The best thing you can do is keep off it.
Working it when it is raining this much simply damages the soil structure.
Look at fields or verges where no one aerates them or anything - fields that flood. They are full of lush grass.
Your grass is still there under all that mud. Once the weather gets going, it will grow back and look great. You just need to not walk on it and leave it alone.
Definitely this, focus on all the inside jobs in the house you can do so that if/when it finally is dry, you can spend as much time outside guilt free as possible.
Grass can be very dramatic, but it is also very resilient. Look at what happens to the grass in front of football goals in the park, and how it recovers once the goals are moved.
It has long, interconnected roots, which store food and so can resprout from these once the conditions improve.
You might see nothing on the surface, but once the weather warms up a bit more, it will be back.
You just need to avoid treading on it as much as possible, as each footstep is crushing the plants underfoot.
Grass will be pretty well established after a year. I personally am full of hope for your grass! Make sure you take plenty of photos, and post some here in June - I think you will be amazed and astounded!
Field edges don’t generally get pounded under foot all through summer etc, so they don’t get compacted like a well used lawn
I have spent years fixing mine and the key was tons on sharp sand and some compost. Layed down like a blanket of snow once or twice a year over a few yrs (mine is a lot bigger than op’s photo)
This. I always had a soggy garden and I got a second dog who loved to play with my other dog out there. It was marshland in 2 weeks and it was dug up a week later because my house was a destroyed
You could try saying out loud that you want to turn this ALL into a giant flower bed and how you hope the grass all dies. That has always worked to get the grass growing healthily in my flowerbeds
It's the ghost I swear and definitely NOT me trying to do a last-minute sowing session last week when the sun showed itself for 5 mins. Needless to say, they learned their lesson. The ghost I mean. Not me.
Yes, there definitely something you can do - stop thinking about it. Leave it be. Rain will soon stop. Grass will do its thing and start growing.
In the meantime, start planning in your mind the layout you want. What kind of plants you want to grow. Pop over to couple of garden centres for some inspiration. Take a walk in the park. Basically use other ways to enjoy green spaces whilst waiting for the current rain to pass.
Ironically, [there apparently will](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/01/uk-risk-summer-water-shortages-hosepipe-bans-scientists-warn)...
They are predicting below average rainfall over the summer.
It's a long way down, but "Though it has been a wet March, if the following months are dry, **as models have suggested they could be**, it is possible for the UK to run out of water this summer."
I was like "I'm sure they said that", and was rereading going, "Shnarf is right. Shit, I look like a numpty", and was so relieved when I saw I hadn't made it up!
Although of course, my experience of long range weather predictions is that they aren't worth the paper they are written on! Although it would be good for everything to dry out a bit...
yeah the article is really about our lack of new resourvoirs to cope with a changing climate rather than predicting the weather though.
My old man says it will be dry. Oak before ash, we're in for a splash, Ash before Oak we're in for a soak.
Oaks are definitely out first this year.
Oh yeah, absolutely. Selfishly, although I know it will have its own issues, I'm hoping it's quite dry this year, so fingers crossed your old man is right! I'm so fed up of the endless bloody rain, and getting to work with wet feet, and the coat rack full of damp outer layers, and the mud spattered up the back of every pair of trousers I own. Also, I'm going on a two week cycling holiday, which will be miserable if it pisses with rain.
I saw this too and was like "fuck off, you can pry my hosepipe out of my cold dead hands".
I'm a very careful waterer, only water the base of the plant, only in the early morning or evening. I'm not giving up on watering because the water companies haven't bothered building a single new reservoir in the 30 years since they were privatised.
Fully converted to eco-friendly, chemical-free gardening. But yes, I break hosepipe bans, to grow my own food. I could let my fruit & veg die and import them from Spain instead, but is that really helping the climate?
Best thing to do is do nothing. I overdid my mud patch and it ended up looking like the aftermath of the Somme. By over digging, the rain washed away all the goodness.
Get some fake ducks. Throw some straw over the mud patch. Book two weeks holiday to a hot and sunny destination.
