Judith in England wrote:



We have some raised beds which border on to a lawn. The raised beds are
watered each night through an automatic irrigation system.

The grass at the side of the beds has become very, very wet - and really never
dries out: it is particularly noticeable in the morning after the night
watering session. The raised beds drain very, very well.

We have removed a strip of the lawn adjacent to the raised beds - about a foot
wide (and thrown the sods away: not particularly good quality grass) - we have
dug a trench - about a foot deep today - and going to deepen it another foot
tomorrow to make a soakaway.

It is our intention to fill the trench with aggregate(?) - put a permeable
membrane over the top and then top with a mix suitable for growing a fresh
strip of lawn.

Questions:

Is aggregate the correct thing to fill the trench with - or do I use course
gravel - or something else?

What mix (peat/sand/topsoil/???) should I top the trench off with prior to
sowing lawn seed?

How deep the "soil" layer?


Any other pointers please.

Could you not attack the problem at source by reducing the amount of
water dispensed into the beds?