How to deal with waterlogged, mossy garden?

Moley

Moley

Moley

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Hi Folks,

I'm looking for some advice from those in the forum who have experience looking after and developing nice grassy lawns. I live with my family in a new build property, three years old and one of my bugbears about it is the back garden. Our house is L-shaped facing south and west with a small back garden that is largely in the shade of the house, the soil around here is quite clay-heavy and I don't think the builders did anything other than a cursory laying of cheap turf when they built the property. During the summer the grass is fine - quite lush and easy to maintain - however in the winter the ground becomes very waterlogged and lots of moss grows through the grass as can be seen clearly in the picture below.

Advice on how to treat this and perhaps improve the waterlogged nature of the grass would be appreciated!



IWJXVZ9.jpg
 
From what I remember my dad doing when I was a kid as we had exactly the same problem, he used to hire a lawn aerator run that over the lawn and then get a couple of sacks of sharp sand and brush that over the lawn. Used to do it once or twice a year IIRC along with raking the moss out and reseeding any really bare areas.
 
Your problem is that whatever solution you use, the water will have nowhere to go, as it appears to be sitting on top of the clay, just under your lawn. I had a similar problem and ended up putting in some small slotted drains, beneath the lawn that ran into a soakaway in the corner of the garden. It meant digging some trenches for the slotted drains to sit in, beneath the lawn and a 1m3 hole filled with gravel and bricks that the drains fed into. This cured the problem. The water in winter ran into the slotted drains and into the soakaway where it slowly percolated away.
 
Sort the drainage out first, a herringbone french drain into a soak away is easy enough to sort yourself and wont cost much. It'll also give you the opportunity to remove all the rubbish the builders will have left behind buried in your garden :D

Good quality top soil then turf or seed. Please don't rip it up to fit fake, it's awful.
 
SimonR said:
Your problem is that whatever solution you use, the water will have nowhere to go, as it appears to be sitting on top of the clay, just under your lawn. I had a similar problem and ended up putting in some small slotted drains, beneath the lawn that ran into a soakaway in the corner of the garden. It meant digging some trenches for the slotted drains to sit in, beneath the lawn and a 1m3 hole filled with gravel and bricks that the drains fed into. This cured the problem. The water in winter ran into the slotted drains and into the soakaway where it slowly percolated away.
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Also used this method before - an afternoon's work and problem solved!
 
As well as sorting out the drainage, you need to improve the soil structure and use the correct type of grass seed. A mixture of creeping red fescue and a bit of bent grass would suit a shady spot.
 
Id start ofd by complaining to the house builders.

Had this sane issue myself in a new build and had them out twice to fix, once they tried to botch it and just put down an inch of top soil and new turf, second time they dug a big trench in the middle and filled it with gravel and then relaid the turf.

It fixed the drainage problem but the grass always died because it never got any sun.
 
Rip it up and Astro turf it zero maintenance and green and useable year round love going outside in the winter and not having to worry about mud etc!
 
Astro turf will also waterlog in winter. The grass is not the problem its the substrate - the clay that is the issue. Without drainage, whatever you lay, will water log. In fact if you want to lay astro turf properly, as well as laying drainage, you are supposed to lay a drainage blanket directly beneath it, so that it doesnt waterlog. Anyone who has played hockey / football on astro turf in winter, will know how badly this stuff can get saturated and the water just pool on top of it - normally down to idiots laying cement / concrete underneath it rather than drainage layers, drainage blankets and geo-textiles.
 
SimonR said:
Astro turf will also waterlog in winter. The grass is not the problem its the substrate - the clay that is the issue. Without drainage, whatever you lay, will water log. In fact if you want to lay astro turf properly, as well as laying drainage, you are supposed to lay a drainage blanket directly beneath it, so that it doesnt waterlog. Anyone who has played hockey / football on astro turf in winter, will know how badly this stuff can get saturated and the water just pool on top of it - normally down to idiots laying cement / concrete underneath it rather than drainage layers, drainage blankets and geo-textiles.
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I assumed he was going to follow the proper fitting instructions not just lay it straight over the grass!

Going Astro has transformed our lawn from unusable muddy field in the winter into a great space. Our lawn had poor drainage and got almost no sun in the winter so it was permanently soft and wet Astro has transformed it and the kids love being able to play outside year round. We have a tiny back garden so the idea of hard landscaping part of it for winter use was a non starter!
 
Nothing like real grass. You need to sort out whats below though. Needs good drainage as people above have stated.

May be waste of time complaining to builders now after 3 years but worth a punt. Otherwise, you are going to have to get your hands dirty!
 
a1ex2001 said:
I assumed he was going to follow the proper fitting instructions not just lay it straight over the grass!

Going Astro has transformed our lawn from unusable muddy field in the winter into a great space. Our lawn had poor drainage and got almost no sun in the winter so it was permanently soft and wet Astro has transformed it and the kids love being able to play outside year round. We have a tiny back garden so the idea of hard landscaping part of it for winter use was a non starter!
Click to expand...
Ill also put in my recommendation for astro turf after doing a few bits that the dogs, lack of real sun and back and forth of people made my grass in need of constant renew/repair or bare impacted muddy and water soaked soil paths

If you get a good quality astro turf and do the ground work properly I think most people would be pleasantly surprised at the outcome.
 
I haven't read all the thread, so could just be repeating stuff.

We had the same problem with our new build. The garden used to always water log, and was pretty much north facing so little to no sun apart from an hour or so.

We used to spend months repairing it ready for summer, every single year! The grass then got infested with Leatherjackets, which made it even worse.

We bit the bullet, built a decked area, and put down artificial grass. I done the work myself with help from a friend or two, it cost around £1K. It's made the garden usable all year round now. No mud or grass in the house either.
 
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