Heavy clay drainage help

Thank you so much everyone, especially @shiny for the fantastic advice, would you believe upon receipt of the second letter he had a change of heart and has agreed to come, remove everything he had done, and redo it. My husband is going to help him so it is done faster (reads: oversee everything like a hawk to make sure it's done correctly this time). It's looking like it won't be until the very end of March/first week of April though.

As to helping improve the heavy clay above the drains, my plan of attack so far is this -

Wait for drains to be redone
Remove and dispose of the very worst of the clay (the solid clay lumps etc)
Buy a large bulldog trenching fork (the one with really long tines) and fork over all the garden to help loosen the compaction.
Fork in quite a large amount of mushroom compost
Leave to settle for a week or so
Add a few tonnes of topsoil for on top
Chuck down a lot of grass seed

Does this sound like the right way to go about it?

 

I've not read through all of this post - just picked up the heavy clay soil bit.

The middle 'terrace' of my back garden is heavy clay - no grass just clay soil. Walk on the soil and it compacts into a solid mass.

I've decided to add a number of raised beds - and fill them with topsoil. I'll only walk inbetween the raised beds - so I'm not bothered if it compacts of not. In fact compaction will prohibit weed growth.

My neighbour has taken a different approach - top soil and then turf - which is a lot more work and IMHO a little 'dull' in the Spring/Summer - I don't want to look out onto an expanse of plain green.

I'm not sure how he gets on with pooling water as when he walks on the grass - it must compact the clay to some degree.

 

That's the issue I have at the moment, the ground is horrible!

Ideally I want nice beds for shrubs/dwarf trees/perennials and a lawn for my daughters to run around on. I have considered raising the entire garden level by a few inches just to aid in drainage.

 

The picture of your garden doesn't look that bad. Mine was worse - I ended up using a mattock to break up the soil just below the surface - it worked - there is no pooling water anymore.

Perhaps raised beds around the outside for shrubs etc and a turfed area in the centre. The best of both worlds and should be easier than turfing/seeding the whole area.

 

In terms of the land drains - compacted clay prevents the water from getting into them - so if you have a lawn over the whole area - the clay will compact and the water will pool - it doesn't really make much difference what is underneath it.

If the land drains are on top of compacted clay - and above them is a relatively loose medium - then they should work.

Raised beds are one way to avoid compaction.

 

Just had to google photos of a mattock @clanless that is some serious weaponry haha! Don't dare let my husband see that, he will definitely want one!

 

Mattocks are brilliant. See if you can find an old one though. I think the newer ones are inferior in their design, if not their quality.