Squelchy Soil - Should I Delay Turf?

Good Morning all, hoping to learn a great deal from the site as over the coming months I will be taking on quite a few garden projects.

First of all, I am in the process of preparing my garden for turf.
It's a new build property and was extremely un-level so we had a digger in a couple of weeks ago and have levelled the main section of the garden, have kept a raised area which will also be turfed and then another raised area which will be a patio.

Having removed a substantial amount of soil (and bricks, stones and other debris!) I then begun importing new top soil last week. I had spread this out across the majority of the garden and trodden it in ready for raking before intending to add in more to finish levelling. However, due to a considerable amount of rain on Sunday and Monday certain areas are now like a quagmire and i literally sink when treading on it.

I was due to receive turf on Saturday however feel I should now delay.

What should I do with the areas of soil that I literally sink into in order to firm it up?

Thanks in advance for any help and advice!

Gary

 

I was due to receive turf on Saturday however feel I should now delay.

What should I do with the areas of soil that I literally sink into in order to firm it up?

Thanks in advance for any help and advice!

Gary[/QUOTE]
Difficult to advise without knowledge of the site. Immediate thoughts :
How much have you dug out? What was the soil like that you exposed?
Do you know about Water table? Is the area that is "squelchy" above or below the surrounding terrain? Where can this (excess) water go? What type of rock structure in your area?

 

Its amazing how many new build sites seem to have drainage problems.
I'm guessing its compacted subsoil, then when you put new topsoil on it just causes it to become a swamp.
Breaking up the subsoil before adding new topsoil would help I would think.
A lot depends on the surrounding levels and if the excess water has anywhere to go.

 

Thanks all for the replies, to try and answer all questions…we’ve dug a fair way down in order to bring the main garden area level with the patio outside the back of the house.

I’d say it’s sinking as it’s not compacted enough but then the rest of the garden is good.

The soil taken out was pretty decent considering it’s a new build site, but very rocky and chalky further down.

Prior to removing all the soil and levelling, the areas which are ‘squelchy’ did used to flood as the whole garden fell towards this area. We have installed a French drain along here and then backfilled with the soil we dug up and top soil added thereafter so perhaps an element of having not compacted this enough after backfilling?? Also next to this area is the raised section. We kept it raised as the amount of soil we would have had to remove to get it level with the rest would have been a hell of a lot more!

I was also concerned about compacted subsoil to be honest so I have used a paddle drill to loosen the area up so that I could fork it over and then tread it down.

 

Chalk can drain, but also give out groundwater if underlain by clay or impermeable strata. Although recently rainy , in general this winter/spring has had relatively low rainfall in most of the UK, about 40% less than average. Where in the UK are you?

 

I’ve just dug an area up that I literally fell into and it’s one end of the drainage. Perhaps had backfilled it too much and not compacted it enough as I went. I’ll refill in stages with a mixture of stones and compact as I go.
I’m based in Suffolk/Cambridgeshire border so a relatively dry area overall.

probably a good job we had this rain otherwise this may have happened post turfing!