How to deal with a wet garden?

[rovers90]

Hi guys, some help if possible would be appreciated.

 

I have looked after the garden of a very good friends mother for the last two years. The back garden is about 120 foot long by about 36 foot wide. There are borders down either side and two huge pine trees at the bottom. The right hand part of the garden is always extremely wet. There used to be seven trees down the border but these were felled last year as they had died. The stumps and roots were left in place. The border itself is about two foot wide and is always wet. The soil is just like thick, wet concrete that does not want to let go of your shovel! When it did try a little bit last summer I managed to clear some of the weeds and long grass that had grown there. The wetness extends to the lawn as well, it squelches when you walk down that side.

 

The owner thinks there may be or has been an underground stream that runs along the bottom of the garden and we were wondering if this could be the problem. The neighbour on the other side of the fence does not have the wet problem. Somebody told me a while ago it may be possible to dig a field drain, ie dig a few feet down, lay about a foot of gravel and then soil on top. However, given the condition of the soil it would be a real dirty job digging down so much, the tree roots would interfere and shouldn't the water be drained away somewhere?

 

Any ideas would be gratefully received.

[easy-lift guy]

If the area has always been wet it sounds like a layer of clay is acting a barrier preventing percolation. This is common in Florida. What kinda of soill do you have?. We have mainly sandy/loam here. You could try digging a hole 3 to 5 ' and inserting a 4" PVC pipe into the hole level with the surface of the turf. Back fill the hole with about a foot of lime stone and back fill the ballance with your used soil. A plastic drain cover for the top would finish off the project. This may help transfer the excess moisture to the surface water level, where it belongs

[slack ma girdle]

I would dig an inspection pit as deep as you can dig. This will give you an idea of where the water is comming from. If there is a high clay content to the soil you will need to improve the soil structure, sand being the best thing for that, but will need alot of effort on your part. If there is flowing water into the inspection pit then the only cure is drainage via pipework, which will require even more effort.

What ever the out come, you is going to be digging (alot)

[Len Brennan]

Why fight it? Just create a bog garden, big gunnera, some primulas that sort of thing.

[PDGS]

Why fight it? Just create a bog garden, big gunnera, some primulas that sort of thing.

 

fork in manure to improve the stucture and plant trees shrubs and other plants that thrive in that envirement

 

got lemons make lemonade

[rovers90]

Thank you for the replies guys. I like the idea of planting suitable water loving plants, would save a heck of a lot of digging. Would they take up enough water to dry the lawn out where it is squelchy?

 

Many thanks

[dave fox]

if those old tree roots need to come out then get a digger in and then under drain it at the same time. one of the best things to set to dry it up is willow they love their roots in water and damp conditions.

[Billy]

put in perforated pipe, surounded by gravel topped with soil run right through the damp area nd out to somewhere that doesn't matter or dig a soakaway for it to drain into. depending on how bad it is you may need quite a few

[Giles Hill]

I don't think you could rely on planting to drain the lawn - it would certainly be unlikely to do the job in the winter.

 

If you have any kind of slope, you could put a pond at the lowest point and drain the lawn into it. Just be careful to take into account the overflow - it might be ok to allow the pond to overflow onto adjacent ground - eg a bog garden, or other area you don't mind being wet, but it won't be so good if it overflows onto the neighbours patio...

 

I agree with general sentiment of working with what you've got, there are a lot of nice herbaceous plants that like those conditions and people often have to create suitable conditions artificially to grow them. Or if you want something simpler to maintain, then you could plant dogwood in large groups.

[mikecotterill]

We have the same, made worse bad the dog charging round on it.

Next door have the same problem and had a sump dig in the garden with an electric pump, not entirely sure how it works exactly tho