How to stop my swamped garden from destroying my patio area

C

Cashstrapped

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I have problems with the soakage in my back garden in that it is full of rocks and I have already had someone in to look at it and said it could go on for weeks and they still wouldn't get rid of them all so said it would be very expensive and might not even work.

Problem is now due to the continous rain my garden in one particular patch about 4ft x 12ft is which is next to my new patio area appears to be sinking and then when the water can't go down it floods over the patio area and up to the back door.

Would anyone have even a temporary solution to this, was going to make a raised flower bed and fill it with peat moss, hoping that the peat moss might soak up all the extra water, does anyone know if that would work or alternatively any other option as I am worried about it destroying my new patio or indeed sinking it, thanks.
 
You need to look at soakage and drains. Peat moss will do nothing. I don't thing there are any quick fixes. Why are you getting rid of rocks?
 
Don't think you have adequately explained what the problem is, rocks arent the cause of flooding. How near is the boundary to teh edge of your patio. Have you tried installing some drainage already?
 
Whoever installed the patio needs to install adequate surface-water run-off and drainage. There is no simple solution.
 
Sorry, didn't explain fully.

When we moved into the house which is near the back of the estate we asked a landscape company who were working in the Estate to dig out the garden and lay a new lawn. They came back saying that it seems all the debris from the previous phases of the housing Estate had been dumped and that they had dug down a certain dept but even trying to use a rotavator it was constantly jamming so they had to remove what they could by hand. These are large Rocks about twice the size of a football and bigger and clumps of pebble dash held together by cement. Unfortunately we only have a side entrance that is wide enough for a wheelie bin to fit through so it was not possible for them to get any digging type machinery into the garden to dig further. They finished it with top soil and it was fine for a while.

I should say the houses behind up are build up on a height so that their garden is in line with the top of my block wall, above my wall there is a wooden fence so the water from their garden runs out from where the wooden fence meets the top of the wall and then down into our garden. The right hand side of the garden 2/3rd width of the garden seems to be able to take the additional water but the left hand side builds up and the it runs down to where the garden meets the patio in a large puddle. If it continues to rain or say similar to the rain fall we've had recently the garden doesn't seems to be able to cope with draining the amount of water so it floods up and then onto the patio,again only to the left hand side. It will subside after a few hours. Where the flooding occurs that part of the garden is now alot lower on the left side that the right so is now level with the patio area, the other side is slightly above the patio, I'm not sure if that is down the garden sinking. There was yellow drainage pipes laid when the patio was put down or at least I paid for it, starting to wonder if was at all now.

What I'm really trying to do is stop the water when it floods over from coming onto the patio area, there are no drains on that side of the garden. Thanks
 
mathepac said:
No pics on AAM - but links are OK I think.
Click to expand...
Yep...thats what I meant.

There are no quick fixes to this. If you have the interest and really want to get problem sorted, then it will take time and effort (not necessarily money if your prepared to do it yourself). This is a regular problem for the majority of people on new developments - although yours sounds that little bit more extreme.
Theres a key thread on this in the gardening section of boards.ie (complete with before/during/after pics - of a small garden drainage project. If you follow the same implementation as on that thread, you will solve the problem.
Its a big undertaking but the question you have to ask yourself is are you willing to put up with the pain of undertaking the work and having your garden look extremely crap for a time in return for a proper long term solution?
Putting peatmoss down on top of a waterlogged surface and expecting plants to grow happily is the worst thing you could do. Its a waste of time, money and effort.
The drainage that you had done obviously has failed. What you need is a series of drains - leading to a big 'soak pit'. You can dig through the complete site - remove the rubble/blocks/stones,etc - and put them aside. Then dig the drains and the soak pit - filling the soak pit with the stones/blocks that you've collected up. Simply follow the lead of the person on boards.ie that has gone through the process.
You can of course get someone else in to do all this but its going to cost you IF its done PROPERLY.

hope that helps.
 
Hi All, thanks for the replies. I thought it might be a big project alright but was hoping for a quick fix rather than throw more money at it., will look at previous posts and the one on boards thanks again.
 
Had a similiar problem A few years back. Got a long drill bit a over one metre in lenght and drilled several holes. Had to redo them every so often. long term I would suggest mixing lawn sand through your lawn. You could prong your lawn and rake this in after. It will certainly help and improve drainage.
 
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