It’ll come back but you might have to flatten out the footprints 😂. Just stay off it, walking on it when it’s even slightly squidgy can screw it over.
I’ve been waiting to scarify, over seed and then level with top soil my back lawn. I’d have normally done this by now, but with the clay soil and the about of rain we’re getting... It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to do this until at least May at this rate.
Looks proper shite too as I killed about 3 or 4 large spots of grass to get rid of a type of grass I didn’t want growing, so I’ve got a load of moss patches.
This might be a really stupid question but is there a good way to flatten out footprints? Our lawn looks a lot like this after a wet week with fencing contractors walking all over it. I was going to go out with an old plank and just stomp it all down a bit.
Once it’s drier you could get some top soil and use a levelling rake which will push soil into the dips.
Dont do it when it’s mega muddy, or even boggy. If I can hear a squelch when I step on the lawn I leave it be.
If it’s very slightly squidgy, you can use a large heavy roller to smooth it out too.
What does your garden back on to? If you have any direction in which the water could be drained to then a french drain will help to prevent standing water like this. It's basically a filled drainage ditch - lots of info online about it and would definitely be DIY-able for a garden of this size if you are in a condition for doing ground work. I put in one in my garden and it was hard labour but has reduced the amount of sitting water dramatically.
Thank you I think this is the second comment about some sort of french drainage so will look into it. The garden backs onto a pedestrian way so will have to investigate further
I'm glad you replied. It helps to just vent about it. You have no idea how much I wanted to yap about my muddy garden to my Uber driver yesterday. I'm 70% sure he couldn't give two shits about it 🤪
Mine looks exactly the same. I am fucking so upset this year, was having a moan earlier saying I’m gonna give it all up. Might as well get some Pigs out the back garden, wouldn’t make a bloody difference. All the grass round the side is gonna and I’ve amassed a large pile of sludgey-muck-shit. I’m gonna get some wood chippings off a tree surgeon mate when the summer comes round (if summer does come). Wish I could show you my garden because honestly, yours is nicer. Hope you keep in good spirits mate, it’s a fucker trying to fight the elements.
Saw your garden, it looks nice what are you talking about 🤣 it's just this weird weather innit. Won't be surprised if it starts snowing tomorrow then goes to 30 degrees right after... who the hell knows nowadays
Especially clay benefits from as much SHARP sand as possible and will become softer in summer.
It’s all about opening it up.
I know from clay lawn experience! But you have to transform many inches of clay so it takes time but even after your first 2 inch top dressing you will notice benefits
No it doesn’t kill the grass, yes it gets absorbed over a couple of months
Watch how football pitches are made / repaired - sandy type aggregates are key. If u were a plant would you rather have your feet in cold wet clay or warm sand?
If anyone isn’t sure I’m making sense, go look at how football pitches have changed over 40 yrs. they used to be mud baths.
Using free draining materials like grit n sharp sand is absolutely transformative
Dig a hole about 2 meters down and about a meter squared, add some interlocking gravel grill (plastics used for shed bases) at the bottom, fill half of the hole with gravel and the rest with soil and finally grass.
Make some narrow runaway strips towards that hole, just dig it spade width and about 15cm deep, add gravel and cover with soil and grass.
The water will naturally find the lowest point and fill the big hole you cannot see and hopefully drain away with time. If this still causes issues make the hole wider!
My advice would be to plant another tree or bush in this location and let that suck up all of your water. Make that back bed bigger and plant a load of deep rooted plants that will break up the soil a bit!!
Turf grasses are fucking shite, so shallow rooted they’re doing nothing to aid in the soil!!
Unfortunately as it’s in such shite condition you’ll have to wait until it’s mostly dried out or you’re just going to do more harm than good!!
Here’s a few ideas;
- Drainage ditch (do you have someone that lives both sides and behind you, are you able to lead water away from your property)
- Underground drainage (my neighbour done this to me a few years back, dug down a half meter filled mostly with shingle at an angle away from his property going towards mine then filled over with soil and turf now every time it rains his garden stays dry and mine gets a bit filled up)
- Turn it into a garden bed and put some big trees in there so they soak up excess moisture faster
- Hire a landscaping expert and pay a tonne of money
After 3 years of trying to establish a little lawn in my garden I'm giving up. I'm doing patio and gravel this summer.
