I have a garden on a slope in front of a terrace of houses. The top30x10m has old apple trees in it so digging is difficult because of tree roots. The gardens on either side have both had raised flagged ares added so any water run off from the terrace comes into the orchard. There are no drains along the terrace which was built in the early 1900s and water run off from the roofs was expected just to drain away. Unfortunately it all runs into my garden and in periods of heavy rain, water bubbles up at the top of the garden and soaks the surface to the extent that there is now very little grass! The depth of soil is only about 10 inches above red clay. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Are you in the UK? If you are, I believe there are laws for neighbours to maintain their roof guttering.
Perhaps if the trees were pruned to give more air to the area, that might help?
Odd that the water should bubble up at the top of your garden. Might there be a natural spring breaking through somewhere? Has it always happened or has it only arisen in the last few years with the very heavy rainfall we're getting now?
I'm at a loss to suggest any solution I'm afraid other than ask both your neighbours to put water butts on their downpipes. Hopefully other posters can come up with more ideas. That's a tough one.
Thanks, Lizzie, I had the local council out some years ago looking for drains and they found none. Apparently the houses drainage was to a natural soak away. The houses are at the top of the garden and there is approx4 Mtrs of sloping lawn first down to my garden. The garden then continues to slope down some 100mtrs to a stream. It does level out a bit about a third of the way down. We are in Cumbria so we get our fair share of rain anyway. I have put a couple of raised planting areas which do not get sodden so that helps, but the rest I think I'll have to live with unless I spend a lot of money. At 75 yrs that doesn't seem viable. There are lots of apples from the orchard in a good uyear and the rest of the garden has a fruit cage, vegetable beds and other areas planted with flowers/shrubs, as well as a greenhouse, summer house and a shed. All in all we don't do too badly, so perhaps I'll have to live with the excess water as I have done up toh now.
Looking at the natural slope which any water would follow I would say don't fight it but embrace it. I agree with Bede about a ditch. I would dig a gulley/gutter/canal/waterfall feature and direct the water where you want it to go down your garden. At the end have a small pond for it go drain into perhaps.
Once the water is controlled, then perhaps build a raised bed style garden.
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Perhaps if the trees were pruned to give more air to the area, that might help?
Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border.
I'm at a loss to suggest any solution I'm afraid other than ask both your neighbours to put water butts on their downpipes.
Hopefully other posters can come up with more ideas.
That's a tough one.
I had the local council out some years ago looking for drains and they found none. Apparently the houses drainage was to a natural soak away.
The houses are at the top of the garden and there is approx4 Mtrs of sloping lawn first down to my garden. The garden then continues to slope down some 100mtrs to a stream. It does level out a bit about a third of the way down.
We are in Cumbria so we get our fair share of rain anyway. I have put a couple of raised planting areas which do not get sodden so that helps, but the rest I think I'll have to live with unless I spend a lot of money. At 75 yrs that doesn't seem viable.
There are lots of apples from the orchard in a good uyear and the rest of the garden has a fruit cage, vegetable beds and other areas planted with flowers/shrubs, as well as a greenhouse, summer house and a shed. All in all we don't do too badly, so perhaps I'll have to live with the excess water as I have done up toh now.
Once the water is controlled, then perhaps build a raised bed style garden.
On those lines but using free pallets:
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/283093526551577019/