Dear STW,

I'm back at my folks a little while, and since i'm back we've had the introduction of a dog (weimaraner) a conservatory and a shed, the garden is less grass and more mud since these additions, couple winter and it looks more like the Somme than a fairly pleasant, if little garden.

The addition of the conservatory has, I feel, been an issue with the water drainage in the garden.

I wondered what the correct procedure is in providing some form of drain (I have access to the regular drainage should that be required) although I'd prefer something along the lines of a french drain if that could be done easily enough? (I don't want to dig away and then find out it doesn't offer any benefit)

Are there any preferred methods of putting down some paving? nothing fancy as they don't have the budget for that yet.

I just want the dog to be able to go out and not get stupidly muddy paws/me go to the shed and not have to clean my footwear down.

Any help/thought/direction would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,
Jonathan

it wasn't muddy at the Somme, which was fought over mainly agricultural land in the summer. You're thinking of Paschendaele, which was fought over swampland in winter.

Can you gutter the conservatory and collect in a rain butt for watering purposes?

And stepping stones would solve your problem, although getting the dog to stay on them would be tricky.

jontawn – have a gander at http://www.pavingexpert.com/home.htm – should cover most of your questions.

EDIT – and a simple barked path is probably the cheapest way of doing it. Excavate the path to about 100mm depth, use 100×25 treated timbers along the sides retained by posts, stick some terram on the base then dress with bark (if the path's long enough but it loose rather than bagged from a garden centre). Will need topping up from time to time and the blackbirds will have a go at it but at least it'll be less muddy than the lawn.

Well, that's what you get for not paying any attention in history lessons!

The conservatory has guttering on it, apologies, I didn't describe it as well as intended, I think with the foundations for the addition, the lawn previously drained under the paving that was there.

I think the dog would enjoy the flying visitors, at the least give him something to chase around.

Thanks for the link! Any further info or suggestions are always appreciated!

cheers,
Jonathan

as clay makes a pretty good foundation without the need to dig mahoosive holes for support posts we used decking to link garage and house over our similarly paschendale like garden. A narrow path can be made mostly from offcuts available on t'bay or from landscaping contractors.