Poor Garden Drainage Problem...

In short, new house, nice garden out the back, but seems to have very heavy, dense, clay-like soil and the rain water is just sitting on it!.

I dug a test drainage hole and filled it, it took about 2.5 days to empty, so I need some suggestions to resolve or at least improve the drainage of the siol.

Can I just dig it out, in rows, tiling and adding 'organic matter' or sand or something. This seems to be one option on some gardening sites?

I also heard the likes of bamboo love water so would be good planting options on re-dug soil?

Any experiences and help appreciated!

have identical problem..interested in responses. One idea would be to dig a large hole in the middle of the garden or at the lowest point fill with rocks and sand and then clay on top as a kinda sink hole or something i think its called...or soak hole?? not 100% sure?probably cheapest option. would need to be at least 1 meter deep by 1metre wide?

We have a similar problem and my mum has suggested planting alot of shrubs and stuff in the garden as tehy will soak up much of the excess water..

what you need is called a soakaway....

this is basically a large hole in your garden.... something like 1.8 deep x 1.5 x 1.5 would suffice i think,.... filled with large aggregate stones... this should all then be wrapped in geotextile material....and covered with 300mm topsoil, compaceted...
you then need to dig trenches through your garden (approx 2.5 m apart and 400 mm deep) and incorporate 100mm diameter perforated pipes.. the yellow flexable ones!.... bedded and covered in gravel then 300mm topsoil again.... a regular patterened layout would be preferrable (rather than 'fanned'...)....

however it needs to be made clear that if the local watertable level is high in your area then no matter what draining you do your garden will be wet.. the course of action would then be to raise the level of your garden....

to find this out dig your 1.8 m deep hole and leave it open for a few days to see what level (if any) the watertable is at....

so to test, you dig the 1.8m deep hole, and with no rain, water should gather in the bottom of it as the water table is high?

So does that mean the tilling option is a waste of time to try first? Although now that I think of it, my 2 foot deep test hole wouldbe well below the depth I would be tilling at so maybe it does?

the reason i bring the watertable into it is because IF it is high then theres no point incorporating a soakaway.....

yes, as youve described, dig the hole and find out if the watertable is high, if not then fire ahead with teh site drainage and soakaway...

another thing to look out for when you did your hole is a thin strip of rust coloured material.... this is whats called 'mottling'.... it delineates the highest point of the watertable.... usually, in summer, the water table is low due to lack of rain ..(i can hear he belly laughter already!!)....in the winter the water table rises, the highest point leaves this 'mottling' mark....

the tilling is an option but i would argue that its only temporary...

it sounds like you have thick marl as subsoil, this is not good for precolation, so tilling wll never solve this.....

Cheers for all the info....will probable go down the drainage/soak hole route I think, especially if the tilling is a bit of a waste with my soil type.