Garden drainage

[Ian Waddell]

Does anyone have any tips on how to improve soil drainage? With the recent rain some bits of the garden have turned into a swamp, whereas the rest are fine.

TIA

Ian

[buildersabroad.com]

Hi Ian:

You could use perforated drainage pipes if you have both a slope and a drain to which the excess can run. We use a great deal of this slotted pipe [these are very like the bendy part of a drinking straw with slots every

50mm around 90deg of the pipe - approx 80mm internal diameter] for our Fosse Septique and Landscaping work. The classic UK alternative is unglazed clay field drains - again you need a place to drain the excess too.

Drop me a line if you cannot find it locally and dependant on where you are we could assist.

Mike

[N. Thornton]

Your search phrase is 'field drains'

Regards, NT

[G&M]

Or 'French drains'. These use chipping rather than the placcy pipes.

[Philip Wagstaff]

Erm, unless you want to pay plenty then field drains is NOT the search phrase. The best place to start is a quite fantastic DIY resource

which includes drainage, just take a look at the site. My garden is solid Essex clay of the most dispicable sort which caused all sort of problems for my lawn (my fetish), so we spent a long time digging soakaways along its length and breadth. There has not been any noticeable drainage problems since. Cost hard work and one delivery of hardcore.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I have never seen my garden as soggy as it was today. Its exceptinal weather.

[Pete C]

If the soil underneath the surface is well drained then a temporary fix might be to make some holes with a garden fork.

If the soil on the surface has poor drainage then a longer term fix could be to dig some sand and/or leaf mulch into the soil.

Probably not worth worrying too much about unless there are plants that might rot if they stand in water too long.

cheers, Pete.