drainage

our garden get very wet especially in winter , were looking at installing some form of drainage , whats the best idea ?

Excuse the building site , I know weve had a lot of rain but its all really boggy - we`ll be leveling it out so the mound will be going

We were thinking of a couple of big soak away pits full of rubble and possibly a trench full of rubble under the path between the veg beds and fruit trees - will this be enough ?






This area will be slabed for the new greenhouse




Its not just the puddles its all like a bog

 

Carl,
these photos are worth so much. You have been shown exactly where the water will settle and however you tackle the project, you have been given a precious head start. Good luck and we will all love to see how you go about resolving the problems,
Jenny

 

If money was no object take a JCB to the area and remove all you can before putting in a complete area of rubble and raise the ground level by at least a few feet. Add top soil to this and hope that this will not re occur.
Whatever you do it is bound to be an improvement on what you have there.
Best of luck with the project.

 

Effective drainage needs a pipe to take the water away to somewhere "down hill", or into a storm drain (which may require a license).

A soak away won't soak away when sodden :( so unless you have a "pan" under your soil that, once you have dug through it, then drains freely you won't have anywhere for the water to go to - so you will just be storing it such that it can then percolate away at its own pace - which will be slow in a year like this where the ground (around here at least) is completely sodden.

Having said that, putting in land drains will make the surface water drain away more quickly, so it will improve things.

In essence: make trench(es), lay perforated drainage pipe (comes on a roll), put 6" - 12" of gravel / stones on top, then put back the top soil. If the lower end of the pipe can flow away that's perfect, if not you will have to take the pipes into a large soakaway - biggest hole you can make, and filled with large stones - be careful the walls don't collapse on you during construction.

Some good info here:
www.pavingexpert.com/drainage.htm

 

PS May I know what camera you have used to take pictures? Thanks

 

Its a samsung10 MP point and press - WB500 - it takes some brilliant pictures for what it is

 

definitely brilliant pictures!

 

Wouldn't it be fab if ... they invented a camera which took brilliant pictures but could also, and as instantly, fix the real item it captures! Now there's an invention waiting to happen

 

Hi

Maybe utilise a sump pump fed to a drain?

 

IMHO A properly constructed soak away or perhaps 2 separate ones with land drains run to them would work fine provided it's not underlying clay in which case you may need several more to drain the land sufficiently always bearing in mind the gradients.
The old method of filling soak aways with rubble is far less efficient than using the plastic egg crate construction for infill currently now universal in the building industry which is far less prone to clogging up over time. Any builders merchants will stock soak away materials.
In essence Kristen above has summed up all the options perfectly but the important thing is the underlying ground and working out levels/falls.

 

I shall use rubble as weve got a massive pile of it in the garden and need to be rid of it - ive seen the milk crate style stuff - but rubble is free as were renevating the house and ill just go oversize - I might have some 2 foot diameter drainage pipe (5foot lengths) comming my way for free as well so these will be used to the soakaways

 

Think you have been given very good advice already and I wouldn't be able to add anything else except perhaps if you can afford to try and lay sheets of membrane over the pipes and before you put down the rubble. It does help to stop soil eventually permeating through the rubble and in time can block pipes. Perhaps also take the opportunity to get a huge load of manure, preferably horse, to add to the topsoil. I needed to make a new flowerbed and was short of topsoil. I used about 3/4 well rotted manure and 1/4 topsoil. Was a little dubious as to how my plants would react. OMG they grow like topsey and after a couple of years the very manuery soil drains much better than pure topsoil. Unless you live in a very built up area you should be able to source the manure for nothing bar perhaps the haulage cost, I recently posted a photo on here re bulb coping with being submerged, the bed to the right is the 1 which is 3/4 manure and has Rhododendrons,Azaleas, Hazels, Enkiantus, Fothergilla, Camellias and countless bulbs growing in it.Just an idea to maybe reduce costs and end up with beds which certainly acid shrubs thrive in.Good luck with your project, time spent now getting things right will pay dividends in the long term.

 

there are hoses up the lane , i intend to see someone about a few trailers of manure

 

Try to source something like these,

http://www.polypipe.com/civils/products/surface-water-drainage/ridgidrain

Or this site may offer some assistance

http://www.soakaway.org/

 

Rigidrain looks interesting, for example if you want to "adopt" a storm drain and council has a requirement for something like Rigidrain, but its £4 a metre, whereas perforated drainage pipe is nearer 80p a metre ...

First sales link out of Google:
http://www.drainageonline.co.uk/Land-Drainage.htm