Wet Garden
Question:
I have a really soggy almost marsh like back garden please can you advise what type of sand we could lay to dry up the garden? Also should we lay this on top of the soggy lawn or try to pick the lawn up and put the sand under it?
Answer:
It sounds to me that your garden is badly drained. This could be because you have very heavy soil or that you have a pan, a level of soil which is extremely compacted or is rock or stone. If your garden is at the base of a hill you may be getting water flowing down the hill into your garden. Either way laying sand will not help. First of all you need to know if you have a pan. Dig down as far as you can to see if you reach a very hard layer of soil or rock. If you hit rock there is nothing you can do about it. If it is just a thick layer of heavy soil you will have to lift the lawn and dig down past the pan to break it up. Add a good amount of well rotted manure when you replace the soil, firm down and relay the lawn. If you can rule out a pan then have a look at the soil. Take a handful and squeeze it into a ball, if it sticks together and looks shiny like clay, then you have a heavy clay soil. You will need to dig over the whole garden and add some well rotted manure and some extra drainage in the form of gravel. All this digging is very hard work so if you are not able to deal with it you may have to just live with it. Your lawn will survive even if it is soggy but you may want to plant bog plants which will thrive in the conditions you have. I've found a website which will give you some suggestions. http://www.wetland-plants.co.uk/acatalog/Moisture_loving_Bog_plants.html
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