CLAY SOIL

Hi just moved to a new property in enfield,Garden is just lawn with a border.
The soil is holding water and is clay,what can i add to improve drainage?
also lawn is not good at drainage what/how can i improve this with out digging up
Thanks

 

Hi poohpouri,

Unfortunately there's no long term solution to sorting out your drainage problem without digging up the lawn. You can regularly fork the lawn and fill the holes with sand but this is only a quick fix that you will need to redo again & again. If you're staying in this house for a while you may want to bite the bullet and sort out some proper drainage in order to enjoy your garden to the fullest. The cheapest solution is to dig in loads and loads of organic matter such as straw, manure and compost that helps to break up the clay clumps. Again, this will need to be done almost yearly, depending on the level of waterlogging. For a long term fix you may need to dig up the ground and install a proper drainage system using pipes leading to a drain or soakaway. Get a few quotes from a couple of landscape designers and see what they can come up with.

Hope this helps,
Matthew

 

To improve the soil in the borders dig in plenty of organic material, peat, manure and garden compost. As for the lawn, aerate it using a hollow tined aerator. Then brush in some lawn and turf top dressing. You are not going to improve the soil overnight, it will take several years. Just remember that clay has more nutrients than other soils.:gnthb:

 

Hello,

you will need to start to dig in plenty of grit and any organic material you can get hold of-compost, horse muck etc. Lime also has an effect on clay but it is no good if you have acid loving plants in the borders-it`s digging in the above that will work best anyway.

 

Hi thanks for the replies, We moved in October 08, so have not spent a winter here yet,lawn is not waterlogged as such but very soft/wet(if you know what i mean)could it just be that the ground is staturated at the moment with all the rain we have had, the grass itself is great with no yellowing etc.
With the soil I read somewhere to use sharp sand and compost is this right?

 

My lawn is like a mudbath at the moment, but it is compacted and clay too, I don`t particularly care about the lawn so just leave that to the OH


In the borders - opinion is divided as to whether sharp sand has any real benefit to clay soils. I`m of the opinion that a bit won`t hurt but it`s nothing compared to the benefits that additional compost or manure has, that and a bit of hard work. Now is not the right time to be dealing with clay-dig it over either in the height of summer when it`s dry or at the start of December to allow the freezing temperatures to break it up a bit, but certainly never when it`s wet-it just makes it worse.

 

Sounds like I'm in the same position as you Claire-we are on clay here too (good, old Sussex Weald!) and at the moment the lawn is waterlogged and the stepping stones up to the chicken run squelch everytime you step on them. The borders are surprisingly ok, but I pile loads of compost and manure onto them and am forever digging them in.

Poohpouri, don't despair, its perfectly possible to garden on clay. It just needs a bit more digging first!

 

Part of the problem I have is that I do infact walk on the lawn when I really shouldn`t, and last year I did a helluva lot of manual labour out there-moving cobblestones etc-which I did whatever the weather because I had to prepare it for the autumn-and it was another wet summer. This year it will have a better chance because I won`t be doing that so much-and I`ll probably just lime it to be honest. I did a bit of work on it-I`m being unfair on it really, I aerated it and sprinkled sand in the holes, I will reseed the bad areas, but I can`t promise I won`t mix in daisy seeds with the lawn seed. Just gotta keep my husband from getting the lawnmower out so often.

 

Yes, I walk on it as well, but its the only way I can get to the flower borders and up to the chickens.

If I had my way I'd turn the whole lawn into low borders, with paths in between, perhaps made of bark chippings or gravel, which I think would look great. Unfortunately OH likes the look of some grass, so I have to put up with it and just gradually encroach into it with borders.

You know, we've had this conversation before!

 

If you don't have standing water, on Clay, they I don't think you have a problem - although you do need to work with, rather than against, clay

If you have standing water (and maybe even if you don't) you need to put land drains in. They make a huge difference ...

... for land drains under the Veg patch you could consider running the downpipes from the house roof into the land drains - carefully designed the drainage pipes can act as a water reservoir, as well as drains

 

Kristen is right
Unless you have lower ground to drain to 'amending' will not have much effect.
HOWEVER ... continuous amending in your borders will improve the tilth and condition of the soil and the additives will eventually get you up above the existing water table ... problem solved
That won't help your lawn, but it is probably just suffering from the very high levels of rainfall we have been having

 

thanks everyone ,Right I will wait until soil is much drier then get some muck in there,and leave the lawn and see how that is once we get better weather

 

Good plan Poohpourri-I wish you well with it, any paricular plants you have in mind when it`s ready?

 

"I will wait until soil is much drier then get some muck in there"

Frost will do a great job of breaking up roughly dug clay - but you don't want to be digging it when its a "pudding".

I don't attempt to get on my (clay) soil this time of the year, but perhaps there is a case for rough-digging it if we get some frosts that "freeze it solid"?

 

Thinking tropical palm like plants etc but need to read up a bit on them,but my wife might have other plans