Soggy garden.. help..!

Welsh Wizard

Hi,
Last year I transformed my back garden, I raise the level of it with nearly 2 tons of good top soil and using railway sleepers to make the raised level.
Reason I done this is because my lawn (if you could call it that) was so damp, so damp that its killing the grass.
Anyhow, Like i say, I raised it up and laid new rolled grass and all seamed o.k., but once again the grass is dying from all the damp..
Im thinking all the water is coming from the next row of gardens which are nearly 6 foot higher than us and draing down in to my garden..
Im looking to raise the grass a bit more now as it has sunk down over time, but should i dig up the soil and then put down maybe 3 or 4 inches of chippings or sand and then relay with some more rolled grass..
I've tried forking the grass to see if that would dry it up a bit but it doesn't make any diffrence...
Now, what would be best...? sand or chippings...?? or is there a better idea out there that im not aware of...?
My neighbour, actually dug down about a foot in his garden and he said it was like a spring of water coming up...!! thats just how wet it is...

Any ideas please...
Many thanks...

secman

When raising the level, put in a layer of stone and drainage pipes and then top soil, this will definitely help.

secman

Welsh Wizard

many thanks for the reply...
Although, these drainage pipes.. I wouldn't have anywhere for them to drain off to.. I.e. a shore or anything...:(

secman

basically you are trying to get a void between the sodden underground and the new top soil to be added, an area to drain water from new top soil.

Secman

Welsh Wizard

Many thanks.. hopefully progress will start this weekend...

prospect

I'd take it a step further.

Dig out the original lawn, to a depth of about 2or 3 feet, lower than the bottom of the lowest sleeper. Then lay a good 2 feet of broken stone suitable for drainage, then add back your original soil and top it off with about 6" of top soil.

Beware though, if you plan to plant trees later, it'll be a bugger trying to dig through the drainage layer!

baza1976

hi welsh,
You say u have nowhere for the drainage pipes to go. 1: you don't need to use pipes for a garden. drainage pipes mean your rain water will flow away faster... faster to where i ask you ?? just use stones.. I'm speaking from experince here.. stones mean the water will take longer to flow away.. note the garden will soak up the water it will just take longer for the water to flow away... flow away where i here u ask !!!

here it comes

2: dig a drainage hole in the furtherest corner of ur garden. in my garden I hired out a mini digger and dug a 5 foot deep hole 5ft across.. fill this hole with stone. fill to about middle height of ur drains... have all ur 2 foot deep drains going to this drainage hole.. do ur best to have these sloped towards the drainage hole..

3: make sure the stones are "washed".. you don't want any sand mixed with these stones.. this will just act like compact eart and you'l be back where u are with no drainage...also use round stone..

12 TON of 2 inch round stone did it for me

hope this helps.. I know it did for me this time last year..

Sorry for the long post..