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Despair

Tele-AddictTele-Addict Posts: 3
in Problem solving

Hi all. for my first post I am asking for help?

I have recently moved into a new build property and my dreams of a small garden have been shattered by the discovery of solid grey clay. The lawn is constantly boggy due to rain and suffers badly as a result and as you would imagine drainage is terrible. I would like to plant a Laburnum Tree and have borders around the edge of the lawn. I have attempted to dig down to see how far the clay goes by cutting a metre square hole into the lawn. I dug down to about waist height. The clay is changing to a browner colour but is still impervious. Recent heavy rain has filled the hole. I have about a tonne of spoil to remove and still not made any progress. The lawn also slopes towards the house slightly.  I have dug a gravel path to try and shift some of the surface water and a couple of sumps in the lawn but I am at my wits end. Can I risk the tree in such a wet clay base?

 Any advice will be greatly received?


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  • Jungle JaneJungle Jane Posts: 21
    Poor you. The developer is responsible for the whole plot, not just the footprint of the dwelling and should have ensured adequate and effective drainage was in place when the property was signed off. Also, the building inspector should have picked up on this and insisted it be done. I would contact the developer and put all this to him or her. If water in tracking back to the property it will also affect the 10 year warranty should you ever have to make a claim. This is serious stuff that falls firmly at the feet of the Building Inspector and the developer.

    My husband and I just had our new build signed off in 2016. The village is built mostly on clay, including our house. Like you, our front garden slopes toward the house but we have more than adequate drainage installed to divert surface water away. We added 20 tons of organic muck to the soil in the rear garden in 2015 and looking at certain parts of the garden, one would think nothing had been added as the clay seems to have surfaced. I am a very keen gardener and make all my own compost and liquid feeds from seaweed and comfrey but the only way I can control my soil is by growing in the fantastic raised beds that my dear husband made and the odd border that has had a lot of muck thrown at it. I have given up on trying to turn the clay into something workable. Our garden is about 1/3 acre, which is more than enough for a couple of retirees like us to deal with.

    You have a serious problem and I would advise you to contact the building inspector who signed the property off. Do not do any more digging in your garden until 'someone' has rectified the issue. Good luck.
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    If you get no joy from anyone, then raised beds is the way to go. Some trees would manage the clay ( I have field maple, Hawthorne and magnolia), they would also suck up some of the water but only plant at bottom of garden away from house. Raised beds would also slow the water getting to the clay.🙂
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    Do not despair - but don't buy a laburnum either. Assuming that you do all the above and your house is found to be safe and your garden merely wet, you can achieve a great garden with some preparation and planning. Your clay soil needs to be improved with muck and grit, digging and mixing to incorporate the material. If you make borders it is really useful to raise them slightly with edging, or just building up the soil level. Choose plants that are tough and tolerant of wet conditions - flourishing common plants are better than failing rare specimens - and mulch, mulch, mulch. You may find lawn is asking too much and paving works better, but you will know more when your soil is improved.
  • WaysideWayside Posts: 845
    edited March 2019
    We had a clay garden.  I thought that was normal.  I now have chalk.  Worlds apart.  We had some wild Sycamore they did fine.   A planted evergreen and a eucalyptus took ages to take off.  This might have been weather conditions, but it's as if once they finally broke on through, they thrived.  We never worked the soil that hard at all.  I dug a soak-away for a new garage, which was an absolute delight to dig, as no spoil fell back in, and I could just take out blocks.  It was soon full of water.  I'd relish the challenge.

    Ashbridge list: field maple, hawthorn, laburnum, poplar, apples and hornbeam suitable for clay.  That's a good list to get on with if you have space.  I love to pieces our field maples, and would plant one in every garden forever more.  Space is an issue for you by the sounds of things.  So perhaps you could work with ornamental hornbeam as fencing.  And have one standalone pretty tree.

