Pleeese help me. I don't know what to do Here's my story: I have lived at my property all my life and I have never known it to be waterlogged. Over the last 2 years however, it has started to flood at the bottom and the grass is just sodden.
The garden is lower than the house and there is a railway station platform at the bottom. Either side of me is a Council house and another privately owned house. Both gardens are slightly higher than mine.
We used to have a number of trees along the bottom of the garden but after my husband overdid the pruning about 9 years ago, about 4 poplar trees died and fell down. The remaining trees are willow.
Also, about 3 years ago, 3 blocks of apartments were built on the other side of the station platform on land that had always been wasteground and was a lot lower than our garden. The property delveloper got planning permission to raise the land by about 6 feet.
I tell you all these details because I am at a loss as to why the garden has all of a sudden started to flood and get water logged. I'm at my wits end because my garden is now ruined and before I start again I feel I need to sort this problem out first but I don't know how to go about it.
I have perused this website thoughout and although I think it has all I need to restore my garden, I feel that land drains or a soakaway don't apply to my problem. Would it be okay to just build the garden up by a few inches/feet?
There could be several reasons for the waterlogged garden.
You mention willow trees at the bottom of the garden, willows are aggressive and shallow rooted this normally means one of two things, great drainage or crap lawn, has the grass in the lawn turned to moss over the years because moss will retain water like a sponge.
The most likely cause is an existing land drainage system either silting up or becoming blocked with root ingress, there is a possibility that recent construction works adjacent to the property has cut off or blocked a land drain or culvert however if the site is lower than you this could be a long shot, and it could take some serious investigation works to prove that this is what has happened.
It would be worth while letting an experienced contractor have a poke about for an hour to try and locate an existing land drainage system in the worst affected area, but if you are not careful you could spend twice as much money investigating the problem as it would cost to rectify it, why is a new land drain not feasible? Does you land slope towards the railway, if so divert the water to beyond the boundary line, if not there are ways and means of draining the site without having to raise levels.
Here's my story: I have lived at my property all my life and I have never known it to be waterlogged. Over the last 2 years however, it has started to flood at the bottom and the grass is just sodden.