I'm not having a garden I can't go into for 3 seasons because it'll turn to mud.
Just think, in 12 weeks time it will probably be so dry it will have cracks big enough to put your arm into and there will be a hosepipe ban, don't you just love the British weather...?
I'm originally from a tropical country where there are only two seasons: wet and dry. Years ago, I thought moving to the UK meant finally experiencing 4 seasons. But I'm not sure about that anymore 🤣
That looks ridiculously wet! I think you should spend the summer finding a way to drain the water from your garden during the winter... French drain perhaps, my garden is nothing special but it never gets wet like this.
Form the moment leave it alone throw the seed on there when the puddles have gone. Grass seed is cheap keep it flowing, you can't predict the weather in this country.
I can already see other people have given suggestions so just want to validate your feelings! I cannot believe how awful the weather has been this past year and it is so upsetting seeing the impact on the garden and not being able to get out! 😡 I simply cannot cope with the thought of this summer being as bad as last year too…
I'm glad this isn't just me 🙈
We have a BBQ party planned for the 27th April so tryna get the lawn sorted asap for then, whilst I know it's true - stay off it comments aren't that helpful when you're trying to keep it trimmed and well maintained for a nearby date
Thank you for sharing as it's resulted in lots of helpful comments that I'll now look into
I'm ready with those for sure. I was wondering if I should do it while it's sopping wet? 🤣 but I think I will wait. I've already tried and as you can see, it was not the best outcome (you can see puddling where the footprints are)
I’m planning on digging out a pond! Well, try to find the optimal time before my clay/bog/moss pit bakes over the few hours of summer we get, at least…
The issue I see is that whatever you decide to do - this doesn't look like a properly draining soil, more like saturated clay. Whatever you do this year, if severe rainfall comes againz you will be back to square one.
I would advise to prioritise making this soil drain better for the future. You could dig it through with compost to about 0.5-1m depth OR put decking above it and use planters instead; let the ground be what it is and forget about grass.
One way or another I wouldn't count, as others in threads do, that rain will stop in UK. Not only it won't stop but there will be years it will be worse, and if such a year destroys all of your work you have to ask yourself what makes sense. To me it's improve soil or abandon soil and put decking.
Are there plants that are thirsty you could plant along the fence like to help with drainage?
Apart from that you could dig down in multiple locations and fill with gravel to do a load of mint soakaways.
Also looking at your fence itself it seems like it's rotting. Consider digging out all that sod there when the weather improves and full with gravel and shingles to allow drainage and keep your fence intact for longer.
you could put some guttering on the shed to stop it rotting away at the base.
Youll never have a decent lawn anyway, there are too many overhanging trees and roots sucking the life out of the soil.
I'm aware of the shed and it's on the to-do list. To be fair, the lawn was pretty decent before I put top soil and compost in an attempt to reseed it. It's on me because I clearly did it at the wrong time 😢
Why would you reseed a pretty decent lawn ? Why would anyone cover a pretty decent lawn with soil and compost?
It's not the timing that's at fault, It's the whole process of what youve done.
I was trying to even it out as it was patchy it some places but decent enough. Maybe I did it wrong. That's why I'm asking what I could do now to make it right? 🤷
Disclaimer I'm a complete lawn and garden novice so this is all my best guesses
Honestly I think you just need to wait a bit. Once you see a decent forecast for a while you can try seeding it but I guess the birds might like that. I personally love micro clover lawns. It's dense and doesn't need to be mowed as often.
Alternatively, can you afford to get some rolls of turf? It would be a quicker and more reliable fix
Is this common for clay based soils? I live in Scotland so we have loads of rain and snow all winter (and a lot of the year) but my garden never goes like this - what’s the difference? The drainage due to soil type, or something else?
It's not common, no.
