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Clay soil
jo.amison
Posts: 3
hi,
i have heavy clay soil garden which is either so boggy you need wellies or rock hard when the weather dries up. We really want to fix the issue but don’t have the funds due to getting married later in the year but our boys are begging to use the garden properly.
My idea is that we have quite a few sleepers down the side of the house which we plan to use to outline the lawn area fill with about 4 inches of top soil and return. So it would be a raised lawn. Would this work or would it still be boggy and horrible?
if this won’t work does anyone have any relatively in expensive solutions?
thanks
i have heavy clay soil garden which is either so boggy you need wellies or rock hard when the weather dries up. We really want to fix the issue but don’t have the funds due to getting married later in the year but our boys are begging to use the garden properly.
My idea is that we have quite a few sleepers down the side of the house which we plan to use to outline the lawn area fill with about 4 inches of top soil and return. So it would be a raised lawn. Would this work or would it still be boggy and horrible?
if this won’t work does anyone have any relatively in expensive solutions?
thanks
0
Posts
What you'd need is a bag of perlite, a bag of sharp sand or horticultural grit, some grass seed and a hand held bulb planter. What you are trying to do is to pepper the lawn with 'drainage cores'.
Step 1. Take a deep core out of the lawn using the bulb planter.
Step 2. Mix some of the soil from the core with some sand and perlite in the following proportion (40% soil, 30% perlite, 30% sand). If your soil is very heavy clay, use compost and topsoil instead of your own soil (50/50).
Step 3. Push the mixture into the hole left by removing the core. Make sure it is well compacted.
Step 4. Sprinkle grass seed on the top.
Step 5. Sprinkle / smear a bit more soil on the top to cover the seed.
Repeat this as many times as you can across you lawn - especially in particularly boggy areas.
This is the same principle as forking holes to aerate the lawn and improve drainage, but with this method you don't have to fork every year, once it's done it should carry on working. What happens is that the cores allow for excess water to drain deep into the soil. What I've also noticed is that using perlite means that the soil becomes much more resistant to compaction caused by foot traffic.
Next year, what you'll find is that the grass will grow really well from the site of the cores and spread out - so the more cores you can create the better.
thanks
The method described above is a cheaper option, and less time consuming. I have been doing this for a few years on heavy clay. I add more drainage cores every year to the areas that still get a bit boggy and it gets better year on year.