help with a swampy garden

Hi everyone, I moved into our new home, and realized that a corner of the garden has very poor drainage, to the point that it looks like I have a pond. We already put a drainage plastic pipe, but it doesn't seem to help much, especially with the amount of rain here(and most probably there is a a water flow underground or smth). We planted a couple of weeping willows and cherry blossom, (they were recommended at the garden center), but the water doesn't sink into the soil..it just sits at the top, like it's clay underneath and not soil. We've planted our own grass, and obviously there is no grass in those spots; I guess all the seeds ended up rotten, so I don't want the same to happen with our tree roots. Any ideas what to plant, or what to do to get rid of it? or do I need to wait for the trees to establish their roots? (I've planted them roughly 3 months ago). Anyone has any experience with something like this to help with an advise? Thank you!

 

When you say you put a plastic pipe in where did you run it to in order to drain the water away?
How deep did you bury it?

Have you tried digging the garden, as I'm thinking maybe you have a hard pan of clay just below the surface.

 

The whole garden was dug by hand- a shovel deep. The garden is on a slope and this bit is at the top, like up the slope. We ran a pipe buried 1 m deep that goes to the bottom of the garden. We put the pipe where the swampy soil was, and now the bog forms next to the pipe, 20-50 cm from it, and where it was initially wet soil now it’s ok. Hope it makes sense what i’m explaining

 

Is it all solid clay.
Did you cover the pipe with shingle?
If the puddle is forming at the highest point it should be relatively easy to shift the water down the garden, just as long as you have some drainage at the bottom.

 

It’s a mixture of normal soil, with some clay mixed with small stones..it was actually quite difficult to dig. The deeper i was digging there were areas i felt like i was digging in concrete not soil. I didn’t cover it with shingle, i just put the same soil on top. Was i supposed to? It seemed to work where the problem was initially, but then the bog moved even more up from the pipe. I don’t know if i should dig the whole area deeper and try and find what is causing, or i should just plant some bog plants, which will hopefully solve the problem. Whenever i dug for the pipe I couldn’t really see anything tbh, but it was my first time digging a garden so i doubt i would have noticed much anyway. Could the quality of the soil be causing it?

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner frusabi.

How big is your garden please and what type of Willows did you buy?

 

Is your house a new build?
I'm assuming it was a some kind of perforated pipe used for land drainage .
You then cover it with shingle along it's length to stop the soil clogging it up. Then put the soil back.

Doesn't really matter what you plant, as at this time of the year most trees are dormant.

 

Yup it’s a new build. It was a proper perforated pipe for drainage. I think i will leave it until spring and maybe dig again. I just hope the roots won’t rot .
For Sheal: it’s roughly 300-400 square meter. I think the willows are
Weeping Willow Salix 'Kilmarnock' . They looked like them.

 

Following this frusabi, I've just moved into a house with a very damp garden that's turned into a giant puddle today..

 

Is the garden next door higher than yours, could be water seeping from theirs to yours.

 

It is actually higher , but there is the cement part in between, supporting the fence so i thought it shouldn’t be from them. I even thought of asking the builders to come back and dig there and find the problem but they will destroy everything we’ve done around

 

Thanks frusabi. I was a little worried you'd planted a larger variety of Willow, the roots of which could create damage to your home.

I think you will have to investigate further. It could be the builders have covered a solid clay pan with topsoil. My suggestion is to dig down deeper (if it's clay you may need a mattock to break through it) to find out exactly what is underneath and what the possible cause could be.

 

I might just do that once the spring comes, as it seems nothing is sorting it. I will just dig deeper and see what the culprit is. They might have just covered the clay with normal soil. The quality of the soil was very poor in the whole garden.

 

Let us know how it goes please.