresh water pipes (that they know of) in the back gardens, so I'm thinking this is just surface water.

Odd that it didn't happen last summer (I've only owned it for 12 months) mind.

Thinking I will just try raising it 30-40mm with topsoil then returfing and see what happens? Should I even bother rotavating it ?

 

[munchingB]

sounds like you have a thatch problem(dead grass under the green stuff) and that your lawn might benefit from a little scarifying..when its dry enough. probably worth using a aerator too which will pull out long cores of soil and improve your drainage a bit. i think scarifying is the first step to take though.

 

[WalksWithTurkeys]

Are thre any nearby drain pipes? It could be that the under lawn pipe that takes water from a gutter to a soakaway has cracked due to root ingress. Otherwise, a compacted lawn with thick thatch will tend to get sodden, and hold water. Also, why not go outside when it rains heavily, blocked gutters could result in rain overflowing the side, and onto the lawn, either directly, or via a slope.