Soak away

sirmixalot

I know we've had an excessive amount of rain the past while and I've been doing a bit of work in the garden (making a shed and deck) but the soil is so water logged, doesn't drain at all.

So thinking would a soak away running left to right by the deck to each fence help or will it only help in that section only? Would I have to dig lots of them to make the grass anyway decent?

Dug a foot deep hole and filled it with water 3 hours ago and it has not drained at all.

Any advice welcomed. Thanks

looksee

I'd forget grass there, its impossible for it to get enough sun, you would be better off with a decently thick layer of gravel and a few planters.

To get it to drain you would probably have to get through the clay pan, find the bottom of the clay layer and fill the hole with gravel or stones.

sirmixalot

Nice one, thanks for that 👍

looksee

Just looking at the pic again, judging by the fence there is a significant enough slope towards the house. Consider digging a maybe 50cm deep trench across just beyond the deck, line it with permeable membrane and fill with pebbles, cover the top then put on your layer of gravel. This gives you a 'french drain' which even if it doesn't feed the water elsewhere it will take the water as it falls and drain away gradually. I wouldn't be too concerned about the existing hole not draining, the ground is currently sodden.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121302774#Comment_121302774

Yes, looks like a high water table. No natural drainage will help there in a year like we're having unfortunately.

I hate to say it and I don't mean this in a bad way, but it looks like a good candidate for an artificial lawn with raised beds on the sides.

standardg60

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121336693#Comment_121336693

Yep a likely candidate if ever there was one.

Did similar in a garden a few years ago, drainage was so bad i ran a drainage pipe from the hardcore under the artificial lawn to the storm drain just to be sure.

Hellrazer

My garden is on a slope towards the back wall. Every single year it flooded when we had heavy rain. I made my own soak away pit using beer crates , gravel and mesh.

Hasnt flooded in 2 years now but as one poster says - you have to get through the clay layer. In my case I dug out a 1m x 1m square right down to the gravels at the lowest point in teh garden where the flooding was worst.

I put the crates in upside down with large rounded stones inside them , filled around them and with decreasing sizes of gravel and stones. Covered the top (bottom) of the of the crates with a fine mesh plastic and then fine gravel and a soil layer on top. Sowed new grass seeds and the water drains away in seconds now. Its worth the effort of you want a lawn - I probably would have done it differently by sinking trenches with pvc pipe opened up and filled with gravel leading to the soak pit but its working even with the weather we`ve had recently.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121338359#Comment_121338359

Good point, you can have a hardpan or a clay layer which can prevent the water from migrating through. If that's broken then you can get better drainage. A much deeper hole would be required to investigate that further.

Hellrazer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121338672#Comment_121338672

I think I had to go down a good 2.5 foot.