So moved into a house about 18 months ago and the lawn isn't looking great. Kids and a dog don't help but there's not much I can do about them.
One thing I have noticed is that the lawn can get very boggy. Digging some sample holes it appears there's about 30 cm of soil then it goes to solid clay.
Googling and YouTubeing seems to show people adding gypsum to help break the clay up. This normally involves making holes in the lawn to get to the clay then brushing gypsum/sand/fertiliser into them. Seems like a lot of effort.
I have seen that you can get liquid gypsum which claims to work much quicker and doesn't need holes making in the lawn etc.
Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with this issue or liquid gypsum in particular?
no help, but similar boat, kids playing football on clay soil has pretty much destroyed the lawn. I was thinking of getting a few tonnes of sand in, spreading it on top and then tilling the lot and reseeding at easter.
Clay soil garden here. I had to admit defeat and (shoot me now) put down artificial grass. It was an absolute bog and my mad labrador didn't care if it was summer or winter. Trailing mud in the house constantly. The lawn was basically unusable in all but the driest periods, and the entire back garden was all grass. My garden is clay from the very top, no decent top soil. I did a big landscaping project, slabbed some areas, chips down in others, bit of artificial grass and i retained a fair bit for a large border running round the garden with plants, trees etc. Even keeping that border maintained is a nightmare. 4 years I've been mulching in organic material to the clay to try and improve it but it's still crap. Only thing clay soil is good for is my growing collection of roses, because they thrive in it.
is there a boundary that it can drain too? If so, you could install a french drain - worked for us at a previous house.
Anything but artificial grass 🙁
Gypsum isn't going to do much really - it makes the clay clump into small particles, however in your case you've still got the underlying clay so the water can't go anywhere. The only really option is to add drainage - perforated drains work well, but you've got to be realistic (and have somewhere to drain to). I've got london clay under my garden (maybe 20/30cm down) and have had extensive land drains fitted - this has meant that the garden doesn't get areas of standing water / bog, but really what it's done is expanded the usable envelope - it'll be ok to use from march/april through october/nov. Kids running around on a wet clay lawn would still kill it tho. My neighbour has probably added a hundred tons (we both have large gardens) of organic matter to no discernable effect!
100% perforated pipe drainage is the answer
Dig thin trenches across the lawn. Set turf aside for reuse
Line with geotextile
Pea shingle on the bottom to get the levels to run in desired direction
Put in pipe. Check levels will run
Back fill with shingle to 6 inch below surface
Fold over membrane
Replace soil and turf
The pipes my need to lead to a small soak away if space is tight.
Order the croquet set you've always wanted
Job jobbed
In my experience the only solution is to put in several French drains, but this only works if you’ve got somewhere for the water to drain to, otherwise the water will sit in the pipes/ditches and you’ll be digging them out again in 5 years. For the perforated pipe it helps to put a rodding eye style access point at the ‘high’ end so every year you can flush the crap out of the pipe.
We have similar with peaty top soil then clay, albeit on a significant slope.
Perforated drainage pipe for the win underlying the worst bits.
I also spent 5 years adding in free draining grit / sand / (free) sawdust / (free) compost as a top dressing. I also aerate the lawn every year with my stompy spiked lawn shoes...
i tried the "small holes filled with sand" thing and it made no difference.
i put french drains (perforated pipe draining to the existing drain system) in on the top (height wise) edge of our garden where the water runs in from to stop the water running onto our lawn, and it made a massive difference. not boggy in the winter any more.
Thanks all. We're on a slope with the next doors garden downslope of ours.
You've affirmed my thoughts that drainage is the only real option. I'd have to dig a big soak away behind the garage as there is no existing drainage to join into at the low point unfortunately.
Food for thought.
Is it a new build?
Mine is. When I did my big landscaping project, I excavated 36 tonnes of soil as the garden was on a big slope and I wanted to level it off. When I dug down I discovered the builders had already put in a french drain, that wasn't really doing much good! If you're in a new build then there may already be one in there
If the whole underlying soil is clay then I would be hesitant to rely on a soakaway to deal with any great volume of water. If the water wont soak into the large garden area then a small soakaway is unlikely to fare better. A large soakaway may act as a bit of a balancing pond to collect smaller rain events making the garden more useable after those. However, the soakaway, perforated pipe and wrapped shingle land drain may soon fill up with larger rain events potentially leaving you in a similar position as you are now.