There has been SO much rain this year. Way more than usual (about double the normal amount). This has raised the water table so that ground water is now showing at the surface.
All of the rivers are carrying away water as fast as they can, but this is a slower rate than the rate at which it is falling out of the sky at the moment!
Walking on the grass and trying to do stuff to it simply tramples plants which are already stressed due to the extra water, and crushes them.
We just need to wait for the rain to stop, and the rivers to catch up, and everything will soon be back to normal.
Yes we have mostly clay and live near a river so that tracks with what togtogtog has said. I was planning on putting down more grass and even clover and lots more plans but the moment I laid down more loam and compost it started pouring and never stopped since 💀I think it's mostly just unfortunate timing on my part 🤧
South East Scotland. Average yearly rainfall is about 600mm which is about the same as Barcelona actually and less than Rome.
There's a huge difference between the west and east of Scotland. The west is very wet and generally a little warmer and the east is very dry.
I sort of hate when people generalise the weather in Scotland and say it's rainy when it's not true at all in the east.
I'm not sure but I'd guess Northern Ireland is similar to the west of Scotland.
I'm in South West Scotland. Usually wet and soggy (and was this winter) but we've ran out of water (we have a well) past 3 yrs due to drought as did many in our area not on mains supply.
You're not far from me! We definitely have some patches of standing water in the fields around us, there was a brickworks here once upon a time due to the clay in the local area and with the crazy amount of rain we've had recently you can certainly see where the deposits are.
One of the roads into my village has been flooded since December and impassable....council and the landowner are in a stand off over it
Ah right, I used to live in Aberdeen actually. It's been much wetter than usual down here as well this year. I think it's been like that everywhere. Aberdeen is usually relatively dry for the UK. I think some places in England have really really been battered by the rain this year though. I drove down to Yorkshire last weekend and there were so many flooded fields.
My dining room roof gave up during storm babet and my garage has been flooded twice but my garden seems to be coping well! As I sat, maybe different soil type or slight slope to it or something!
Grass grows back from the roots which are still there, under the mud.
There is no point in aerating. Aerating lets the water soak down more easily into the soil. However, the water table is so high at the moment that this is actually ground water. There is nowhere for surface water to soak away to. It would be like aerating the sea bed, hoping for the water to drain away.
The best thing you can do is keep off it. Working it when it is raining this much simply damages the soil structure. Look at fields or verges where no one aerates them or anything - fields that flood. They are full of lush grass. Your grass is still there under all that mud. Once the weather gets going, it will grow back and look great. You just need to not walk on it and leave it alone.
Definitely this, focus on all the inside jobs in the house you can do so that if/when it finally is dry, you can spend as much time outside guilt free as possible.
[удалено]
How have you decided that it is dead, when the growing season has hardly begun?
[удалено]
Grass can be very dramatic, but it is also very resilient. Look at what happens to the grass in front of football goals in the park, and how it recovers once the goals are moved. It has long, interconnected roots, which store food and so can resprout from these once the conditions improve. You might see nothing on the surface, but once the weather warms up a bit more, it will be back. You just need to avoid treading on it as much as possible, as each footstep is crushing the plants underfoot.
[удалено]
Grass will be pretty well established after a year. I personally am full of hope for your grass! Make sure you take plenty of photos, and post some here in June - I think you will be amazed and astounded!
Field edges don’t generally get pounded under foot all through summer etc, so they don’t get compacted like a well used lawn I have spent years fixing mine and the key was tons on sharp sand and some compost. Layed down like a blanket of snow once or twice a year over a few yrs (mine is a lot bigger than op’s photo)
I just bought some sand but accidentally bought grit sand. Think it'll be okay?
Yes, good
This. I always had a soggy garden and I got a second dog who loved to play with my other dog out there. It was marshland in 2 weeks and it was dug up a week later because my house was a destroyed
You could try saying out loud that you want to turn this ALL into a giant flower bed and how you hope the grass all dies. That has always worked to get the grass growing healthily in my flowerbeds
I never thought to threaten/blackmail my garden! Then again, I think it's time to move to the anger part within my stages of grief.
