Waterlogged front garden - Why is my sandy soil full of water?

[carrotsareimportant]

Not another one?! Sorry! - We have recently moved into a house with gravel laid straight over earth to make a parking space filling the front garden.(It's not big approx6mx8m). I would prefer garden to parking. Simple, I thought, rake away the gravel, dig over the earth... not so easy.

After the first heavy rains we found that the lower half of the gravel area (it is on a slight slope) fills with water making a lake. I guessed many years compaction would create this and planned double digging etc. Exploratory digging at the top revealed this was also completely waterlogged, like digging wet concrete. My double digging wasn't breaking up soil to allow drainage, simply creating ponds!

The front gutter shared by the two houses(It's a 1930's semi) simply drains to the ground. I have found remains of clay pipe, and brick filled soakaway, very close to the surface. this is full of earth (very wet earth), so obviously not doing its job (if it ever did). The soil is not clay, but sandy, the house is not on particularly low ground, Could all this excess water be simply from the gutter?

Added complication is that there is nowhere to drain water to. The road is unmade, with no gutter, drain or ditch - in fact it's probably draining into our garden, as it is slightly higher .
I am now stumped. My first plan to double dig is impossible, I'm worried that a soakaway will just be a huge sump, thought about a french drain at the front boundary, but would this do the same? Any help gratefully received.

[lutonlagerlout]

it has rained a lot recently mate
try digging in some sharp/grit sand into the soil,like you said many years of compaction has probably compacted it,a soakaway may help
look on the main site for that
regards LLL

[carrotsareimportant]

Thanks for that. I think you may be right. The trench which I dug (only 1 spade deep) which filled with water has drained today. I think I will persevere with the digging, and plan a soakaway/ditch at the front boundary with the road. Also I will direct the gutter water down the garden to the boundary, so that it's away from the house walls.

I think I was panicking yesterday - I've never dug such soggy ground!

[lutonlagerlout]

always worth using a water butt for excess rainwater as it is handy for watering the garden in times of drought,a good tip is to get the butt as high as is possible that way you have a head of water ,to give you some pressure for watering
cheers LLL