Tips for a wet, soggy lawn

Hi everyone,

My wee garden has a problem with being quite soggy, partly because there's a retaining wall and field at the back (so that rainwater collecting in the field seeps down into the garden), and partly because I live near Glasgow where it rains more often than most places!

In the summer, my Dad and I totally re-did the whole garden. One thing we did was to put a layer of stones down before adding soil, to try to help with drainage, then planted grass seed on the soil. As you can see in the photo, through a combination of our mistakes, a wet summer and even wetter, windier winter has left me with a very shabby, patchy and pathetic looking lawn!

I'm looking for any advice to try to avoid the same thing happening next year. The soil doesn't have problems with standing water, but is generally always quite soggy (unless we get a decent warm, dry spell). In particular I'm wondering if there are particular types of grass that will stand up better to wet and windy conditions, and also if there's maybe other types of plant I might put down to help soak up some of that excess water?



Finally - I did say that we made some mistakes, so I'll list them here to help fill you in on what things I think we did badly that made the problem worse!

• We planted the grass towards the end of summer, maybe doing it earlier in the year might have helped the grass establish before autumn/winter.
• My Dad put down a lot of grass fertiliser, thinking it was seed! We lost a couple of weeks waiting for the "seed" to start growing before realising! Probably also over-fed the grass when we did put down seed.
• I didn't take particular care to choose the grass. It grew very fast - so fast I struggled to find dry days to cut it before it got too long. As a result, soggy "clumps" of cut grass tended to stick to the remaining grass. Not ideal.
• I didn't take much care to spread the seed evenly or bed it into the soil properly - so the lawn was already quite patchy before the winter wrecked it, as you can see here.

 

I've got a few reservations, but glad to see you have identified a few mistakes.

I'd leave well alone until next spring although you could try spiking it with a fork and brushing in sharp sand.
I think it will thicken up if left alone and just cut regularly next year.

Would have been good if the grass was above the edging, just slightly, much easier to mow that way.

 

Personally I'd cover the lot in a mix of sharp sand, grit, and a very small amount of compost, so that the top inch in mostly sharp sand and grit. I'd do that early in spring, without caring if I smothered the grass. Then in late spring, I'd re seed it. We did exactly this for a path on my dad's allotment. The result is a hard wearing grass path that never becomes sloppy.

 

What about this for a coincidence. My dad came round earlier. In casual conversation he mentionedthat his allotment was flooded. Then he said 'you know that path we did with the sand andgrit and grass? Well that's the only bit that isnt under water, it's like a pier'.

 

You do realise Clueless, you'll now be roped in to do the same for the rest of the allotment.

 

I doubt it for two reasons.

Firstly, the result is only good for grass or maybe certain wild flowers. It would be hard work digging it I reckon for most crops.

Secondly, cost. To do the path, I think my dad spent about 50 quid for half a tonne of sand and grit. To do the entire allotment, a wild guess at cost would be maybe a grand or two.

Having said that, it doesn't sound so bad. Maybe not to do the wholelot, but to do just the bits that need it most. His allotment is not prone to flooding, but a few patches do suffer a bit. With the exception of one exceptionally wet year when he lost his entire crop of onions, my dad has mostly figured out what thrives where.

 

Thanks for the input guys. I think I'll give clueless's suggestion a go. I've no real experience with seeding a lawn, but it looks pretty grim at the moment and seems to me like starting almost from scratch and doing it more carefully would be most beneficial. Plus, it would allow the chance to look at the edges again to make things a bit easier to mow, as pete mentioned.

Care to elaborate? If there's something else you want to mention, feel free to say it! I'm a complete novice so happy to hear any input.

 

Well apart from the fact it looks lower than the edging as I mentioned, so acting as a sump from the gravel area above, it looks a bit small in the pic.

Not sure I would have bothered trying to grass it, probably have gone for hard paving.

 

Ok, fair enough. Yes, it's a small area, but the garden itself is small. I live in a mid terrace, so hemmed in on either side by neighbouring gardens. Can't really do anything about that, apart from buying a new home!

I'd prefer to have a nice-looking green grassy area than covering the whole garden in decking, chips and paving, though if I have another disaster with the grass I'll re-think my strategy. Ultimately I don't really care too much, as long as the garden as a whole looks half-decent.