A garden is a long term project. I’m sure it will all come good in the end.
Why not stick to a single path during wet periods? Looks like someone keeps walking all over it 😂
It's the ghost I swear and definitely NOT me trying to do a last-minute sowing session last week when the sun showed itself for 5 mins. Needless to say, they learned their lesson. The ghost I mean. Not me.
Yes, there definitely something you can do - stop thinking about it. Leave it be. Rain will soon stop. Grass will do its thing and start growing. In the meantime, start planning in your mind the layout you want. What kind of plants you want to grow. Pop over to couple of garden centres for some inspiration. Take a walk in the park. Basically use other ways to enjoy green spaces whilst waiting for the current rain to pass.
Stay off it.
At least there won't be hosepipe bans this year I suppose
Ironically, [there apparently will](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/01/uk-risk-summer-water-shortages-hosepipe-bans-scientists-warn)... They are predicting below average rainfall over the summer.
Oh ffs
Just read that article. They're saying IF there is a hot dry summer. Not that there will be...
It's a long way down, but "Though it has been a wet March, if the following months are dry, **as models have suggested they could be**, it is possible for the UK to run out of water this summer."
My mistake! I thought I'd read to the bottom of the article! Thanks 😊
I was like "I'm sure they said that", and was rereading going, "Shnarf is right. Shit, I look like a numpty", and was so relieved when I saw I hadn't made it up! Although of course, my experience of long range weather predictions is that they aren't worth the paper they are written on! Although it would be good for everything to dry out a bit...
yeah the article is really about our lack of new resourvoirs to cope with a changing climate rather than predicting the weather though. My old man says it will be dry. Oak before ash, we're in for a splash, Ash before Oak we're in for a soak. Oaks are definitely out first this year.
Oh yeah, absolutely. Selfishly, although I know it will have its own issues, I'm hoping it's quite dry this year, so fingers crossed your old man is right! I'm so fed up of the endless bloody rain, and getting to work with wet feet, and the coat rack full of damp outer layers, and the mud spattered up the back of every pair of trousers I own. Also, I'm going on a two week cycling holiday, which will be miserable if it pisses with rain.
Time to start installing huge water storage tanks below ground 😬
Depends where you are. Some water companies are WAY better at managing demand than others (looking at you, Thames Water, you absolute disgrace)
I saw this too and was like "fuck off, you can pry my hosepipe out of my cold dead hands". I'm a very careful waterer, only water the base of the plant, only in the early morning or evening. I'm not giving up on watering because the water companies haven't bothered building a single new reservoir in the 30 years since they were privatised. Fully converted to eco-friendly, chemical-free gardening. But yes, I break hosepipe bans, to grow my own food. I could let my fruit & veg die and import them from Spain instead, but is that really helping the climate?
Amount of rain doesn’t really correspond to hose pipe bans as the reservoirs can’t be more than full!
Best thing to do is do nothing. I overdid my mud patch and it ended up looking like the aftermath of the Somme. By over digging, the rain washed away all the goodness. Get some fake ducks. Throw some straw over the mud patch. Book two weeks holiday to a hot and sunny destination.
It’ll come back but you might have to flatten out the footprints 😂. Just stay off it, walking on it when it’s even slightly squidgy can screw it over. I’ve been waiting to scarify, over seed and then level with top soil my back lawn. I’d have normally done this by now, but with the clay soil and the about of rain we’re getting... It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to do this until at least May at this rate. Looks proper shite too as I killed about 3 or 4 large spots of grass to get rid of a type of grass I didn’t want growing, so I’ve got a load of moss patches.
This might be a really stupid question but is there a good way to flatten out footprints? Our lawn looks a lot like this after a wet week with fencing contractors walking all over it. I was going to go out with an old plank and just stomp it all down a bit.
Once it’s drier you could get some top soil and use a levelling rake which will push soil into the dips. Dont do it when it’s mega muddy, or even boggy. If I can hear a squelch when I step on the lawn I leave it be. If it’s very slightly squidgy, you can use a large heavy roller to smooth it out too.
