"...... The rain is back. Surely cracks drain better than cracks filled with
sand. Try filling the bath plug hole with sand ...."

Quite right martin..........

BUT

The bath doesn't expand when it has a prolonged wetting, given a really good
soak the soil will expand and close the cracks, then the next question we
will have to answer is
"My lawn is laid on clay and with all this heavy rain the water doesn't
drain away, what can I do to improve the drainage? "

--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

"...... The rain is back. Surely cracks drain better than cracks filled with
sand. Try filling the bath plug hole with sand ...."

Quite right martin..........

BUT

The bath doesn't expand when it has a prolonged wetting, given a really good
soak the soil will expand and close the cracks, then the next question we
will have to answer is
"My lawn is laid on clay and with all this heavy rain the water doesn't
drain away, what can I do to improve the drainage? "

--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 22:15:04 +0100, "David Hill"
wrote:

"...... The rain is back. Surely cracks drain better than cracks filled with
sand. Try filling the bath plug hole with sand ...."

Quite right martin..........

BUT

The bath doesn't expand when it has a prolonged wetting, given a really good
soak the soil will expand and close the cracks, then the next question we
will have to answer is
"My lawn is laid on clay and with all this heavy rain the water doesn't
drain away, what can I do to improve the drainage? "

LOL!

You could try planting GM walking trees to absorb the water
http://www.marcliff.net/knutsford/mayday/jack.htm
--
martin

On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 22:15:04 +0100, "David Hill"
wrote:

"...... The rain is back. Surely cracks drain better than cracks filled with
sand. Try filling the bath plug hole with sand ...."

Quite right martin..........

BUT

The bath doesn't expand when it has a prolonged wetting, given a really good
soak the soil will expand and close the cracks, then the next question we
will have to answer is
"My lawn is laid on clay and with all this heavy rain the water doesn't
drain away, what can I do to improve the drainage? "

LOL!

You could try planting GM walking trees to absorb the water
http://www.marcliff.net/knutsford/mayday/jack.htm
--
martin

On Wed, 16 Jul 2003, David Hill wrote:

"...... The rain is back. Surely cracks drain better than cracks filled with
sand. Try filling the bath plug hole with sand ...."

Quite right martin..........

BUT

The bath doesn't expand when it has a prolonged wetting, given a really good
soak the soil will expand and close the cracks, then the next question we
will have to answer is
"My lawn is laid on clay and with all this heavy rain the water doesn't
drain away, what can I do to improve the drainage? "


the reason why the cracks appear is the type of the underlaying soil.
if you want to change the behaviour of the soil when it gets wet and then dry
you can use 2 things. the first is sand (as others have said so) and the second
is organic matter. the organic matter will imporove the mechanical behaviour
of the soil (the crack stuff) and add to the fertility of the soil as well as the drainage.



--------------------------------------------------------------
Nick Apostolakis
e-mail:
Web Site: http://agriroot.aua.gr/~nickapos
--------------------------------------------------------------

On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 10:37:59 +0100, "David Hill"
wrote:

The reason for saying to fill the cracks with sand is that when we get back
to wet weather the sand filled cracks will help with drainage, and as for
grass seed, no point as the grass will cover in a couple of weeks after
rain.

The rain is back. Surely cracks drain better than cracks filled with
sand. Try filling the bath plug hole with sand.
--
martin