How to deal with a wet garden?

[gensetsteve]

plant willow and get some goats.

[agg221]

We have a river at the bottom of our garden and the place was formerly a water meadow. Also grew up with it, being in a valley floor on heavy clay, so everywhere I go seems to be wet!

 

Drainage works, but only if there's somewhere to drain it to. You are looking at either a French drain or a field drain - depends on how bad it is and how quickly you want it to drain away. If there's nowhere to drain to you would have to go with the sump and pump route. Either way is a lot of work, and it will (briefly) be very messy, although some fresh turf and one good downpour later and you'll barely notice.

 

Planting with it is a much easier route. Willows do suck up enough water to make a difference (although as has been said, not in winter). Any tree/large shrub will make a difference, so the death of the other trees will have made it worse.

 

Bog garden planting is the easiest route - most of the primulas will do well but particularly the candelabra ones (yellows, oranges and reds). Most plants with big, lush leaves will work, as will many of the decorative ferns. There are several irises that will give height and colour (white, purple, cream and the yellow flag iris).

 

There's a good selection of specialist wet area plants at Burncoose Nursery:

 

Damp Areas Beside Water ? Bog Plants - Burncoose Nurseries - plants by mail order direct to you - Camellia, Magnolia and Rhododendron Specialists

 

Your local nursery is also a good bet (not garden centre) as they're likely to know what does well in the area.

 

Alec

[miker]

you could try a series of drains, get a petrol auger with 4" bit,auger out a series of holes and fill with pea gravel,would be a cheap way to try,if it dosent work,will only cost a few quid,hopefully it will help if not solve the problem

[kentjames]

Sub surface drainage using perforated pipes into a structured soak away, or pond with bog plants, and then manure manure manure manure manure the hell out of it. Its possible to turn any soil around to a decent growing medium, it purely needs organic matter.

 

I've done it on a few large gardens I maintain where we had 20tons and 30 tons of manure in to beef up the new borders before rotovating it in and mulch mulch mulch with more manure or wood chips.

 

Manure works for dry ground which is like concrete too!

[csservices]

First thought would be to check there are'nt any broken drains, if its sewerage it will be easy to tell by the smell, but if its top water from the gutters etc may not be as easy to spot, we sorted one last year which is actually caused by a spring under the garden which fills a well and then the overflow runs down the garden to a manhole on the road, lleylandi roots had got into the drain and backed it all up this caused a huge mess as this drain is 4inch clay and runs full bore all year round, will have a look if I've still got the pics of it

[Old Mill Tree Care]

What kind of trees died and how big were they and why did they die?

[farmer rod]

What kind of trees died and how big were they and why did they die?

 

I have seen trees die from water from leaking water mains, maybe the chlorine, perhaps worth a thought

[likeitorlumpit]

Sub surface drainage using perforated pipes into a structured soak away, or pond with bog plants, and then manure manure manure manure manure the hell out of it. Its possible to turn any soil around to a decent growing medium, it purely needs organic matter.

 

I've done it on a few large gardens I maintain where we had 20tons and 30 tons of manure in to beef up the new borders before rotovating it in and mulch mulch mulch with more manure or wood chips.

 

Manure works for dry ground which is like concrete too!

 

Bet you wished you'd put on a bigger tarpaulin.

 

Anyway- theres always concrete

Seriously. We looked at a garden in clay London a while back and they used fly ash about 6ins deep to lay grass on for tennis courts. You could try that though it really depends on how you want to develop the final garden.

I always favour working with the conditions rather than putting loads of effort into changing things. 10 years down the line all the manure will have gone and you may find the drains have stopped working. Not only that, getting them to work is a bit specialist. I've seen clay sports fields that have had thousands spent on them drainage wise still muddy at the surface.

[Eddy_t]

Hollow-tine fork and kiln dried top-dressing sand, hard work, but will cure your problem if done monthly over a year or two

 

 

Sent using Arbtalk Mobile App

[pro bros]

you need to find the lowest part of the garden and see if there are any drains in it or any where to get the water away then run 4 inch slotted pipe 18 inch deep in a herring bone formation. top each slot up with gravel then soil last 3 inch.manure etc will improve soil structure but will not remove water infact quite the opposite as it holds moisture thats why it works on dry ground.