Urgent help needed - waterlogged garden

Hi, I am new to this forum but I urgently need you help. I have a severe waterlogged section of my garden. I planted a willow tree last year in the area as I was advised at a garden centre this would drink alot of the water but to be honest it has had no effect at all. The section of my garden affected in the lowest point and the water has no where to drain to. I can't afford to put in drainage so I was wondering if there are any plants or trees etc which I can plant to help solve this. I have a 2 year old who loves the outdoors and it is hard to stop her going in this area and the waterlogged section is getting larger. Any help or advice you have will be very much appreciated. It has clay soil but last year we removed the majority of the clay soil and replaced it with compost. We regularly spike the lawn to see if this helps but as you can see from the photos it has not. I will upload some photos I took this afternoon.

 

Are you trying to dry the area out a bit with thirsty plants or just want to find suitable plants for that situation? If you don't really need that space Gunera loves wet ground but do you love Gunera???? There are lots of pretty plants for boggy ground.

 

Clay soil, compost? you may want to read This post

 

I am trying to dry the area out as it is the middle section of my garden and my daughter loves playing outside and just now I have to corner this area off with my sons football goals to stop my daughter going near it. Are there any plants I could use to help dry this area out.

 

superb opportunity for plants for wet/boggy conditions (but they don't drain the area)
primula prolifera!!! or p. japonica or p. pulverulenta, houttuynia cordata variegata, calamagrostis arundinacea, carex pendula, iris sibirica, patrinia scabiosofolia

how about making a raised path through the bog (from timber or with large stones?)

as to your willow tree: it might neeed some more years to become larger and more effective
eucalyptus tree are said to be very very thirsty too but they grow into very tall specimens

 

You were given bad advice I'm afraid, plants won't drain the area I'm afraid ... well ... a Willow will drink heavily, but not in any useful time period, it will need to be a decent sized tree before it can do that. Plants that like / will tolerate wet don't necessarily drink a lot.

Drains are the solution. Appreciate that it may not appear affordable, but have you checked the price? It may be less than you think. Some perforated plastic drainage pipe (2 inch will probably do, provided you lay it in multiple trenches), dig a trench, just-cover the pipe with gravel, and then either the drainage pipe needs to go to lower ground (like a ditch), or into an existing drain, or you need to dig a deep hole and fill it with any old rubble (i.e. a soakaway). Probably only a weekend's work for a fit young man - got any of them handy that will work flat out in return for a good lunch?

http://www.pavingexpert.com/drain03.htm

 

Thank you all for your ideas. These are the photos i took of it yesterday. I really dont want to put drains in, as my neighbour a few doors up has the same problem and he put drains in and it has not helped at all. I dont want to dig all the garden up etc to put the drains in. What do you all think, from the photos is there too much water and drains is the only solution.

 

There is no other answer really other than a drain. Not unless you want to lant wet loving plants.
Are these pictures of when its at its worst ? Does it drain away if so, how long will it take for you to see no water ?

G

 

Make it into a damp garden it will slowly dry up round plant swamp cypress gunarea with spatarting of iris with two or three clump of daylily lots to choose from then under plant with some anenomes perfect

 

What about a soak-away. My previous house didn't have mains drainage. The water from our kitchen went into a soak-away. To create it you will have to dig down fairly deep removing all the soil (at least 3ft) then fill with at least a foot of gravel and replace the soil. You will get a little settlement after but that's easily solved with more soil.

 

Plants alone will not drain it. In winter, it will be under water still.
Damp gardens can look lovely but the problem will still be there. Thats if you see it as a problem of course.

Good luck
G

 

From the pictures it appears the water is at the base of a wall.

A willow will only drink water in summer, that same as any tree, so wont help with the problem.

I think we need a larger view of the garden to get a true picture of the problem.

Is the wall stopping the water draining?

Is the wall the house wall?

By the looks of it at the moment bog plants are your only choice.

 

Do you know where the water is coming from? Is it possible that there's a burst water main down there somewhere? Maybe your local water board should take a look.

 

Thank you all so much for your replies. Basically the wall is the garden wall of my neighbours at the back of ours, their garden is higher up than ours so we think the water is coming from their garden. We are at the bottom of a hill therefore it just runs down to our garden. It was never an issue until last year as my neighbour had very very large conifers all along the back of her garden, but she removed them since then we have had this water problem.

It is getting worse as it is sitting on the grass and now the section of grass which is wet is becoming larger and with 2 young children this is not ideal as they love playing in the garden. We daily spike the grass to try and help wit the water problem but this is having no effect, it is only mainly after a heavy downpour or water this happens, if it stays dry we dont have the water so badly. Is there anything other than drains that I could do to help at least maintain the water and stop it from being on the grass.