Gardening advice please

elmar06

Hi

I need help please. I'm looking for advice on what to do with our back garden. It's a disaster. Floods constantly. When it rains, it takes days for the water to drain away. Apparently, our area was all swamp 20- 25 years ago. I'm not a natural gardener at all, have a habit of killing plants but think I'm just picking the wrong things tbh. We have an 8 foot concrete wall at the bottom of our garden, of which there is a river on the other side. This never floods or overflows btw. Then we have a shed in the bottom right corner. The oil tank is in the centre but over at the left side. On both sides of the garden, we have the "lovely" leilandi tho my husband cut it back so much last summer, I think it's dead. The "lawn " is horrible - a mix of grass and weeds. We used to have a large trampoline at the bottom of the garden that we got rid of 2 years ago but where the ground was bare under the trampoline, the grass has never recovered and the green covering now is mostly weeds. Any advice on what to do? We have young children and would love them to have a nice garden to play in. The garden is north facing and never gets sun except at the bottom of the garden. We have a paved area outside the patio doors but the sun never gets to it.
Just want a nice garden please.
Thanks in advance

Stefan_Cork

The flooding would be your biggest concern i believe.
FIrst and foremost you got to manage draining and by the sound of it you may have to get a professional
to get you a quote to get draining established before you tackle anything.
Once its free draining you can start to get the lawn back in action but this may take 1-2 years to be usuable
and all depends on how much you are willing to invest as you can buy ready to go lawn to lay down on prepared
underground.
Post a few picture please if you can and im sure you get more responses.

Cheerio

pwurple

I like to advise planting with the natural conditions. I would plant lots of wet loving plants, and put down paths through it for the kids. Children love following trails around. Maybe a playhouse, or a hideout in there.

So, here's a list of plants that would love those conditions, they will give a lush thriving look.

Iris
Gunnera (this gets huge leaves, if your kids are into dinosaurs this will spark their imagination)
Astilbe
Hosta
Ligularia
Ostrich fern... Probably another few ferns
Primulas
Arum lily

looksee

Arum lilies and kids don't mix, they have pretty orange berries that are poisonous.

pwurple

looksee wrote: »

Arum lilies and kids don't mix, they have pretty orange berries that are poisonous.

Whoops, yes, you're right. I never think of that for other peoples kids as I've 'Don't eat berries' drilled into mine before she could talk.

lottpaul

Hi Elmar -- would agree with others that the flooding is your main problem. Have trouble visualising it though -- it floods and doesn't drain for days -- yet you have a river over the wall that never floods so there must be a bit of a slope/drop from your garden to the river? If so, why is the water not draining? Is the wall part of the problem perhaps. It was a swamp years ago so its possible the soil is just heavy clay and holding water? A few pics would help.
If improving the drainage is not an option then there are loads of plants that would do well in damp soil - grass would not do well in wet ground generally though.
Nice suggestions for plants earlier - I'm not a fan of gunnera (anymore) but it can be dramatic in summer and autumn.

(and the leylandii is probably dead - best thing is to get rid of it)

Good luck.

elmar06

Hi.
Thanks for all your replies and ideas. They sound good. Firstly, the drainage is a huge problem. Don't know what professionals would charge to sort it, don't have a lot of spare money so might look into a homemade solution if anyone has any? The wall probably is a factor as it's prob blocking the water running off but all the gardens on our row seem to have the same problem due to the swamp all those years ago.
Would love to get rid of leylandii but that would be really expensive to replace however much I'd love to. Will look at getting a professional quote but won't be able to until June.
Don't know where to start with it.
Would drilling holes along the bottom of the wall or laying a pipe the length of the garden under the grass with holes drilled help with drainage?
Might try that. Also, will start digging flower beds to make it look nicer and will look at the plants suggested.
I'll take photos tomoro and post them. Looks v bad at moment cos grass has been too wet to cut!
Thanks everyone again. Any more ideas would be great to make the garden child friendly.
Thanks

elmar06

Hi
Just got a quote for artificial grass which would have been the answer to bad grass and bad drainage but it would cost approx £1500-£1600 stg. which is approx €2000. It's just too much money.

