Does your garden look like this:
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But should look like this?
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If so you may have a drainage issue...
Water-logging occurs after periods of heavy rain, which sits on the surface of the lawn and fails to drain away through the soil, leaving the lawn underwater. This happens because the soil is clay-like, dense or compacted.
Healthy soil is full of air, which allows grass roots to breathe, but when water saturates the soil, the air in the soil travels to the surface and escapes. This is a problem for grass roots as they need oxygen to live.
Although grass is quite hardy and could survive a few days without oxygen, it would eventually begin to turn yellow and die.
There is no quick fix for a waterlogged lawn. Check out these tips for keeping your lawn above water!
Aeration...
Aerating the lawn will help to improve drainage and will add air into the soil which will improve the conditions for the grass roots to live in. You can aerate the lawn by either spiking the lawn with a garden fork or aerator shoes, or by using a hollow tine aerator.
Topdress and over seed...
Topdress and re-seed your lawn in the spring and autumn, both on bare patches and where the grass is thick. Not only will this help to keep moss at bay but it will also help to create a thicker lawn with a more complex root structure which will be able to absorb more water during the next rainy season!
Our Topdressing is a 70/30% blend of screened silica sand and topsoil, screened down to about 3mm, making it perfect for working in-between existing grass blades and down to the roots. This is especially useful technique to use on sparse lawns.
- Use Dandy's Hardwearing Grass Seed to over-seed bare patches and for general lawn feeding brush the topdressing over your grass at a depth of 1-2mm. We find a garden brush is perfect for this. Make sure you have raked the lawn first to break up the surface and remove any moss, leaves and weeds.
- Sow the seed at a rate of around 10 - 15 gms per m2 and lightly rake into the surface - this also helps to avoid birds and rodents eating your seed! If birds are a problem you may wish to add a net over your lawn until the seed germinates.
Add a Land/French Drain...
If the waterlogging is severe, consider having a drain installed. Although this will be likely to involve upheaval to your garden this option will help surface water to run away from the problem area. You may choose to have new Lawn Turf laid following the addition of drain.
A Land/French Drain is simply a small trench dug to a gradient and filled with drainage gravel - this allows surface water to drain away from your walls, a building, driveway, garden or area that is prone to surface water pooling. Our Welsh Brown Drainage Gravel is perfect for this!
Choose Permeable Paths & Patios...
Choose pathways and patio surfaces which allow water to easily soak in, this will help to prevent the water running off and onto the grass area. Our range of Gravel and Slates are perfect for creating this type of surfaces.
Dig It All Up And Start Again...
Not an ideal scenario due to the work involved. However, digging up and removing your clay soil, putting fresh Lawnmix Topsoil or our NEW TurfSand Mix in its place, and even incorporating a French drain (or two) will make a substantial difference to your water-logging problems.
You will want to have fresh, new Lawn Turf laid on your new soil/sand and follow some of the steps above to ensure that your new garden is set up to withstand future heavy rains.
Case file
This garden had terrible drainage with a completed flooded lawn so we installed French drains, soak-away, a fresh layer of Lawnmix Topsoil and TurfSand Mix and topped it off with our beautiful Premium Lawn Turf.
Before and After using our TurfSand Mix...
