Clay soil: drainage, do I need pipes?
boland
Posts: 2
We've recently bought a brand new house. At the back of the house there's a section of about 350 m2 with clay soil, I've been told about 50 cm. We want to put a grass lawn in.
It's winter now, and drainage is really bad. Even after it's dry for 2 weeks, there are still puddles. It is very soft though.
I've had 2 gardeners to give advice. One said I need to have drainage pipes, the other one said it could be done with just gypsum and top soil.
I just don't want to have a very wet grass lawn in winter where it's impossible to walk on. Right now, it's almost impossible to walk on as it's so soft at most places. Especially where it is wet, the ground feels harder.
We do want to do it right, but don't waste money on drainage pipes if it's not necessary.
Posts
Boland this problem comes up a lot. There's no easy solution. You have to make a choice. Gypsum and topsoil isn't the best solution by the way, land drains are at the extreme end of the scale. If it's flooding regularly then land drains are the only option if it drains but remains wet then you could get it rotavated adding several tons of pea shingle and as much strawy manure as you can get hold of. Let it break down over winter and then test your drainage in spring. You'll find it will improve and you may have to repeat the process. Eventually you'll get a half decent topsoil on which you can lay turf or sow seed. However the choice is yours.
Thanks for your reply!
Mixing in pea shingle / manure is not an easy solution, as the area cannot be accessed with a truck. Maybe with a small digger, but that's about it. So it will be more expensive if we've let it done.
Other than that, we don't want to wait another year.
So, you would recommend pipes in that case I guess?