Stefan_Cork

well to be honest artificial wet/flooded grass wouldn't be so nice anyway.

Please grab a camera and have a few shots if you like and do bit by bit, even involve the kids to clear some and plant some.

madchild

Blueberry bushes like wet ground you will get berries too which the kids should enjoy but they will need eracious compost half a bg per plant should suffice if your husband is in any way goin to help buy some garden drainage pipes and keep them a foot apart and let them run off to the stream or river cover them with a bit of stone probably best to rent a rotavator for the day and tell him to get stuck in.

Sonnenblumen

The wall might impede run-off especially on a sloping site but this would be localised near wall area. It doesn't make sense why the flooding would be more expansive again if the site is sloping down and away from house towards wall and stream etc.

I would be more concerened about the site's history which probably explains why the area is persistently damp. Putting a synthetic surface on any area would be a complete waste of money and nothing more than a sticky plaster solution.

Forget the symptoms and tackle the fundamental cause. Soakage pits/land drains will help but will be limited especially in areas which have a high water table. You might be better off raising the ground levels, importing plenty of granular dry fill to create a pervious barrier to separate existing surface from a new topsoil surface, the deeper the build up the better, but I would consider at least 600mm granular and 200mm for soil. This will provide you with a new elevated and free draining surface and remove any risk of surface flooding. Use less backfill at wall end, this will create a ditch area and a natural run-off catchment area and as other psoters have suggested plant up with medium to large growing shrubs that thrive in damp conditions. If feasible drill some cores in wall and insert 100mm pipes to accelerate run-off from your garden and avoid excessive build up on your side of the wall.

Finally, it sound slike a very precarious istuation and without photos more difficult to be precise, but with a budget of €2k or less you will be hard pressed to achieve anything of lasting assistance. In which case I would build up the layers in stages and accept that it will be some time before you can have a flood free surface.

elmar06

Hi
Haven't been well which is why I haven't taken photos yet. Will do it today.
There is no slope in the garden towards the back wall. It's level all the way.
I was looking at the garden the other day. It's sunnier than I remember. That's only since my husband cut back the leylandii. It still doesn't get sun at the top half of the garden at the house or patio but halfway down it's sunny.
I think the problem with the drainage isn't to do with the river at all. It's the fact this used to be swamp all those years ago. My husband can remember playing in the swamp when he was younger.
Will try the drainage pipes in the garden and in the wall.
Like the idea of highering the level. Will look into that but unfortunately with the times we're in, we just don't have €2k.
But thank you all so much. You've all been great. I really appreciate it.
Will post photos later

elmar06

Hi
So here are the photos. It looks awful at the moment but hopefully will start to look better in the next few months, weather, kids and money permitting!!
Those concrete blocks on the left side are what our old oil tank used to sit on. My dad moved a new tank over to the side so we just have to get rid of those old blocks and fill in the holes they'll leave.
As you can see, the wall is at the bottom and right over that is the river with wasteland on the other side.
It all looks so depressing and horrible. Not a flower bed in sight!

madchild

Drain it for sure tressil the back wall with a climber rose or sweet pea i thought it was alot worse than that get sowing the seed now for the flowers seed is always cheaper more effort = less cash has to be spent personally i would get those leylandi outta there because they,re dead they were allowed to grow too tall and by the looks of it they were either never trimmed or they were trimmed badly anyway a little drainage will go a long way there best of luck

My Potatoes

Has it been flooding for years, or just in the past 12 months? If the latter, it may because the water table has been so high in the last year (a problem nationwide).

Leylandii is one of the few trees that does not green-up again when cut back to the wood. It may be alive, just doesn't look it. That part will never go green again.

