Fixing a Quagmire

[Peteyd]

I have had a quick look and could see any posts relating, but apologies if this has already been covered.

This winter, my garden has been turned into a quagmire. It's to the point now where the water is pooling on top.

Does anyone have any advice as to ways I can stop this happening again next year? I don't mind a little hard work, but I can't really spend too much money on it.

Keeping off of it isn't really an option either as we have a dog.

Thanks

[nickdub]

If a lot of the water is draining in to your garden from land higher up shedding rainwater in to it, then the classic answer is a land-drain.This is dug in across the top of the area to be protected along the side of the slope concerned and works by diverting the water which comes down a hill off to one side so protecting the land below it. In the old days this drain was a ditch which was filled with branches or rubble and then covered over again, more recently clay pipes have been used.

Some photos of your garden might help.

[Jimmy]

But basically the water has to go somewhere.
If you dig a big ditch and fill with rubble it may improve things but will eventually fill up.
Jimmy

[Jimny14]

Would it be possible to section a portion off with temporary fencing etc a bit like they do with horse paddocks in winter to stop the whole lot getting stuffed. Hopefully you'd be able to move the fencing about to let the dog on different bits to allow the rest to recover a while?

[veggiechicken]

What is your underlying soil - is it clay?
Does it dry out in summer?

My garden's very wet at the moment and with 3 dogs, that's a lot of muddy footprints. I've been covering the main paths with woodchip which has helped a lot and I fill up the wettest bits with more woodchip.

[ESBkevin]

Water always runs downhill (Duh)! So if you are getting someone elses runoff that is the first part to be fixed. The Land drain idea @nickdub mentions is a cheap easy effective solution. But it then sends the water downhill to the neighbours unless you get it to a proper drain. some though needed there. If you post a picture someone here may offer better advice.

The structure of your soil is the second thing to address. being on the receiving end of lots of silt from other peoples runoff over time means the tiny air pockets are all clogged and it's probably quite heavy clay. You can bring in a digger to put rubble 3 feet down then add back the topsoil with a large mix of sand and organic material/compost to allow the water to drain into it. OR you can wait while mother nature does it her way. Think of a golf green, how it has the right texture and drains rapidly, well if you apply a little sand and a lot of compost regularly, the worms and such will pull that down and leave thier worm tunnels. Repeat the process about twice a year and avoid heavy traffic or at least anything heavy. Within two years the topsoil will absorb normal or even excessive rain well enough (although other peoples run off may still be too much.

HTH.

[veggiechicken]

Found some of the answer http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ml#post1562508

Soilscape 18, Slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soils

Impeded drainage, 3 Carrots.

How would I go about improving the soil structure? I mixed in loads of compost in the spring but I still have loads of huge lumps of rock hard soil. Can anyone help?


and Penellype's reply -

Repeated additions of large amounts of manure or compost. Break up large hard lumps if you can, remove rocks/large stones. Raised beds may be a good option if drainage is poor.

[Peteyd]

Thanks for all the helpful replies. Although I'm pretty much at the top of a hill, I guess I could still be getting run off from other land. That's something to look into. I'm going to try and fence certain areas off in the spring to work on them and let them recover.
I'm going to try going round it with a garden fork to make some pretty deep holes, brushing in some sand etc. Hopefully this will start to loosen it up a bit.

The soil is really rather heavy clay, last summer we were installing a fence. When we had dug the post holes, there was a freak shower. When we came out again, the holes had all filled up and stayed full for a good 2-3 hours.

[Cadalot]

Peteyd you appear to know what superficial and bedrock soil you have but for those that don't go to Geology of Britain viewer | British Geological Survey (BGS) in the top right hand corner put in your post code and you will get all the answers. You can even look at local borehole results.

Soakaways in clay don't work, they only empty if there is a sand lens in the clay or by evaporation, any soakaway should be 5m away from any structure. I have used vertical sand pipes in the past by making a grid of bores using a soil sample auger and filling the resulting bore in a similar way as a French drain but knowing I'm only storing the ground water at depth.

[1Bee]

Ah, if only more people understood their soil/geology. And if only there was anywhere to drain TO from my clay-y plot....

[nickdub]

Ah, if only more people understood their soil/geology. And if only there was anywhere to drain TO from my clay-y plot....

There's nearly always somewhere to drain to - its more of a question as to whether the neighbours object to a small trench going under their greenhouse or if the local authority is Ok with you doing some ad hoc roadworks in their area. :-)

[Snadger]

Soil exchange over a number of years can be a solution to a wet lawn. Basically the lawn needs to be hollow cored as deep as possible. I have used hollow core tines taking out a plug 100mm long by 20mm diameter spaced at 100mm. The holes are then filled with a Messingham 35 type course sand (Even grain size so water can percolate in the gaps between grains and very few 'fines' in sand). You then need to take the clay cores off site or add them to borders Over a number of years this has been a solution for me on a high quality football pitch without a piped drainage system. All it does is keep the water slightly below ground level and helps to keep the surface dry
If you are wanting to be able to grow veg though, a piped field drainage system may be you only option.