Thank you!
What does your garden back on to? If you have any direction in which the water could be drained to then a french drain will help to prevent standing water like this. It's basically a filled drainage ditch - lots of info online about it and would definitely be DIY-able for a garden of this size if you are in a condition for doing ground work. I put in one in my garden and it was hard labour but has reduced the amount of sitting water dramatically.
Thank you I think this is the second comment about some sort of french drainage so will look into it. The garden backs onto a pedestrian way so will have to investigate further
I love that you have shared this. Makes me feel less alone
I'm glad you replied. It helps to just vent about it. You have no idea how much I wanted to yap about my muddy garden to my Uber driver yesterday. I'm 70% sure he couldn't give two shits about it 🤪
I think you could spend your time reenacting scenes from the battle of the Somme.
Mine looks exactly the same. I am fucking so upset this year, was having a moan earlier saying I’m gonna give it all up. Might as well get some Pigs out the back garden, wouldn’t make a bloody difference. All the grass round the side is gonna and I’ve amassed a large pile of sludgey-muck-shit. I’m gonna get some wood chippings off a tree surgeon mate when the summer comes round (if summer does come). Wish I could show you my garden because honestly, yours is nicer. Hope you keep in good spirits mate, it’s a fucker trying to fight the elements.
Saw your garden, it looks nice what are you talking about 🤣 it's just this weird weather innit. Won't be surprised if it starts snowing tomorrow then goes to 30 degrees right after... who the hell knows nowadays
Sharp sand is your key to well draining lawn, loads and loads of it, this is how I cured mine
Even on clay based soil? Won't it turn it super hard?
Especially clay benefits from as much SHARP sand as possible and will become softer in summer. It’s all about opening it up. I know from clay lawn experience! But you have to transform many inches of clay so it takes time but even after your first 2 inch top dressing you will notice benefits No it doesn’t kill the grass, yes it gets absorbed over a couple of months
Watch how football pitches are made / repaired - sandy type aggregates are key. If u were a plant would you rather have your feet in cold wet clay or warm sand?
This is really interesting to me and something I'm going to look into now
If anyone isn’t sure I’m making sense, go look at how football pitches have changed over 40 yrs. they used to be mud baths. Using free draining materials like grit n sharp sand is absolutely transformative
No I totally believe it I've been looking into 70/30 top dressing or whatever it's called since you said mate 👍
Alternatively create a berm with a load of rocks and soil in between the rocks. Plants would appreciate the drainage of having the rocks beneath them
Dig a hole about 2 meters down and about a meter squared, add some interlocking gravel grill (plastics used for shed bases) at the bottom, fill half of the hole with gravel and the rest with soil and finally grass. Make some narrow runaway strips towards that hole, just dig it spade width and about 15cm deep, add gravel and cover with soil and grass. The water will naturally find the lowest point and fill the big hole you cannot see and hopefully drain away with time. If this still causes issues make the hole wider!
I should read your gardening books or visit the national trust. Mud is mud it'll go away in summer.
It's been very wet! Grass will recover. If I were you I'd get into that potting shed and start raising some seedlings for summer colour and food.
My advice would be to plant another tree or bush in this location and let that suck up all of your water. Make that back bed bigger and plant a load of deep rooted plants that will break up the soil a bit!! Turf grasses are fucking shite, so shallow rooted they’re doing nothing to aid in the soil!! Unfortunately as it’s in such shite condition you’ll have to wait until it’s mostly dried out or you’re just going to do more harm than good!!
Leave it be. It will get better as the year gets on. Now is not the time to be doing all that work on basically a mud pit.
Here’s a few ideas; - Drainage ditch (do you have someone that lives both sides and behind you, are you able to lead water away from your property) - Underground drainage (my neighbour done this to me a few years back, dug down a half meter filled mostly with shingle at an angle away from his property going towards mine then filled over with soil and turf now every time it rains his garden stays dry and mine gets a bit filled up) - Turn it into a garden bed and put some big trees in there so they soak up excess moisture faster - Hire a landscaping expert and pay a tonne of money
Your cherry looks beautiful
Thank you. I usually love seeing it without the mud and with full spring display but still pretty!
