Complete beginner - First New build garden advice needed!

Hi all,

Situation - Just purchased our first home and will be our first time having to maintain a garden space. It's a new build property and seems to have quite heavy/clay soil. Some other neighbours on the estate report of boggy gardens in heavy rain as I think the developer laid turf directly onto poor soil.

Our current plan is to turf the garden ourselves but I want to make sure we do it correctly the first time to hopefully avoid any issues that some neighbours seem to have.

I've attached some images of the garden below and would appreciate any steps and advice for making sure we get this right the first time and don't end up with any lawn problems in the future.

How would you approach this?

Side question - According to the NHBC (Home warranty provider) 100mm of topsoil should have been provided by the developer although I don't believe this has been done, some confirmation from more experienced folk would be great?

Thank you!

 

Hi,,

Suspect you have the typical new build garden which is clay infill with a few inches of topsoil which appears to have been well trampled, at least on ours they put the topsoil down after everything else had been done.

Bit difficult to be sure but it looks like you have some slope in your garden and its slightly above the surroudning gardens , so hopefully it can drain away more easily than others ?

 

What actually happens with new build is they put 4 ins of top soil onto compacted clay, its mostly why it never works very well.
The top soil just goes soggy due to the hard pan of clay that doesn't drain, its all very unnatural.

The problem is never easily overcome without some breaking up of the clay underneath with the addition of some aggregate or organic matter.
I'd rotave all the so called top soil into the clay as deep as possible then add more topsoil then firm it up and turf in spring.

 

It's the heavy machinery used that causes the problems. The subsoil is so badly and deeply compacted that just chucking a layer of topsoil on top solves nothing. The old fashioned method of double-digging, where a decent quantity of grit and/or manure/compost is incorporated two spade-depths down is probably the only really practical, long-term way of creating a decent depth of topsoil that will drain in winter.
Are you in an area with farms, equestrian centres or a municipal composting scheme, Wilks? If you can get hold of a good quantity of organic material, it's a start. Then some builders' merchants supply and deliver horticultural grit which is a permanent improvement.
Just rotovating those in would probably do for a lawn, as it doesn't need a great depth of soil, but if you decide to plant shrubs, trees or perennials, dig deep and incorporate as much improver as you can so the roots of the plants don't alternately soak and dry out in summer.

 

Thanks, I will try that next weekend.

 

Correct, house to the right is above our level, left house is below level so hoping gravity is going to assist.

 

Thanks Pete, can rotavating be done in January/February? I've seen some points online that rotivating wet clay soil can make problems worse?

 

Once you have dug your hole, see if it fills up with water and to what depth. Mind you, with the current rainfall, even a sandy hole might fill up!

 

Well if its soggy like it is it might be better to wait a month or two, just because you could just end up with a really big mess.
As you say it could make matter worse.
There are some things that are just easier and better if left until conditions are right.

 

Thanks noisette, with double-digging how much organic matter would you be placing into a dug trench?

Would it be enough that you'd be having to discard some of the original dug soil or little enough that there wouldn't be much excess.

Thanks

 

Looks like the slabs in the path might actually be level with the dpc, not sure what that dwarf wall is about in pic one, it looks like a dpc but its level with the soil.

 

Dwarf wall I believe is because that is neighbours garage which sits about 3 foot lower than our garden, so the bricks under the top 2 red are all tanked.

Slabs are below dpc but it's not a massive margin hence the question on whether I'll be needing to shift alot of soil.

 

Good point, I will work on that and post a picture!