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My back garden is nearly a swamp!

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  • 03-11-2014 1:37pm
    #1
    ripcord
    Registered Users Posts: 441 ✭✭


    Hi,

    My back garden is 9m x 12m and every time it rains the entire thing was flooded. It was in a poor state - wild grass, moss and patchy - so this summer I used roundup to kill everything and decided to start again.

    Our houses were practically built on a bog so the soil is pretty poor. I dug a few holes at the weekend here and there and there was about 10 inches of soil on top of a harder surface. After a few minutes each of the holes had water collecting at the bottom - so drainage seems to be an issue.

    There is a decent slope from the back of the garden down to the house, so I was thinking of putting in drainage. Dig trenches, fill with a perforated pipes surrounded by gravel, connect them at the bottom and feed the pipes into a drainage pipe I found buried close to the house. I've looked online and have seen how to do it.

    My question is - even if I put 7 -8 trenches (a meter apart) running down towards the house - would this be enough? The soil is so sticky you could sink in it at the back of the garden. Would the water between the trenches soak sideways into the gravel?

    Basically, I don't want to put in the drainage if it's going to have little effect. I plan to sow new grass after I've put the drainage in.

    Any advice appreciated! Thanks!
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    #2
    macraignil
    Registered Users Posts: 3,428 ✭✭✭macraignil


    The fact that the holes you dug in the garden started to fill with water would indicate the water table is very close to the surface of your soil. The garden in my parent's house was similar in some ways with only a few inches of top soil above a heavy clay subsoil. There seemed to have been some water seeping from the house behind my parents garden due to the slope of the land so my approach was to run one drainage channel from the top of the garden and another shorter channel from about the middle. The main channel went across the back of my parents garden and then down one side. The distance between the drainage pipes would have been less than you are suggesting and I found in my case it was enough to allow the soil dry out fast enough for what I planted.

    I also made a point of planting small trees and fruit bushes that could send roots deeper into the soil than just grass as was there before. Since the fruit trees and bushes have got established there has not been any need for the drains as the roots seem to have done a good enough job breaking up the subsoil. I was also careful not to walk on the ground when it was very wet and added lots of organic manure to improve soil structure.

    It would be better if you can lower the water table without feeding it through one pipe on your own property. What is behind your garden? Can you put a drain there before the water is seeping into your garden? Is the material under your top soil natural subsoil or builder's rubble? Drains would be less effective if they can not be placed at the optimum depth.


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