Hi Chaps,

We’ve recently moved into a new build, and the garden is just a muddy mess. We’ve had them come in a rotovate the soil – but the slightest bit of rain and it becomes a quagmire again.

We got them to install a field drain further up, which should be catching anything from above.

We’re pushing them to sort it out, but is there anything we should be doing? Anything worth knowing?

We want to get turf in, as we’ve got two dogs – so it’s a PITA at the moment.

Cheers

Ricks

Looks pretty normal for bare compacted soil. It probably won’t be top soil either. Let it dry out a bit and get the turf down.

whats the underlying geology? Clay? and you have a swimming pool everytime it rains.

Either it’s impervious ground, or its low ground, to collect water.

Either need solving with drainage. Herring-bone land drains to an outfall somewhere.

We have this issue (no a new build, 1970’s), I tried to level things out with topsoil and turf over but right now we have a lake in parts and pure moss in the other. My job for the summer to sort it out so interested to hear solutions.

astroturf and a vax?

I suspect that on that base you’ll always struggle unless you take serious measures, and in taking serious measures could well be worth bringing in a proper firm to do it.

It will be a case of straightforward answers to a straightforward problem. You just need to establish exactly whether it’s one issue or a combination of issues as mentioned previously.

If the water is coming from others land then you need to sort that before doing anything else. If when it does get wet, how quickly does it drain? Do you have a good layer of topsoil?

If you have a clay base you can dig deep holes through it and I fill with stones/gravel to help (cheap method). A good layer of topsoil will give your turf the best chance of a healthy life.

Looks like soil to me. As someone who has to reinstate lawns as part of my job, i wouldn’t bother touching it till the spring, you’ll just stir it. Whole world is soaking wet currently. We are having to tell all our clients “sorry, we will be back in the spring to regrade it and re turf”

Get some turf done once its dried out a bit and itll be fine.

i wouldn’t bother touching it till the spring

it is officially spring now 😉

Cheers Olly, sounds like a sensible option. Wait til it dries out and then get a good layer of top soil on it.

Get some turf done once its dried out a bit and itll be fine.

If you renovate lawns, you should know you need to sort drains/subsoil…

All the trampling has churned it into something like puddle clay. Doing anything on it before it dries out will just make it worse. Whereabouts are you, for geological info.

Fatbike is the answer 😆

you know fine well what needs doing