    What's a good environment for Laburnums?  I've one I'm trying to replace.  I read they are short-lived trees.
  • Julia1983Julia1983 Posts: 139
    edited March 2019
    Please don't despair!   We moved into a new build 12 months ago, found that the soil was clay and garden was super wet with standing water in places. It was a hard start but we decided to dig in some beds... It was such hard work and I did despair that nothing would ever grow in that. But we persevered, dug it over deeply and mulched with compost and chipped bark. We planted a hawthorn (which is doing well) as a start. A year later even though the lawn is still poor (work in progress!)  the soil in the beds is actually really not bad at all now! Planted some clay tolerant plants like dogwoods and ferns, roses.. hellebores seem to love it.... also bog/pond plants, some are gorgeous and you have perfect conditions to grow them! Now we've got lots growing and garden looks really good (at least to my amateur eyes!) We have had one raised bed built so I can indulge myself in some free drainage loving plants.... As others have said if there is really poor drainage rather than just compaction I'd prob pursue with the developer as they may need to put drainage in. Did your hole fill with water right away? If we dig deep in ours a bit of water collects in the bottom but not too much, but that's a few feet down. I've had good advice here too and I've got so much confidence to just have a go and try things from this forum. I'm no expert but I do believe now that nowhere is a lost cause!  Good luck 😊 be really good to know what you decide to do with it. 
  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 7,093
    I wouldn't waste your time trying to get 'someone' to fix it. There's not much can be done quickly by a man with a machine that won't make it worse. Builders are rarely gardeners and they won't know what to do. You can ask for a drain if there's evidence you're getting surface water run off causing damp ingress to your house.

    I'd abandon the idea of a lawn and go out to some local gardens looking for other ideas for the form of your garden. Trees will grow in very heavy clay if you prepare the planting hole - make it big, back fill it with basically the stuff you dig out plus some mycorrhizal fungi (buy it in garden centres - it's a powder) and a little grit. As has been said, if you dig a hole and fill it with nice soil, it will fill up with water. Amelanchier is a lovely tree that grows in pot clay, roses will grow in it too and apples and pears and plums.

    Make raised beds for your borders and read up on 'no dig' cultivation. Clay makes lovely fertile soil, but it breaks forks. 

    So don't despair, don't look for a quick fix, just find a way to adapt to what you have, be flexible about your design ideas and planting preferences. If there's a plant you MUST have and can't grow in clay, you need to grow it in a pot.  :)
    Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon

    “It's still magic even if you know how it's done.” 
  • Tele-AddictTele-Addict Posts: 3
    Thanks for all the kind words and advice. Our Laburnum is currently in a giant clay pot and has been there since late last summer. I also have a potted Magnolia that just about tolerates its current home. Both appear to have survived the winter? 

    Since my first post we have contacted the building company, they say they will send the site manager to take a look. Hopefully they will agree to do something more permanent, a mechanical digger would be welcome?

  • Tele-AddictTele-Addict Posts: 3
    Just an update to our current situation in case anyone else finds themselves in our predicament?

    The builder flatly refused to do any remedial work as the findings of their inspection concluded there was nothing wrong. However having contacted the NHBC who were fantastic, a mediation meeting between the builders (Mr clueless) site manager and NHBC claims investigator took place. The claims investigator concluded the builders had not met all the technical requirements expected of them and produced a report with recommendations on how to put things right. This was based on trial holes he dug where a spade would not go further than a few cm's below the grass surface before exposing bricks, rubble and even an old hose pipe. 

     The builder did not respond to the report so a 2nd letter was issued with a deadline for them to cooperate. 

    This week, out of the blue, (Mr clueless) site manager turned up with a subcontractor  and after a lot of um's and ah's and head scratching we are now expecting a man with a pick, shovel and wheel barrow to come out next week to carry out very limited work.

    Unfortunately, (I have particularly low expectations) the NHBC technical requirements Chapter 10.2.8 and 10.2.9 are open to interpretation and the latter only applying to a distance of 3m from the property foundations.

     So, we are expecting them to provide a form of drainage which by all accounts will be a small quantity of sub/top soil and some turf up to 3m from the patio or about 30cm beyond the small slab patio we already have. It will not help with the lack of drainage, growing any plants will still have to be pot grown but at least it should keep the water off our patio and help restore the grass sods to some form of lawn at least until the next deluge of rain.



  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    Well done on getting them to take some kind of action. We had to get the NHBC involved many years ago when we were selling a house still under warranty and they were very helpful. Hopefully they have put the wind up Mr Clueless and he will turn up with 2 pickaxes,not just one.
    Seriously though, l hope this goes some way to helping. Developers hate bad publicity,  so if you are still not happy after the work has been done, it may be worth contacting the local press. There have been quite a few stories lately of people getting publicity about shoddy work on new build sites, and l am sure it must affect sales.

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Well done so far :) Fingers very crossed that the remedial work makes a real difference :)

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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