[horizonuser]

Hello,
I would like to hear any opinions on the following. I have been living in my house for about 4 years. Its on about 1 acre of land and the garden was rolled and sewn by the builder. Over the last number of years I have noticed that the garden gets VERY wet in the winter and is VERY dry in the summer.
During the winter, its so we that I can't walk on it until mid April, never mind cut it. It is so bad in some areas it looks a little bit like a paddy field!. As a result the grass is in poor condition there are even reeds growing in most parts.

I would really like to battle this this year as in the summer, when the ground is hard I can cut the grass and give the illusion that the garden is nice, the reality is that if you get close and even walk on it, you may be engulfed by the large weeds of break an ankle on the uneven surface.

Now, I know that I most likely need to get someone in, rip the whole thing up, lay french drains and reseed it correctly. The trouble is, this will never happen,as I would image this would cost a lot and I simply can't afford it.

Does anyone have any ideas how to tackle this problem?

[cooler]

Is it just particular areas of the garden that this occours in. Because if it is you could use those areas for something other than a lawn. Raised beds possibly, where drainage would not be a problem.

[horizonuser]

It makes up about 25% of the whole garden but its all over it, not in just one place.

[Joaney]

Have you tried making holes with a fork and brushing in some sand this seems to have worked in an area of wet lawn I have.
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You are closer to God in the garden then anywhere else on earth

[GPI]

A lot of problems there horizonuser.......

[horizonuser]

Hi GPI,
Thanks for the reply. I'm hoping to get a bit of time this weekend to take some snaps and try the drain test. I'll keep you posted.

thanks.

[horizonuser]

Hi GPI,
The water, never drained! Hours and hours later. I take it I should just concrete it!!!

Pictures of the holes before the water.

[GPI]

There is no easy answer to this problem to solve this problem horizonuser.
You have a compacted layer of subsoil there which is just not letting the water through quick enough.
Now you could install drainage as I mentioned above, but I fear it would only be effective in the thin strips above the piping.
The best solution would be to break up the compacted layer.

You can do this as follows......

Option 1. Break up the compaction.
Bring in a mini-digger and strip off the top soil, stockpile it to the side.
Then with the teeth of the minidigger break up that compacted layer as deep as you can go, allowing future water to pass through it.
Then re-spread your topsoil on top, or else lay good quality topsoil, or a mixture of both, right over the area and sow your grass seed again.

Option 2. Rip the area.
Find someone who has a ripper attachment for a digger, tractor or dozer, see example below......

. Tractor mounted soil ripper , photo / pic / image.

A well designed version of this unit is ripped through the soil, shattering the compacted layers, without bringing too much sub soil to the surface.
Criss-cross ripping must occur at a minimum depth of 3ft for this to be effective.
To criss-cross rip you should rip east to west at 4ft spacings, followed by ripping north to south again at 4ft spacings.
The topsoil will be churned up a fair bit, so you will have to sow your grass seed again.

Both these options mentioned should only be carried out under dry conditions.
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Remember, a weed is just a plant in the wrong place.

Garden Consultation & Design in Ireland!

[crosseyedsheep]

I have to say that judging by your photos it looks like you have no topsoil at all. The top layer looks like grey clay on top of the tan coloured subsoil, If you dig out a piece if the top layer is it really really stickey i.e. does it stick to the spade and is it hard to get off? Maybe it's just that it's really compacted but I suspect that it's much more clay than topsoil.
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Xeyedsheep

[horizonuser]

crosseyedsheep: Sorry for my ignorance here but if, like you say, I have no topsoil (which could be the case as the Landscaping company that preform this task where cowboys of the highest caliber) how do I proceed? If I just skimmed the top and put down a couple inches of topsoil wouldn't the water just drain through the topsoil and end up lying on the current bad soil thats there now?

[crosseyedsheep]