Change of the garden.

daver14 · May 2023

hi all. New to this kind of thing was hoping for some advice… so I’m in the middle of re doing my garden getting rid of block paving and changing it out for a grassed area.

The worries I’m facing are my area is on a raised platform kind of thing.

It’s never flooded and always drained well to my knowledge (can’t remember it holding water)

I have taken the block paving up scratched the sand away and then dug past a layer of type 1 mot to see what was under. It’s all clay material underneath.

So my first question would be… am I able to break the stone up leave it in and top soil and turf on top of it? Or would it be best to get rid of the stone aswell turn the clay over and then top soil and turf?

Second thing is because it’s on a built up platform… do I need to install some kind of drainage holes into the wall if I’m changing it to a grassed area? I’ll try to add a picture so you can see what I mean.

If holes are needed… how low and how to stop mud clogging them etc

I also have my path area that I need advice on drainage… it slopes down to the right and always puddles and takes days to drain away. Can’t really use aco drains due to a step out of the conservatory being in the way. (I’ll post a pic aswell)

wondering for any advice on that aswell. It’s not going to be a used area so I was thinking of a drainage thing attached to a pipe leading it away and creating a sump pit with gravel on the opposite side.

Any advice on any issues would be gratefully appreciated

thanks

daver14 · May 2023

AnniD · May 2023

*Bump*

Mrs-B3-Southampton,-Hants · May 2023

And another *bump* for luck.

Lyn · May 2023

Another bump with the photos the correct way up. I can’t help with the question, I’m not good at hard landscaping.

Jenny_Aster · May 2023

Saying I'm any sort of authority on such projects would be a gross understatement. Just trying to start a discussion with a few thoughts.

Are you thinking of breaking the blocks up and laying grass on top? Doubt there's a chance that would work.

Ideally think your best bet would be to try and dig the sand and clay together. Combining the two would help the area to drain and break up the clay, especially any clay panning

Lay a few inches of top soil on top the levelled sand and clay combination.

Then lay turf or sow grass seed. Believe that would solve any drainage worries you have.

As for the lower level, is there anyway you can remove some of the blocks to make a flowerbed of some sort which would be an outlet for run off water? Some plants can soak up excess moisture.

Fairygirl · May 2023

I've created lawns a few times on the kind of subsoil you have, by doing a raised timber edging, then keeping some of the gravel that was already in situ, and adding a few inches of soil and seeding. You could do something similar using the block paviours as an edging, and that will also make mowing easier as you'll have an edge for the mower. The gravel I kept was on top of hardcore in much of the area in this garden too, as it was all paved/gravelled, the paving being on what we call red blaes here, which is just a coarse sand. Solid, sticky clay below that. As long as the gravel is reasonably small- ie not bigger than around 10 to 12mm approx, it's fine. The only thing I'd say is, I did that to also counteract our climate- to give the grass a good chance of thriving without being permanently soggy. It worked very well.
If it already drains well, it shouldn't be a problem adding grass. The grass would help absorb excess moisture anyway.
As always, your local conditions will also dictate how well grass thrives. It's a very small area, and it looks shady, so choose the grass seed appropriately.

daver14 · May 2023

Thanks for your answers!

In regards to the block paving it’s all coming up… top of the brick area I’d want grass with a block paving edging and the path where blocks still are in the photos I’m going to have resined with a block paving edging

should have made that clear lol

Change of the garden.

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