What's best to 'dry' a soggy garden?
 

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.

MM

In message , MM
writes
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.

Aren't the builders responsible for putting land drains in in a
situation like this? The conditions may well affect your house as well
as the garden....

--
Klara, Gatwick basin

Klara wrote:
In message , MM
writes
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.

Aren't the builders responsible for putting land drains in in a
situation like this? The conditions may well affect your house as
well
as the garden....

I'd get a surveyor in -- the Local Authority might do it for you --
and sue somebody's backside off.

Mike.

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.

"MM" wrote in message
...
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.

MM
I live in the fens and this must be the wettest 12 months I remember. My
land is completely waterlogged at present and the dykes surrounding the land
are full so any new rain has nowhere to go. There is a layer or water on the
surface and another 3 inches of mud underneath that :0( I am praying for a
few days of dry windy weather.
I would say that before thinking about doing anything to your garden, wait a
few weeks or months to see if it dries out because if it is just this awful
weather causing the problem, it might go away of its own accord in time.

On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 19:13:46 GMT, Janet Baraclough
wrote:

The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains these words:

Klara wrote:
In message , MM
writes
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.

Aren't the builders responsible for putting land drains in in a
situation like this? The conditions may well affect your house as
well
as the garden....

I'd get a surveyor in -- the Local Authority might do it for you --
and sue somebody's backside off.

That's premature. Flat, reclaimed, recently built on land in the
fens, in the middle of one of the wettest winters, could be expected to
be unworkably wet atm. I have sandy, fast draining soil on a hillside,
and due to the exceptional rainfall it too has been exceptionally soggy
and unworkable all winter until this week when, oh joy, we had four
consecutive days without rain. Probably for the first time this winter.

OP, you can't judge in midwinter. Particularly this midwinter. Wait
and see what happens later in the year; don't sow a lawn until you know.

If by May/June it turns out you have a permanently soggy garden, or
part of a garden, plants won't dry it. Instead, plant ones which love
soggy/boggy conditions...there are many very beautifulo and dramatic
ones.

The soakaway idea you mention, will only work as a drain if its
bottom is above the permanent water table. IOW, if you did a hole into a
high water table, you will have a hole full of water. Fill it with
stones, and you will have a hole full of stones and water, which does
nothing to drain the surrounding area.

Interesting points, Janet. Thanks!

MM

On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 22:37:26 GMT, "ex WGS Hamm"
wrote:


"MM" wrote in message
.. .
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.

MM
I live in the fens and this must be the wettest 12 months I remember. My
land is completely waterlogged at present and the dykes surrounding the land
are full so any new rain has nowhere to go. There is a layer or water on the
surface and another 3 inches of mud underneath that :0( I am praying for a
few days of dry windy weather.
I would say that before thinking about doing anything to your garden, wait a
few weeks or months to see if it dries out because if it is just this awful
weather causing the problem, it might go away of its own accord in time.

Oh, so this weather's exceptional, then! I was beginning to wonder...
Looks like I'll just have to be a bit patient.

MM

I think someone hit the nail on the head - dig some drainage dykes!

In article .com,
writes:
| I think someone hit the nail on the head - dig some drainage dykes!
|

Only if you have somewhere to drain the water TO - even in the
low-rainfall Fenlands, there will be a surplus of several inches
of rain over evaporation during the winter months.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

wrote in message
oups.com...
I think someone hit the nail on the head - dig some drainage dykes!

Someone did that about 300 years ago :0)