In article ,
MM wrote:
My brand-new house has a patch at the back which is nominally
designated 'the garden'. It is nice and level, but is extremely soggy.
At the moment it is bare earth with a few tufts of samphire-like weeds
here and there (this is reclaimed land in the Fens).

It's been soggy ever since I moved here (6 weeks ago) and there are
continual puddles of water everywhere. I cannot walk on it without
wellies. Are certain shrubs good for drawing up the water? What about
a lawn - best to sow lawn seed or get some turf? Any other ideas to
soak up the water? I did think of digging a deep pit and filling it
with gravel.

Which would then fill up with water every winter. Save your efforts
for something more likely to be effective. I doubt that you will
get anywhere with the legal route, but that is another matter. My
recommendation is as follows:

Make some raised paths (using, say, side boards and gravel) for
routes you want to walk on.

Move earth so that it is NOT level if you want to plant anything
other than wetland plants. That is hard work.

Plant willows, wet-loving dogwoods etc. They will draw up water
to some extent and won't mind the damp anyway. There are a lot of
very attractive, smallish willows.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.