Gardening is expensive, though many think otherwise. As a rule of thumb, a typical brand new garden costs the same as a brand new kitchen (for the same property). The most cost effective solution may to be go with a wet garden, but consider my first question first.

elmar06

Hi
No, it's always been like this. After a bad rain shower, the grass is still too wet to cut for at least 2 days or more.
Was talking to my dad. Might get top soil and re-cover and rotivate the garden. Though he reminded me himself and my husband dug it all and rotivated it a few years ago. He thinks it's def the area and the swamp history.
He also thinks we're better off not over planting the garden with too many shrubs and plants as we've 4 young kids, 1 of whom has special needs and they need space to play. But I def want some nice plants and flowers as well as space to play.
As you said, gardening costs a lot of money, as well we know. Funnily, I never thought of the garden costing so much. It was definitely a shock. But hopefully we'll be able to get something nice done.
When you re-cover the garden with topsoil do you have to kill off the grass first?
Also, I reckon the leylandii is well dead. We priced a wall and were quoted a few thousand so unfortunately the leylandii has to stay. Might see about getting it screened off or something. It's all on our side too so we are liable for the cost to replace it. Wouldn't dream of asking neighbours to help. Which is fine of course. Wouldn't expect them to sort our problem.
Any more thoughts? If so, would love to hear them
Thanks

My Potatoes

In that case it sounds like it's a naturally wet area. This has its own potential but if you want a utility garden then I dunno if there are any low cost solutions.

To kill two birds with the one stone, screen off the Leylandii with a row of native trees that grow well in wet areas and soak up the wet.
Alder is one, I think, and maybe birch. I'd have to look it up. Maybe not the most aesthetic (alder, that is), but worth a shot. Willow too, I think, absorbs the wet?

Here, have a browse/search of this:
http://www.treecouncil.ie/pdfs/Our%20Trees_A%20guide%20to%20growing%20Ireland's%20Native%20Trees-June%2008.pdf

It's one of the better docs I've read on native trees, and it does touch on the best trees for different areas. I'm sure there's mention of one or two that absorb the wet (thereby drying it out).

I'd say, try this for a start. Try to dry it out a bit. Maybe dig an exploratory trench around the border, see where water is entering. I can't remember what it's called, but there is a simple test you can perform. Dig a hole a metre or so deep. And leave it. Come back later and see how much water has "appeared". Maybe do a few of these (or a trench as previously mentioned) to get an idea of the wettest area and which side the wet is coming from.

Sonnenblumen

elmar06 wrote: »

Hi
So here are the photos. It looks awful at the moment but hopefully will start to look better in the next few months, weather, kids and money permitting!!
Those concrete blocks on the left side are what our old oil tank used to sit on. My dad moved a new tank over to the side so we just have to get rid of those old blocks and fill in the holes they'll leave.
As you can see, the wall is at the bottom and right over that is the river with wasteland on the other side.
It all looks so depressing and horrible. Not a flower bed in sight!

I expected it to look worse but it isn't too bad and not too difficult to tackle the flooding problem. You're very fortunate that you have a manhole in the middle of the garden which will be a great benefit and say goodbye to surface water.

If funding is scarce, you can dig radiating trenches from the centre outwards and lay land drains with good falls towards centre. Until you complete this task, everything else will be premature. Trenches do not all have to be done all at once but incrementally saving you time, energy and money. Radiating line is one layout option but there are also others eg parallel lines traversing garden but eventually going to manhole.

elmar06

When you talk of digging trnches and being lucky to have manhole in garden, what do you mean?! The manhole is closed over, have never opened it. What steps do you mean to do to actually digtrenches and use manjole? Surely trenches will leave holes all over garden?

Sonnenblumen

elmar06 wrote: »

When you talk of digging trnches and being lucky to have manhole in garden, what do you mean?! The manhole is closed over, have never opened it. What steps do you mean to do to actually digtrenches and use manjole? Surely trenches will leave holes all over garden?

Sorry but you'll have to go into search mode here or on Google for more details. It's rather very straightforward but I'm afraid I don't have the time etc to go into the details.

Perhaps someone else will?

My Potatoes

This might give you an idea:
http://www.houstonlandscape.com/Drainage.htm

elmar06

Thanks very much everyone. I'm afraid I am pretty clueless when it comes to gardening but would love and am willing to learn more. Will check out google and that site.
Thanks