Water lying on lawn

bob skunkhouse

Hi,
We recently built a house in agricultural land and after a year or two we finally got around to the landscaping. After some recent heavy rain i notice that water is lying in some spots - in some tracks left by machinery - but also notice it just lying on top of the soil. I walked on it last night and the wellies sank to a about 3inches into the mud.

The lawn is level so theres no extra filling to be done, so i'm thinking of digging the soil up and mixing in some builders sand that i've left over from the build. Would this help the drainage problem and make it a bit more sound under foot- rather than putting in drainage pipes and feeding the extra water off to a soak away.
Thk

Departed

bob skunkhouse wrote: »

Hi,
We recently built a house in agricultural land and after a year or two we finally got around to the landscaping. After some recent heavy rain i notice that water is lying in some spots - in some tracks left by machinery - but also notice it just lying on top of the soil. I walked on it last night and the wellies sank to a about 3inches into the mud.

The lawn is level so theres no extra filling to be done, so i'm thinking of digging the soil up and mixing in some builders sand that i've left over from the build. Would this help the drainage problem and make it a bit more sound under foot- rather than putting in drainage pipes and feeding the extra water off to a soak away.
Thk

You have compaction of the soil
you might be better off getting lawn sand. and you could try punching holes with a fork and then sweep the sand around so it drops into the holes

it did not help me though

redser7

There are a lot of detailed threads if you use the search for drainage

paddy147

Why would you mix in builders sand?

Horticultural grit is what you need for drainage.

As someone else has said,fork the ground over and then brush in lawn sand or grit and see if that makes a difference.

redser7

There is a debate on that, but plenty of people use sharp sand on their lawns as it's much cheaper. Have done it myself and no probs. Just an option.

paddy147

redser7 wrote: »

There is a debate on that, but plenty of people use sharp sand on their lawns as it's much cheaper. Have done it myself and no probs. Just an option.

Thats what fcuked up my front and back gardens in the 1st plce.

Builder dumping all his unused sand and bits of stone into the ground and then "sprinkling" on a 2 inch layer (if even that) of soil that he "claimed" was good top soil.:mad:

My missus called the builder up over this serious matter,and he tried to dodge her on the matter.
She spent 3 full days digging everything out of the front and back gardens.She then designed the gardens and built them/planted them herself.

She redone it all from scratch.;):)

redser7

Fair play to her. But I wouldn't be talking about the amount he dumped on your garden. It's perfectly fine for sweeping into holes made by an aerator or for mixing into a topdressing mix.