Draining wet garden

groundworker

groundworker

Well-known member
Looking for some pointers on sorting this out please as it's not the sort of work I normally do.

I've been called back to a job I did last September where the garden is waterlogged. Last year I put about 100ton of topsoil on the garden followed by turf.

About a year prior to that I did the footings for their extension and all the spoil went on the garden as it was sloping steeply away from the house and also the lowest point around (house at bottom of hill and backs onto a big park which is higher).

I also put in about 30lm of land drainage in areas that the customer indicated had problems with water standing before (clay subsoil). I put the outlet under their rear boundary fence into a 'ditch' with the idea that it discharges here and then runs into a french drain nearby (runs alongside the road which also had standing water issues).

I've just exposed this outlet and cleaned all the crap out of the ditch, dug further round to the french drain and put in new pipe and shingle - I didn't do this previously as it's outside their boundary and I'm reluctant to be digging out there. The pipe was full and this has all drained away now and is still trickling.

I'm going to expose the other end of the run as this is on their boundary with uphill neighbour which receives a lot of runoff. When I looked at the job in heavy rain water was running on the surface so I want to bring the shingle right to the surface and leave it exposed to see if it makes a difference.

Am I on the right track with this? This feels like the right place to start as I don't want to jump into ripping up the whole lawn and installing a load more drainage runs.

I'm surprised the whole lawn is soaked and not just a few problem areas. There are areas where the turf has completely died away and I can see all the joints, this would suggest it never took root - I assume the customer has just not watered it properly but could it be something else?

Any help appreciated cheers.
 

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groundworker

groundworker

Well-known member
I think if it's clay on the top- then surface water won't make it into the drains. As you say try leaving them uncovered to start with see if that helps. Frankly everywhere is piss wet at the moment🤣
That's what I thought but they were definitely flowing yesterday. Hopefully it will improve now the outlet is cleared and should be flowing properly but I'm not convinced it will sort out the whole garden...
 
Storrsy

Storrsy

Well-known member
Where is the source of this water. Rising groundwater/spring or just surface water. I'd think if it's not getting into land drains not sure moling would make much difference?
 
groundworker

groundworker

Well-known member
Just surface water I believe.

They are the bottom of a hill so all the neighbouring gardens and the park behind will runoff into their garden to some extent.

They also have a patio & terrace running off onto the lawn which won't help.

There's big trees which shade the lawn and drop leaves so I can't see them ever having a perfect lawn but I'd like to leave it better than this...
 
V8Druid

V8Druid

do it as well as you can,but learn to do it better
Just surface water I believe.

They are the bottom of a hill so all the neighbouring gardens and the park behind will runoff into their garden to some extent.

They also have a patio & terrace running off onto the lawn which won't help.

There's big trees which shade the lawn and drop leaves so I can't see them ever having a perfect lawn but I'd like to leave it better than this...
lop the trees back for starters and as said bring the stone to the top or just below the turf
 
B

Brendan

Well-known member
To be fair most places are constantly flooded, if the neighbours are flooded you might be peeing in the wind. I've got one I need to go back to and re dig material that was put in, was back filled before Christmas and the the place has been constantly flooded since so the top soil has gone for a better word swampy. Problem is there hasn't really been any dry spells plus all the rain runs down the road into the field next door plus into the garden. Even the areas that weren't dug out you would sink 20mm into
 
groundworker

groundworker

Well-known member
To be fair most places are constantly flooded, if the neighbours are flooded you might be peeing in the wind. I've got one I need to go back to and re dig material that was put in, was back filled before Christmas and the the place has been constantly flooded since so the top soil has gone for a better word swampy. Problem is there hasn't really been any dry spells plus all the rain runs down the road into the field next door plus into the garden. Even the areas that weren't dug out you would sink 20mm into
Not sure what state the neighbours are in but during rain I've watched water running through the joints in the gravel boards so would imagine they're saturated too.

Same situation here, nowhere for the water to go. I'm hoping this french drain which is in the verge next to their garden is actually going to pick up the water from the land drains, otherwise I can't see any other way than pumping it back up to the surface water main but there's no way they'll pay for that.
 
groundworker

groundworker

Well-known member
lop the trees back for starters and as said bring the stone to the top or just below the turf
They were cut back before I started but they want to keep as much as possible for privacy.

On the other side they had big ones removed which has probably made the ground wetter as they would have been drinking a lot of the water.
 
S

Stroppymonkey

Well-known member
I think if it's clay on the top- then surface water won't make it into the drains. As you say try leaving them uncovered to start with see if that helps. Frankly everywhere is piss wet at the moment🤣
Amen to that
 
B

Brendan

Well-known member
Not sure what state the neighbours are in but during rain I've watched water running through the joints in the gravel boards so would imagine they're saturated too.

Same situation here, nowhere for the water to go. I'm hoping this french drain which is in the verge next to their garden is actually going to pick up the water from the land drains, otherwise I can't see any other way than pumping it back up to the surface water main but there's no way they'll pay for that.
If it's coming in through the gravel boards you won't have a great deal of chance of controlling the rainfall in the garden plus the neighbouring overrun.
Problem is, your the last one to touch it so blame always falls that way.
It's probably more of a communal problem but getting everyone to agree and pay to get all the gardens sorted is lottery odds.
As said you could leave the french drains exposed and monitor
 
groundworker

groundworker

Well-known member
If it's coming in through the gravel boards you won't have a great deal of chance of controlling the rainfall in the garden plus the neighbouring overrun.
Problem is, your the last one to touch it so blame always falls that way.
It's probably more of a communal problem but getting everyone to agree and pay to get all the gardens sorted is lottery odds.
As said you could leave the french drains exposed and monitor
Yep... they had standing water in lower areas before but now I've brought it all up to one plane the whole garden is suffering.

It was hammering down all day today, going back tomorrow to expose the stone and then leave it for a while. You never know, maybe it's bone dry now I've cleared that outlet 😂
 
diggerjones

diggerjones

Well-known member
From my work helping a land drain expert mate of mine. When we are sorting a wet patch In a field, that's lower than the rest of field. He always says you stop the water getting to the low spot.
Mostly we find the problem higher up.
The victorians usually drain around low spots and have 1 lateral through the lowest bit
 
groundworker

groundworker

Well-known member
From my work helping a land drain expert mate of mine. When we are sorting a wet patch In a field, that's lower than the rest of field. He always says you stop the water getting to the low spot.
Mostly we find the problem higher up.
The victorians usually drain around low spots and have 1 lateral through the lowest bit
Good idea that.

I was thinking along the same lines when I put the drain run in next to the uphill boundary but it doesn't seem to be doing the job at the moment, will expose it and see if there's any difference.
 
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