Lawn drainage - Heavy rainfalls

TerrysWorld · 9 March

To help drainage on the lawn with the heavy rainfalls.

I don't have standing water but being clay soil its soft to walk on and the lawn is sheltered from the sun from October - April to help drying out.

Thought of drilling holes with a 8cm dia auger bit into the lawn and back fill with small pebbles topped with compost/soil.

Would that size auger be ok or too large. ?

Simone_in_Wiltshire · 10 March

Do you have a chance to dig in one part of the garden just to see what the soil looks like a half a meter deep? Whereas GardenerSuze in the North of England has got dry soil underneath her wet clay and drainage improvement would make sense, we in Wiltshire and you in Monmoutshire even more had so much water, there is no chance to improve the drainage unless you redirect the water to the canalisation.
I did a dig in my garden and found that the water can't go anywhere. Thames Water already wrote in November that the deep water reservoirs are filled up again.

Fairygirl · 10 March

It's often just how it is with clay. We just wait until it warms up here and dries out a bit - not usually till about May. Then it becomes less problematic to use the grass. It's why patios or decking etc are needed if you want somewhere to sit or dine.
I created a lawn here [back garden] after redoing the site when we moved in, but I reused the gravel that was there,mixed it with soil and compost, and made it raised, simply to counteract the weather and the soil. That made it easier to use without it being constantly muddy, and it's south east facing and relatively unshaded from about late March/early April onwards. The front garden is north west facing and it's just soggy and mossy until about May. It really depends on how you use the space though, and it isn't always easy to get perfection - most gardeners are happy if their grass stays green for most of the year.

I think the problem with using the tool you describe is that you'll also squeeze the clay into the area around where you make the holes, so it might be counterproductive. It also seems to be a very large diameter. The proprietary tools you get for that kind of method are usually less than half that from what I can remember. They remove a column of soil which is then filled with grit.

Dovefromabove · 10 March

Having gardened on heavy clay in mid Suffolk, my thoughts are to encourage the worms to aerate the soil for you and that’ll improve the drainage … don’t use harsh chemicals that harm them, and do spike and topdress with good humus-rich loamy stuff. It’ll take time but it’ll work.

And most important for any lawn, weather on clay or on fine loam, stay off it when it’s wet … walking on it just compacts the soil and destroys what drainage there is.

😊

lydiaann · 10 March

Difficult to stay off our clay-based lawns...I have to walk across one to get to the shed/greenhouse/compost bin. Mind you, with this winter's never-ending rain, it is now mainly moss - shown up by a first cut yesterday. Scarification/aerating/application of moss kill will be a big job this year!

Dovefromabove · 10 March

Dovefromabove said:

….

And most important for any lawn, weather on clay or on fine loam, stay off it when it’s wet … walking on it just compacts the soil and destroys what drainage there is.
😊

Flippin’ auto-correct … trying to second-guess me. … I typed ‘whether’ 😖

Dovefromabove · 10 March

If you ‘have to’ walk across a lawn in wet weather it’s never going to look great. Is there any way you can rearrange things to avoid that?

bcpathome · 10 March

I think drilling holes is a little drastic . Wait till you’ve had a few dry days in a row ( god knows when that’ll be ) and then spike it to let the air in . If you don’t know how , just do as my husband does and dig the garden fork into it leaving rows of holes to let air in . Our lawn is on clay and flint type stones ,( we are in the Chilterns) and can get very boggy . We put some stepping stones down to the potting barn to save walking on the grass , just slabs of an old paving slab we had laying about .

micearguers · 10 March

How about some stepping stones for your most common trek(s)?

rossdriscoll13 · 11 March

@TerrysWorld All you need to do is aerate your lawn using a garden fork. Stick the fork in as far as it will go and wiggle around. Do this every 6 inches. A hollow tine aerator is better because it removes plugs allowing water to drain and air to get to the roots. As you don’t have standing water and water doesn’t seep out when you step on the lawn using an auger and filling the holes with stones is unnecessary.

Fairygirl · 11 March

That's the name of the tool @rossdriscoll13 - I couldn't remember it!

I've never found a fork effective as the ground just closes up again, so I'd use one of those if I was really bothered about the drainage. I just stay off it unless necessary, but I'd probably do it with a back garden lawn if I was using the grass more often.

Lawn drainage - Heavy rainfalls

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