waterlogged clay soil- make raised beds or change the soil?

Hi to all, I am new to this forum and have a few questions I could really do with some advice about !

I have a garden approx 60 foot by 20, all the houses are newish and built on old marshland. The soil is dreadful - gooey, thick clay with tons of big stones. I dug out beds 2 yrs ago and noticed a real problem ever since last summer - the front of the beds are getting terribly waterlogged. Today for example, where I have dug out some shrubs I wanted to put elsewhere, the holes left by them are totally filled with water to a good 6 inches deep ! and at the front of the bed there is just a big "pool". Towards the back of the bed it's okay.

I am going to replant my garden with a well thought out design (bit hotch potch right now) but b4 i plant a thing, I need to decide what to do about the soil/beds. to simply dig the clay over and put lots of compost in and keep breaking it up would be a hell of a job and really would take several years to improve the soil. I put a good 4 bags in first time round and it obviously hasn't helped much. Nor do i want all the hassle of digging in grit or putting in drainage grids.So do I:

1. dig out the beds and basically get rid of the clay soil (ie chuck it out) and replace with bags of compost from the garden centre along with some manure and whatever else reccommended. Ie basically change the soil type for the entire bed. If so, how far down should I dig out/chuck out . With this method I'd be keeping a "flat " bed.

2. Mark out the new bed and place log roll edging about a foot high around the perimiter and so create a "raised " bed which would basically contain just under a foot of brand new soil sitting right on top of the existing bed, which I am thinking I wouldn't have to bother digging over then? this method would solve the waterlogging problem and not kill off my plants.I DONT want to buy massive raised bed woodedn planters, or create a brick raised bed or one supported by huge sleepers, I want something understaded and elegant, not an eyesore.

I plan to grow flowers, plants, some shrubs, a couple of bamboo. No fruit/vege or trees.

I am really sick of looking at puddles instead of pretty flower beds in the damp periods and then in the warm months the soil looks like something you'd find in a dessert - all dried out, cracking, lumps of rock hard dried out clay sitting on top of the bed !!!

so your advice would be so appreciated, thanks!

 

Wooh.Welcome to GC Victoria. How you tackle this is really a matter for you. All we can do on here is suggest how we would handle it and every individual would do it differently. So here are a few of my ideas.

Firstly I would leave some of it wet. You are on old marshland so take advantage of it. You want bamboo? So Phylostachis heteroclada loves a god bog. Together with zantedeschia and possibly Arundo donax and several others but you don't say where you are in the UK.

This is not personal but why don't new members realise that saying where you are is important? Are you USDA zone 7b or 9? We have everything between them in the UK and it is difficult to advise on plants if we don't know the climate as well as the soil type.

I would then improve the rest of your soil with the addition of a lot of peat and sharp sand and a load of top soil and of course manure.

You are right. 4 bags of compost will make little difference. You will have to think bigger than that.

 

Hi John
thanks for your reply.
I suppose I autmoatically thought this was a UK forum, whereas it's international, doh!
I am in Cardiff, which is the capital city of Wales. So very WET LOL

Re the soil issue - the guy next door is a landscape gardener so knows all the tricks of the trade. He has these lovely shaped flat flower beds which he has slightly raised towards the rear but at the front, even with all his expertise and hardwork even he gets waterlogging for the first 2-3 inches of his bed. I suppose I'm just scared of all the hard work involved with your method (unfortunately my partner does not have the garden/DIY gene).

I will mull it over more but meanwhile, if i was to go the raised bed route or dig out the existing beds route, how many inches of new soil would I need for my flowers and plants to happily thrive in ...12 inches? 18 inches ? would I then basically have to fill it with compost, top soil, manure and mix it all in ? I would sure have beautiful crumbly dark earth then !

Re bamboos etc...well I have a fence either side of my garden, it's about 7 foot tall. I have been researching bamboos and really don't want anything to grow over 1-1.25 metres with a metre spread or less really else it would look "too much" as I'm planning on having a series of bamboos in both the left and right hand beds for symmetry and visual design impact.Also, the garden is not very wide, so very bushy bamboos either side would probably make the garden feel more closed in, which I don't want! I had basically narrowed it down to Fagesia Murielae "Simba". I'm not looking to blot out my fence but just to have a few feet of height here and there with a bamboo that doesn't spread too much.

anyway, I await any further tips you have with grateful thanks !

 

Hi Victoria welcome to the forum. Sadly in order to get rid of your water problem you will need to put in quite a bit of work that is unless you want a bog garden and then you have already got the makings for one!

Like most things to do with the garden there is no quick fix solutions and the work involved depends on what outcome you require, adding loads of compost, grit and gravel etc. will improve your soil and aid drainage but if the problem is really bad then you're going to need a great deal of extra materials as your neighbour had already found out putting a little barrier up at the front of the border isn't solving the problem at all.Hel.xxx.

 

Hi Victoria welcome to Gardeners Cornerin anrwer to your question as you can see just under the avitar that I live in essex,and essex is full of clay soil so I had the same problem as yourself.

The way I found worked best after trying sand,and all other manner of building materials,was to raise the beds about 10 inches,again as you mentioned with log roll to take the shape of whatever you decide you like to give me the hieght,then I simply filled it with the compost that had finished its days in the greenhouse.It worked for me and there is a LOT of clay in essex.

 

Hi VictoriaZ,

I too live in Cardiff and my back garden was solid clay which was incredibly difficult to work with and retained the water for weeks. Adding organic matter/sand/compost did very little and eventually I opted for installing a proper herringbone draining system with a layer on gravel on top and a few tons of top quality topsoil on top of that. I've laid a lawn that has taken extremely well and am waiting to but some more topsoil for my flowerbeds.