We have moved into a property and everytime that we have heavy rain the garden holds water and can take up to 5 days to completely drain. We have a large patio area and then an area of about 60 square metres of decorative pebbles. I cleared the pebbles and found that there had been a pond of about 15 square metres in area and about 1 metre deep, there is a crazy paved pavement around the pond of about 10 square metres. The pond liner is still in had been filled in with rubble and large pieces of paving stone basically it had been used as a skip and then covered with a weak mixture of sand and cement. There is a drain at one end of the pond but this as nearly blocked.
I have had 5 landscape gardeners to price up for laying a lawn. The first said leave it as it is and put in raised borders. There is a natural duck pond about 30 metres from the house.
The second said to remove the hard core, remove the liner fill it back in with the rubble, put the pebbles on top and fit French drains to the existing drain.
The third said do not put in too much drainage as it would cause the grass to turn green. He would not use French drains or the pebbles.
The fouth did not suggest any and just asked me what I wanted. The fifth said he would remove the rubble and liner, install a sump, fill in with small rubble and use the pebbles but no French Drain system.
Can anyone advise me on the best way to lay the lawn. Should we use the pebbles on top of the hard core. Should we install French drains or is the area of the pond enough to drain the garden. How deep should the top soil be if we use the pebbles.
Thanks. Malcolm Scott