The midlands

The garden faces west and the soil is very loamy however the drainage isn't great as it's a new build, so I'm guessing the ground is still settling

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Jamie. We often here of problems with drainage in new build gardens, this could be due to the fact that many builders bury rubble in the gardens. It would be a good idea to have a dig around just to see what's going on underneath. You say the soil is loamy could that be topsoil that's been put down?

 

I would say it has about 1ft of topsoil then like a stoney shail soil underneath, when I dug my patio out as I,m on a slope I went down 4ft in a 16 ft square area and didn't hit any rubble.

 

We used to live in a new build & the soiled area was exactly as described by others, a builder's dumping ground! We had to try and put decent soil, compost etc down but at the time, as I hadn't discovered this forum, it didn't work so we decked it! I'm sure it'll become a perfect area with advice from here, but you may have to plant certain plants for the soil type

 

Looks like I have some work cut out, just want the spring to hurry and come so I can get out and start some jobs