Water logged garden

[JohnD]

I think you'll need to extend the drain to run downhill. Is there a gap at the side of your house?

If you construct it as a French drain water may be able to drain away along it, if not you could dig a soakaway the the front.

Banging wooden stakes into the ground may open up drainage a bit.

 

[Paul3434]

I think you'll need to extend the drain to run downhill. Is there a gap at the side of your house?

If you construct it as a French drain water may be able to drain away along it, if not you could dig a soakaway the the front.

Banging wooden stakes into the ground may open up drainage a bit.

Thank you.

I shall look at options for running a French drain away from this area, as this solution i have attempted isn't enough for the qty of water we get in the North East of England.

 

[Jackrae]

What you have created at present is a storage reservoir. Without a means of escape and it has filled with water it will 'overflow' as you have experienced. A French drain is only a means of collecting and routing water. You still have to develop a route for the collected water to run away. John D's idea of creating a test hole with a driven stake is worth a try. Drive into the clay the pointed stake,wiggling it as you go to ease its removal. Then extract it and pour water into the resulting hole. If the eater drains fairly quickly you have reached below the clay layer. If it doesn't drain then drive the stake in further and retest. Extracting the stake will be difficult but wiggling it as you drive will ease it.
As an alternative, your house will have rhone drop pipes somewhere and as a last resort you could route a length of 3" flexible land-drain conduit from your French catchment to the rhone drop point. This conduit only needs to be 6 to 9" below the soil surface.

 

[Paul3434]

Ok great, I will look to add conduit to this area and take away the water to elsehwere, I will also test the clay levels to see how deep my clay goes.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Ok great, I will look to add conduit to this area and take away the water to elsehwere, I will also test the clay levels to see how deep my clay goes.

Rather than digging, to find out how deep the clay goes, an auger will be much easier.

If you then find more absorbent soil type is within reach, just drill a series of holes, and fill with gravel.

 

[Paul3434]

Rather than digging, to find out how deep the clay goes, an auger will be much easier.

Agree it would, may look into hiring one. Thanks.