Bogged Down?

Dear Sibe,
I`m want to have a driveway put in, but we`re having some problems with the drains,my front garden sometimes looks like a mini lake after it`s been raining, can you advice please
yours faithfully
Sylvia Cordis

Hi Sylvia,

You are going to have to put a drainage in to a sump - this will involve creating a fall - usually 1 in 14 or 15 - to carry the water away - the sump is a deep hole filed with gravel which fills with the water and then slowly drains away...

Hope this helps

Angela

Can you advise on a detailed method for digging a sump. I have a flooding problem with a high water table. Noel

dear sibe,

I am in dire straights, every year my garden floods it ends up a mud bath from october until may. We have tried laying a black liner and gravel, grass and turning it over and adding decent compost and manure. None have solved the problem. We have a heavy clay soil and the local authority has put drainage pipes from a bank at the back of our house so when it rains some (or most) of this water runs into our garden. We also have little sunlight so its difficult to dry out the soil.

We now dont use the garden at all and the only thing that tends to grow in it is nettles. Its not a big garden but its such a waste to leave it as it is.

Please can you give me some ideas on what to do with it.

thanks karen

Karen -- Not much hope if you cannot provide a route out of your garden to lower ground. Grow things in half barrels so that there is something to look at.