Grass and a waterlogged pitch

[Chicken Chaser]

Asking green fingered members of PH for some assistance on this one. I live on a heavy clay bed. About 4 years ago, I covered it with 5 inches of good quality top soil and then grassed it with some fresh turf.
My garden itself is south facing with 6 foot fences all around. The bottom of the garden has progressively got worse with drainage and also with loss of grass coverage over this time.

The last winter has been particularly bad due to the amount of water/snow etc. The bottom of the garden was largely populated with moss across the grassed area which I ended up raking back heavily to prevent it taking a further hold. At the moment, the ground looks pretty muddy and dare I say it, rather clay like again. There is grass but what is left is poor quality tufts and no even coverage.

What can I do to improve the drainage? Can I cover it in sand, reseed and wait for the sand to break it up or should I dig into the soil layer and lay some kind of drainage? When we've had a few dry days, it seems to firm up but as soon as the first sight of rain, it becomes wet and soft again and I cant go near the area. I'd like a solution so that I dont have to keep seeding year on year and finding it becoming waterlogged often.

[Jonboy_t]

If it is that bad and repeats at the first sign of damp weather, I would probably be tempted to dig a meter of so down (maybe that's a bit too much) and fill with some kind of soakaway material. Perhaps a couple of foot of gravel and then relay top soil/sand mixture and seed or turf.

[Chrisgr31]

I have a similar issue, oarts of garden so wet over winter all the grass has gone.

Luckily neighbour is rerouting a stream through his garden so I am taking the opportunity to put in a drain which will drain to his stream. The drain will be in a trench around 1 foot deep, and surronded by 10 mm shingle. Then I am going to rotorate the soilmixing in sharp sand and compost. Hope this will help it drain!

Can report back in 12 months!

[RedLeicester]

Sounds like its badly in need of aerating. Plug or core aerator will givbe you the quickest results, and yes you can then backfill the holes with sand to improve the topsoil condition.

[Chicken Chaser]

Thanks RL, I'll probably give that a go before I go about digging up my lawn. I'll go and source an Aerator. Any particular one?

[RedLeicester]

Depends on size and how much time you have! I tend to bring in contractors to do the plugging, then use one of these a few times a year to keep the surface broken up:



But that may depend on the size (or existence) of your tractor.... else, most hire places will hire out a little petrol one for £30 a day or whatever.




Or you could pick up a handheld jobby -



If all else fails, you do it the old fashioned way:

[Chicken Chaser]

Just to update this, bought an Aerator (hand held manual labour one) and i've given the grass a good aerating. Ive since top dressed it with grit sand and then I've used some of that miracle grow patch repair to cover the affected area. Will see how it progresses but the aerating alone seems to have dried up the garden quite quickly at the affected end. Thanks for the advice folks.