what to do with this ****e lawn

[sahar]

chaps and gals - any idea what do to with this ****e ?
cover with top soil, then turf roll it ? dig it out and start from scratch ?
It is a "new build" 2016, kind of was green during the summer after topping it up with both grass seeds and clover but this nice weather of last 6 months worked perfectly on a clay kind of soil with random rubble 10 cm beneath to make it a swamp.
I know of soakaways, drain trench etc , but looking at this what are the ideas ?
There is a garage on the right hand side with a proper guttering and an down pipe, separated by 50*50 slates from the "lawn", any ideas welcomed before I part with a coin
Any pros in Hants, Soton area, welcomed to tell me it will cost thousands to make it right

thanks

 

[JohnD]

You might need to dig a test hole to see how deep the clay is.

Putting more earth on top will not take the water away.

For the rubble you can dig it out, it is laborious but the best time to do it is before you put any effort into the garden. You can now get a motorised soil sieve (drum or trummel type) that you shovel the earth into and barrow away, I think it will be better value to buy one and sell it on later rather than hiring. You can save pebbles and clean broken brick for a drainage trench round the edges.

You can add grit but you need a lot of grit to open a little clay. Working gypsum in also improves the texture of clay. Adding organic material helps but only until it rots away.

I have a feeling the gutter does not go to a functioning soakaway, you may need to dig one.

It looks like you have wooden fence posts in the ground. When these rot and snap off you will need to dig, so try not to pave or concrete round them.

Do not spend money on turf until you have sorted the ground out. After you have dug it, wait until the following year for it to settle so you can level it flat.

If you want a surface you can walk on, use an organic material that you can rake off or will rot away, not plastic or stones that will be hard to remove. I used a thick mulch of wood shavings from horse stabling, you can plant through it, the worms take it down and it is gone in half a year, which also improves the texture, but you can also buy shredded bark. These will look OK and not be muddy.

 

[Odds]

Don't dig down; build up - You should consider raising the area by at least six inches with a substrate mixture of sand and gravel to improve drainage. Have a look at 'grass grids' or the kind of eco-grid bloxx used to provide a stable base to build up a paved area which can hold the gravel mix, then lay turf on top. It ain't cheap but you may as well open your wallet for a lasting solution otherwise you'll never get it right.

 

[JohnD]

Putting sand on top of a swamp does not cause water to drain out of the swamp.

 

[Odds]

well yes...and no. It all depends how you do it. The area is level with the surrounding path, fence and does not have any room for water to drain as the clay base traps excess water - soakaway crates dug into the ground would be the usual way but i'd raise the ground level to the base of the fence - and put gravel boards under them while you're at it...maybe even lower the fence height if permissible, then build up the new lawn using soakaway crates atop a membrane covering the old lawn. A sand/gravel mix can then be filled in to allow a new turf to be rolled over the top.

 

[sahar]

thank you both, all valuable info, also sounds expensive , well, will research it all but have now lost all hope of having something green in the "lawn area" this year....new builds, eh ? cannot even build a lawn proper