Newly landscaped garden is waterlogged

Yorky

I had my garden landscaped this summer and since September areas of my lawn are constantly wet which is a real problem when cutting it. The landscape gardener reckons that the builder used more subsoil rather than topsoil and therefore it has poor drainage. Would this be correct? Can anyone suggest a way of improving the drainage properties of the soil?

Do-more

Try this thread for starters:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054939061

Happy digging!

Yorky

I read recently that using a hollow-tine aerator to extract soil plugs and then top-dressing with a sandy mixture is useful for improving moisture penetration in waterlogged gardens. Has anyone used this method?

Reyman

Yorky wrote:

I read recently that using a hollow-tine aerator to extract soil plugs and then top-dressing with a sandy mixture is useful for improving moisture penetration in waterlogged gardens. Has anyone used this method?

They do this on golf courses twice a year (April/September) and it makes real difference in a couple of years.

Easier than digging up the lawn

GreeBo

Was it like this before the landscaping?

Yorky

It was quite wet but this was put down to the soil being compacted.

GreeBo

Well if its worse now I would get them back and say
"you did this, fix it please"

They either :
1) Made the compaction worse
2) Ignored the compaction
3) Created a garden thats unsuitable for the climate/location

Either way I would be asking them back and taking pictures.

Yorky

I asked the gardener did it need draining before he turned a sod and he said "no". He did all of the work himself and therefore would have known full well what type of soil it was but still did not mention the need to drain it. I've mentioned the waterlogging and he admitted that the soil is very heavy and therefore has poor drainage.Am I correct in asserting that the gardener was at fault here for not draining it in the first place? Should he be responsible for putting it right?

If it does have to be drained, where will the water actually drain to? I don't fancy the prospect of having the lawn dug up again to drain it.

GreeBo

To me its the same thing as bringing your car for a respray and the guy just sprays over rust and holes and doesnt say a word to you.

I think your gardener has a responsibility to leave your garden in a maintainable state.
If that meant that you had to pay more for him to do irrigation then thats fine, but if he just didnt bother then thats his problem in my mind.


Did he lay new sods on the lawn or was it just borders etc he did?

Yorky

Did the whole thing from scratch : ground preparation and seeding.

GreeBo

ok then get him back.
He has botched the job.
Take plenty of pictures of flooding for proof, it'll probably be dry if/when he comes around again.

He should be able to dig up, install drainage and replace the sods without too much mess to the rest of your garden.
You wont be able to walk on it for a few weeks, but thats no big deal at this time of year.

Good luck

Gareth Austin

Hi there

A simple way of draining localised areas is to dig small pit drains.

You simply remove a 2' square of the top turf, escavate out about a 3' deep chunk of soil, refill the hole with pea gravel, 2" layer of sand on the top and then replace the turf.

This will drain the lcoal area of about a 6' circle around. A few of these might sort your problem without having to resort to drainage pipes etc.

Also your right in saying that the soil might be subsoil more than top soil, to try to improve this after you have a few pit drains in spike the area with a fork and then brush some sand over, this should make it easier for the air and moisture to pass easier through your soil.

Enjoy!

GreeBo

yeah, but surely its not the OP's job to do this after just paying for a landscaping job that included the lawn??