This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Drainage
vallenby
Posts: 1
Help! The south side of my garden slopes away quites sharply so I assumed it would drain freely however this is not the case. When it rains my lawn quickly becomes saturated and it takes days to dry out. I know that we're sitting on clay but then we have about 12 inches of topsoil on top of that so I'm not sure if that's the problem. I have a small retaining wall on the north side and I'm thinking of drilling some drain holes into that but that's not going to look great from my patio. My only other option is to dig my lawn up and install some sort of drainage under the turf. Any advice would be welcome...
0
Posts
Last part of this year I have had terrible problems with water draining into my garden as I lay about 3 foot from outside public path with a large verge so when it rains it drains into my garden and other neighbours also I have about 4 inches of soil then clay , got nowhere but my path to drain to then goes on fall to second house down as me and my neighbour don't have drains just end houses way were built , I tried drainage system gravel and pipes but that just brought it out too fast so just filled trenches in and I ended up graveling it all kept my raised borders miss the lawn but have more space for my pots , I would say if yours slopes it should naturally go with the fall , you could dig a couple of drains with gravel in them .
Hi
i had a similar problem. I have 2 sections of lawn that where they joined used to flood due to the slope from the lawn on the higher level. I was fortunate that this was immedialey under a large deciduous tree.. I decided to take up all the turf under that tree as that is where it flooded worse. I then had a very damp area that suited Hosta's, Astilbe etc . So instead of opposing nature and its weather, I decided to adapt that area to create a planting area for plants that prefer that situation
Obviously, your own situation will possible be slightly different based on where the lawn floods within your garden
i would also attempt to spike the lawn that floods with a garden fork to allow water to drain away. Also look to use a hollow tine fork that you press down into your lawn to create drainage holes that you then brush in Hort. Sharp sand and grit so that you leave a permanent channel for the water to escape