On 5/18/2009 5:02 AM, Milesy wrote:
Hi folks.

I have a serious drainage issue on my new lawn, which I never
envisioned when I put my back garden together.

The lawn is on a slight slope upwards away from the house, and the
water comes back down the way to the end of the lawn closest to the
house and it is constantly saturated, even after a few days of dry.
This patch is now covered in moss and is reallying stressing me out.

Under the grass is about 2 foot of very tough clayey soil, and then
strangely there is a "semi" rock hard layer of sand stone, which
although not fully rock, it is very tough to dent.

Does anyone have any simple solutions to help with this without having
to dig up massive amounts of lawn and soil again?

I tried boring some holes down as far as I could get and filled them
with sand (fine sand) to maybe allow the water to flow down further
into the ground but it did not make much difference.

I have neighbours at each side so there is nowhere to really drain the
water away from the garden by way of a french drain or similar.

If anyone has any ideas I am all ears.

I have a small lot in the city and I had a similar problem, compounded
by the unfortunate fact that my yard is downhill from the rest of the
block, with the lot to the South being downhill from me, but that would
be across my driveway.

I'm toying with the idea of filling in some strategic low spots in the
back of the yard, and then using some decorative brick or paving stones
to channel the water directly to the driveway, and letting it flow down
to the storm drain in the street.

I'm worried about ice buildup in the winter though... not to mention
the wear and tear on the concrete.