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Drainage- mud!

PottyforpotsPottyforpots Posts: 26
in Problem solving
Hi all. My garden (pictured) is heavy clay soil and awful for drainage. It is south facing which we are lucky to have, but as the garden slopes downwards a little there is always a big slushy mud problem at the far end, by the shed. I'm thinking of removing the stepping stones which are outside the shed and replacing with a small area of gravel. Would this help a bit? The stepping stones slide all over the place at the moment! I have also been aerating the lawn by hand but im not sure of any improvement. Note the house was bought from new 2 years ago, if that makes any difference 

Posts

  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    New-build gardens are often a thin layer of topsoil spread on top of subsoil that's heavily compacted from the building work and machinery, often with builders' rubbish buried too  :( . Clay soil together with compaction isn't a good mix either. Your lawn does look better than many new-builds do after a couple of years though, so maybe yours isn't as bad as some. I think gravel would still tend to get muddy, but it might be less dangerous then slipping stepping stones. You'd need an edging of some sort to stop it spreading into the lawn, and if you can make it a little bit higher that might help the top layer stay drier.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Those trees behind the fence will suck up a lot of moisture eventually, but that's not much use to you in the short term.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Chris-P-BaconChris-P-Bacon Posts: 943
    I wouldn't bother with a lawn to be honest. It'll never really be any good - boggy in winter, probably bone hard in summer. Not to mention the cutting, edging, spiking, raking etc. All for that little bit of grass.
    Installing drainage will be hard work & possibly expensive, and still may not work.
    Gravel is fine. Or you could raise the garden a little using sleepers for example. Or just work with boggy soil. Plenty of really nice plants like their feet wet.
  • PottyforpotsPottyforpots Posts: 26
    Thanks for all your replies. The turf was awful when we moved in and there was, as you say, jennyj, lots of building bits in it, like screws, brick and sharp plastic. I may look into artificial grass...
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