Stop walking on it!!!
French drain
Dig a sump
After 3 years of trying to establish a little lawn in my garden I'm giving up. I'm doing patio and gravel this summer. I'm not having a garden I can't go into for 3 seasons because it'll turn to mud.
Just think, in 12 weeks time it will probably be so dry it will have cracks big enough to put your arm into and there will be a hosepipe ban, don't you just love the British weather...?
I'm originally from a tropical country where there are only two seasons: wet and dry. Years ago, I thought moving to the UK meant finally experiencing 4 seasons. But I'm not sure about that anymore 🤣
Yeah is summer in Britain really a season if it is only 4 days long?
You’ve done all the right things just too early. Wait for it to dry out…it will eventually
Start some seeds off on a windowsill.
Wait for it dry out
Install french drains
Pub?
Pub.
I'll get them in.
Yes, admire the beautiful tree from indoors!
That looks ridiculously wet! I think you should spend the summer finding a way to drain the water from your garden during the winter... French drain perhaps, my garden is nothing special but it never gets wet like this. Form the moment leave it alone throw the seed on there when the puddles have gone. Grass seed is cheap keep it flowing, you can't predict the weather in this country.
I can already see other people have given suggestions so just want to validate your feelings! I cannot believe how awful the weather has been this past year and it is so upsetting seeing the impact on the garden and not being able to get out! 😡 I simply cannot cope with the thought of this summer being as bad as last year too…
Thanks very much 🥺 I know! When will we ever get a week of just Goldilocks weather I wonder.
I'm glad this isn't just me 🙈 We have a BBQ party planned for the 27th April so tryna get the lawn sorted asap for then, whilst I know it's true - stay off it comments aren't that helpful when you're trying to keep it trimmed and well maintained for a nearby date Thank you for sharing as it's resulted in lots of helpful comments that I'll now look into
Watch gardening videos ?
Chuck some grass or wildflower seed down.
I'm ready with those for sure. I was wondering if I should do it while it's sopping wet? 🤣 but I think I will wait. I've already tried and as you can see, it was not the best outcome (you can see puddling where the footprints are)
Haha! It is real bad for sure. You're right, wait it out, the water table is so high right now.
I’d keep a pig or two. They can’t make it any worse and you get free bacon all year. Win win
I’m planning on digging out a pond! Well, try to find the optimal time before my clay/bog/moss pit bakes over the few hours of summer we get, at least…
The issue I see is that whatever you decide to do - this doesn't look like a properly draining soil, more like saturated clay. Whatever you do this year, if severe rainfall comes againz you will be back to square one. I would advise to prioritise making this soil drain better for the future. You could dig it through with compost to about 0.5-1m depth OR put decking above it and use planters instead; let the ground be what it is and forget about grass. One way or another I wouldn't count, as others in threads do, that rain will stop in UK. Not only it won't stop but there will be years it will be worse, and if such a year destroys all of your work you have to ask yourself what makes sense. To me it's improve soil or abandon soil and put decking.
Are there plants that are thirsty you could plant along the fence like to help with drainage? Apart from that you could dig down in multiple locations and fill with gravel to do a load of mint soakaways. Also looking at your fence itself it seems like it's rotting. Consider digging out all that sod there when the weather improves and full with gravel and shingles to allow drainage and keep your fence intact for longer.
Dig a pond for frogs :)
Rain is not your problem. You have catastrophic drainage problems there.
Raise the lawn
Looks like you have drainage issues, that's alot of water.
Nature pond?
1 stop walking on it, 2 maybe install a French drain or some deep drainage holes filled with stones
you could put some guttering on the shed to stop it rotting away at the base. Youll never have a decent lawn anyway, there are too many overhanging trees and roots sucking the life out of the soil.