Got a similar problem, except I’ve got 8” of soil over rock, plus we’ve got 3 ‘uphill’ properties beside us -the builder did install an 8” French drain on the boundary, but we’re still getting lots of run-off. There’s a piece of lower ground to the rear of our property with surface water run-off for ours and 2 other - it’s been a complete bog of late, with a couple of inches of standing water. This is also our back exit onto a track where we access the coast path, so we often come back with muddy boots and the dogs drag in mud over our floor. A few weeks ago, I cut some 6” drainage channels across - it slopes slightly downhill - and the surface water has all but disappeared. I’ll probably lay some 4” perforated pipe into the drainage channels and cover them over. It’s also a daily hang-out spot for our local herd of red deer - now the ground’s dried out, they’re back demanding carrots with menaces.
i tried the “small holes filled with sand” thing and it made no difference.
It did for ours, but frankly it's not worth the effort.
You need way more holes and way more sand than you think.
I did the worst bit of our lawn and a year later it doesn't look too bad now.
I was thinking of getting a few tonnes of sand in, spreading it on top and then tilling the lot and reseeding at easter.
Seems like it might be a lot quicker and more successful if the lawn really isn't working.
Needs to be horticultural / lawn sand though. Builders sand has a high pH.
A load of spent mushroom compost mixed in might help as well as it's basically a mix of rotted straw and manure so will give the soil some air and structure.
I did a big landscaping project, slabbed some areas, chips down in others
Much as I'd consider it ecological vandalism, we did the same. I've managed the drainage from the new man-cave into water buts and laid hosepipes so now the water drains into the borders and should mean they thrive even in a dry-ish spell.
Much as I’d consider it ecological vandalism, we did the same.
To try and offset the hard landscaping and fake grass, I have as many flowers as possible anywhere I can get them. Hanging baskets galore, loads of wildflowers, plant pots everywhere, anything that can grow in the clay gets put in there
It's going to take a considerable investment of either time or money or both
You could try a post hole auger and see what you're dealing with at different points. Back fill with top soil
Oh the other thing to mention if you're going down the sand route is a couple of tonnes bags will make almost no difference. Our lawn is 15mx10m, you could barely see the sand once it was swept over it all
No sure how effective this is, looked at this as son looked at a house and the grass was a sponge and was wondering how to resolve if he bought it
Go over it with a hollow tine fork, then brush sand into the holes as best you can.
The empty plugs allow water in and for the clay soil to relax a bit.
It is worth looking at the BGS website for old bore hole records that are near by (may even be on site if you're in a relatively new build). This would tell you the depth of the clay you're dealing with - if it's only a couple of feet a soak away might worth if it's below the layer (equally you need to be careful you don't create a spring - the bore hole will note the water table depth normally - this changes through the year obviously).
100% perforated pipe drainage is the answer
Dig thin trenches across the lawn. Set turf aside for reuse
Line with geotextile
Pea shingle on the bottom to get the levels to run in desired direction
Put in pipe. Check levels will run
Back fill with shingle to 6 inch below surface
Fold over membrane
Replace soil and turf
The pipes my need to lead to a small soak away if space is tight.
Order the croquet set you’ve always wanted
This is good. More specificity… how deep? What bore pipe?
This is good. More specificity… how deep? What bore pipe?
In the ops case I would go down to the clay but not into it. So 30cm
If it's next to a building do not go deeper than the foundations
Pipe comes in various diameters. For domestic use anywhere between 65 and 100mm is fine.
Always use the geotextile membrane it will work without but overtime fines will get into the pipes
For a soak away you could buy drainage crates to maximize underground capacity. Alternatively rubble is fine but capacity is reduced. Line the soak away with geotextile also, and fold over the top before re turfing etc
There are loads of diagrams of French drain construction on the web, and lots of variations. But they are all doing the same thing really
Move again? Suffolk coast is very good for drainage and it's all on sand. May not be convenient for work and schools though.
