Advice needed on to deal with a waterlogged garden

Hello,

We moved to a new house last July and due to illness, I didn't start working on the garden until recently. It's a lovely south-west facing garden. At the bottom of the garden is very large tree (not sure what type). The garden does get sun, but the tree tends to get in the way. As the summer progressed, I kept an eye on the areas that got sun and began to plan out how I would have it (previous owners didn't like to garden and turfed the whole thing).

But as the year progressed and winter arrived, I realised that the garden is heavily water logged. We went out there last weekend to dig the beds and it was like working in a bog!

So I have two questions:

1. Is there anything I can do to reduce the waterlogging? I am on a tight budget so not yet in a position to rip up the lawn and put in drains (but might be able to in the future).

2. How do I find out about plants that like excessive water?

Thanks,

Merroney

 

Drains is what you need. Sorry about that.

Plants won't drink the water until they are reasonably mature, so they aren't a quick solution.

If you are growing Veg you can create raised beds by just digging out the "paths" a spade's-depth and sticking the soil onto the "beds" - make then no more than 4' wide so you can reach them from either side, and then try never to walk on them. The paths being lower than the beds will provide additional drainage.

Even open trenches running downhill will help,m but what you really need to do is put some perforated plastic drainage pipe (comes on a roll) in the trench, and cover the pipe with gravel, then fill in the trench.

The area might be boggy because your drains (from the roof / downpipes) are blocked - e.g. by tree roots, so just getting them sorted out would fix the problem - but Dynarod aren't cheap either ...

Useful info on drainage here:
http://www.pavingexpert.com/drainage.htm

 

I must agree with Kristen on this .
There has been a few recent threads on drainage problems ..but in my opinion there is no other successful way to treat water logging than drainage ,and the water must have somewhere to drain away to .
Always worth checking for broken or blocked drains ,and checking if this is a new problem or a pre-existing one ..
Sorry it sounds negative ..

Dave

 

Thanks. Can I ask, if we do decide to have drains installed, where do I begin to look for someone to do that? What can of title do they come under? I think this would be beyond my capabilities.

 

Also, does anyone have any idea what kind of cost might be involved? Or is that the same as asking how long is a piece of string?

 

Suggest you just ask a local builder. They would lay that type of perforated drainage pipe, covered with gravel, for all sorts of situations, so I reckon they would be fine doing drains.

There are agricultural drainage people, but I reckon anything less than a large field would be too small for their equipment!

If you can dig a trench 2' deep, and get some gravel delivered (e.g. in 1-tonne bags - and you have off-road space for that) then I reckon you can do the job yourself.

But do check if the existing drains are blocked first - Dynarod will have a camera they can stick down to have a look to see if there are tree roots in the drains, or some other sort of damage - or if its just a simple blockage they will clear it of course. Get them to unblock any sinks / baths that you have that might be full of grease / long hair whilst they are there - the callout is the largest part of the cost, so get them to check all your drains whilst they are there.

 

You may find a good local landscaper who would undertake this work .
I retired from landscaping last year and did several drainage problem jobs hence my opinions on drainage ..
As for cost , get 2 or 3 estimates see what the guys say .Ask the nieghbours if they have similar problems ?
Dave

 

I can't thank you enough for you advice. Much appreciated.

 

Just a thought is your garden lower than the ones around you? They might be draining off into yours.