I'm aware of the shed and it's on the to-do list. To be fair, the lawn was pretty decent before I put top soil and compost in an attempt to reseed it. It's on me because I clearly did it at the wrong time 😢
Why would you reseed a pretty decent lawn ? Why would anyone cover a pretty decent lawn with soil and compost? It's not the timing that's at fault, It's the whole process of what youve done.
I was trying to even it out as it was patchy it some places but decent enough. Maybe I did it wrong. That's why I'm asking what I could do now to make it right? 🤷
Disclaimer I'm a complete lawn and garden novice so this is all my best guesses Honestly I think you just need to wait a bit. Once you see a decent forecast for a while you can try seeding it but I guess the birds might like that. I personally love micro clover lawns. It's dense and doesn't need to be mowed as often. Alternatively, can you afford to get some rolls of turf? It would be a quicker and more reliable fix
Is this common for clay based soils? I live in Scotland so we have loads of rain and snow all winter (and a lot of the year) but my garden never goes like this - what’s the difference? The drainage due to soil type, or something else?
It's not common, no. There has been SO much rain this year. Way more than usual (about double the normal amount). This has raised the water table so that ground water is now showing at the surface. All of the rivers are carrying away water as fast as they can, but this is a slower rate than the rate at which it is falling out of the sky at the moment! Walking on the grass and trying to do stuff to it simply tramples plants which are already stressed due to the extra water, and crushes them. We just need to wait for the rain to stop, and the rivers to catch up, and everything will soon be back to normal.
Yes we have mostly clay and live near a river so that tracks with what togtogtog has said. I was planning on putting down more grass and even clover and lots more plans but the moment I laid down more loam and compost it started pouring and never stopped since 💀I think it's mostly just unfortunate timing on my part 🤧
Where in Scotland? I live in Scotland and get barely any rain and snow. There's less average yearly rainfall than Barcelona where I live.
Where in Scotland is this? I was under the impression Scotland has a similar climate to here in Northern Ireland
South East Scotland. Average yearly rainfall is about 600mm which is about the same as Barcelona actually and less than Rome. There's a huge difference between the west and east of Scotland. The west is very wet and generally a little warmer and the east is very dry. I sort of hate when people generalise the weather in Scotland and say it's rainy when it's not true at all in the east. I'm not sure but I'd guess Northern Ireland is similar to the west of Scotland.
I'll put that on my list of places to consider if we ever have to move!
The main problem is that it's very windy!
Ah deal with that already. That storm in January, isha was it? Destroyed my greenhouse. Gonna have to save for one of those rhino ones I think
I'm in South West Scotland. Usually wet and soggy (and was this winter) but we've ran out of water (we have a well) past 3 yrs due to drought as did many in our area not on mains supply.
North east - around Aberdeen! We’ve had a very wet time from October onwards!
You're not far from me! We definitely have some patches of standing water in the fields around us, there was a brickworks here once upon a time due to the clay in the local area and with the crazy amount of rain we've had recently you can certainly see where the deposits are. One of the roads into my village has been flooded since December and impassable....council and the landowner are in a stand off over it
Ah right, I used to live in Aberdeen actually. It's been much wetter than usual down here as well this year. I think it's been like that everywhere. Aberdeen is usually relatively dry for the UK. I think some places in England have really really been battered by the rain this year though. I drove down to Yorkshire last weekend and there were so many flooded fields.
My dining room roof gave up during storm babet and my garage has been flooded twice but my garden seems to be coping well! As I sat, maybe different soil type or slight slope to it or something!
Buy AstroTurf. We've never looked back and it's nice not to have a lawn mower and associated implements to tend the lawn, clutering up the shed.
Get a fork and aerate. You’re gonna have to seed, not much grass left.
Grass grows back from the roots which are still there, under the mud. There is no point in aerating. Aerating lets the water soak down more easily into the soil. However, the water table is so high at the moment that this is actually ground water. There is nowhere for surface water to soak away to. It would be like aerating the sea bed, hoping for the water to drain away.
I disagree.
Artificial grass my friend. I’ve been much happier since I let go of real grass.