My garden has seen a lot of trampling by tradesmen over the past few years. Retaining walls were destroyed, weeds, especially docks flourished and, it seems, all draining material was washed away. The garden is like a solid mass of clay.

Those responsible have agreed to "sort" the problem. They did dig it ov er but the first heavy rain flattened it leaving puddles which didn't drain for ages but did wash teh earth onto my paths: yewk: constant cleaning and, as clay sticky so perpetually dragged through house.

They said they'd sort the drainage problem by digging in course sand. However, I read somewhere that this would only serve to turn the clay to a cement. It suggested that loam would also need to be incorporated with the sand.

Can anyone advise on this?

The other matter is that they say they can't do that work just now as it's a job for the Spring. Problem I see is that I will want it ready for planting in Spring and given the lack of speed with which they work, they could well call Summer, Spring. How early, ground being sufficiently soft for digging of course, can I stipulate as a last date for fixing.

I would have thought we'd want the last frosts to help break up the earth to further help with drainage.

(Not really confident about using capitals at season names: dyslexia rules KO!.)

All help on these matters gratefully received and much appreciated.