Garden Issue

Hi all, I bought a new house 4 years ago and have had an issue with the garden since day one. On first inspection I found an accumulation of static water creating a bog that remained regardless of weather conditions. In addition to this, the garden as a whole remained waterlogged apparently due to clay soil. The builders prepped and turfed the ground in the hope that it would soak up the moisture but to no avail. Since then they have implemented around 14 "French Drains" leaving my garden in an unsightly mess but still the drainage issue persists.

My house was built on a hill with quite extensive ground at a higher elevation along with natural running water nearby (streams), could this be the reason the soil remains water logged. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[image:
formatting link
formatting link
formatting link
formatting link
Reply to
!0thPlanet
Loading thread data ...

neighbor's yards, they seem to have the same slope.

Reply to
Brooklyn1

The problem is the lack of soil pore space in the topsoil. A healthy soil should contain approximately 50% minerals and organic matter; and roughly 25% air and 25% water. Problems start to occur when the soil clay mineral percentage increases. Soil minerals are made up of sand, silt, and clay. Therefore the higher the percent of clay, the smaller the pore size.

The solution to prevent waterlogged soil is to promote the formation of water stable aggregates. The addition of organic matter certainly is a tried and true method, especially for flower beds. Needless to say, on a large scale this can be expensive and time consuming. Before you consider the various drainage solutions around the house that are available to you, you need to find out where you can redirect the water. The primary reason why an area becomes wet or mushy is because it is lower than the surrounding areas. There are many solutions for water drainage that you can consider to make this area dry.

When your property is constructed in a low lying area like at the foot of a hill, then you need good rainwater drainage solutions. During the monsoons, rainwater will flow downwards through the slope of the hill and there might be water logging in your property. To prevent this, you need to channel this rainwater into another place. The best thing to do in such a situation is to install a dry well. A dry well in essence is just a deep pit that is dug at the lowest point in your property. It is then filled up with gravel and river stones so that the water permeates into the ground. While doing dry well construction in your property, make sure that it is located away from the structure of the house.

Reply to
allen73

Hi,

try to find out where the groundwater table is in your vicinity. If its near the surface, you can't do much to lower it. Otherwise you might have a inpermeable layer of clay beneath your plot and it might be worth the effort to bore a few holes through this.

You could try to drain your plot to the the natural streams nearby, if possible.

You could try planting trees that use a lot of water, like birch trees. This helps only in the growing seasons.

Excavate, design a garden pool, plant Iris and water plants and enjoy :-)

Reply to
Klaus Meinhard

The only pertinent question is WTF would anyone buy a house on such an awful property, were you blind or just dumb?

Reply to
Brooklyn1

Reply to
Billy

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.