Waterlogged new garden. Keen to make it a wildlife garden with pond.

Discussion in 'General Gardening Discussion' started by sniffy, Dec 24, 2013.

  1. sniffy

    sniffy Gardener

    Joined:
    Dec 24, 2013
    Messages:
    32
    Ratings:
    +43
    Hi. This is my first post.

    I've just moved into a new house. The back garden is about 60 feet long by 30 feet. I am taking a wild guess here. It seems like a very big space given I've never had a garden before. There is a slight slope from left to right and there is a fairly large patch in the middle that is water logged.

    I would like to turn the garden into a space for wildlife, with a pond and plenty of plants to attract insects and birds. We've been here for less than 2 weeks and so far we seem to have a wide variety of birds, from tits to buzzards, and frequent visits from foxes. We are next to woodland and farmland. Very rural location. I have spent my life in city centre living so I am very new to this.

    I'd like to know how to find out how best to deal with the soggy lawn and whether this would be a good place for the pond. It seems to be clay underneath the grass, which is freshly seeded and doesn't have much root yet. I don't want to dig a pond and displace the sogginess to the rest of the garden, but if it's a good idea to make use of the wet, then the pond can go there.

    I'd be glad of any suggestions or ideas for where to look. I'm coming up blanks even though there's probably something here if I knew how to find it?

    Thanks. :)
     
  2. Spruce

    Spruce Glad to be back .....

    Joined:
    Apr 10, 2009
    Messages:
    8,731
    Gender:
    Male
    Ratings:
    +12,318
    Hi Sniffy

    Welcome on Christmas Eve ...

    Couple of questions .. how old is the house ?? and where roughly are you in the UK ie Devon etc

    Spruce
     
  3. sniffy

    sniffy Gardener

    Joined:
    Dec 24, 2013
    Messages:
    32
    Ratings:
    +43
    Thank you. Happy Christmas to you.

    We're in Cheshire. The house was built in the 1940s.
     
  4. Jenny namaste

    Jenny namaste Total Gardener

    Joined:
    Mar 11, 2012
    Messages:
    18,325
    Gender:
    Female
    Occupation:
    retired- blissfully retired......
    Location:
    Battle, East Sussex
    Ratings:
    +31,024
    Hi there Sniffy, wishing you a very merry Christmas and a great new gardening year in 2014.
    Welcome to Gardeners Corner and a great bunch of people who know an awful lot about gardening and will be along to say hallo soon. This past few weeks have been so wet that most of us have soggy patch or two and it will be a while before you can do that much out there. Time to gaze and plan a few things - in between putting up shelve and cupboards in the new house ,
    hope you like the GC site - so much to read on here,
    Jenny Namaste
    :sign0016:
     
  5. sniffy

    sniffy Gardener

    Joined:
    Dec 24, 2013
    Messages:
    32
    Ratings:
    +43
    Lovely warm welcome. Thank you both.

    I didn't know the rain had caused general sogginess. I've been in a 'moving bubble' for the last couple of months! I'll relax a bit then and see what happens with the garden over the next few weeks. Meanwhile I'll read round and pick up tips from the rest of the forum.

    Seasons greetings to all of you.
     
    • Friendly Friendly x 3
    • ARMANDII

      ARMANDII Low Flying Administrator Staff Member

      Joined:
      Jan 12, 2019
      Messages:
      48,096
      Gender:
      Male
      Ratings:
      +100,834
      Hi Sniffy, and welcome to Gardeners Corner. I think you're doing the right thing in relaxing a bit and see what happens over the next few weeks, especially as one of the worst things you can do with a garden is to take hasty decisions. But to help members give you some advice in the future when you decide to do something with the garden it'll help if you can tell us:

      Which direction does your garden face?, North?, South?, East?, West?

      I live in West Cheshire near to Beeston Castle and my garden is/was basically pure sand going down to a depth of 300' to 350' but over 30 years I've improved it somewhat so that most plants [other than acid loving plants:dunno:] will grow in it although it's still a hungry soil and fast draining. I also have a Wild life pond that I dug over 20 years ago and it gives me a lot of pleasure and attracts wildlife giving them cover and sanctuary.
      Your lawn sounds like it could be compressed clay if any building work or the like has taken place there, especially as you say it has been freshly seeded............[by the previous owners??:scratch:]. With a slope slight slope as you describe the surface/sub surface water will flow that way and it might be worth while considering to put your wildlife pond where the water will flow in it's direction and deal with the soggy lawn in another way.
      But first, as you say, settle down in your new Home and enjoy it, Christmas and the New Year!!!"mer xm"
       
    • clueless1

      clueless1 member... yep, that's what I am:)

      Joined:
      Jan 8, 2008
      Messages:
      17,778
      Gender:
      Male
      Location:
      Here
      Ratings:
      +19,594
      Hello and welcome Sniffy, and merry christmas:)

      re your questions, here's my thoughts. For now, I wouldn't do much at all with the garden, other than maybe sketch up a few very rough ideas of what you might want. Don't get hung up on details, because your plan will change, guaranteed, otherwise I'll eat my hat.

      For the next few months, other than sketching up ideas and maybe researching plants and features that you might like, I'd mostly just watch. Spend time out there doing nowt, with a cup of tea in your hand, and just sit down, pace about, whatever. Over time you'll get a feel for the place. Where does the morning sun land, which bit gets the last of the evening sun (hard to tell at this time of year), which bits are sheltered, which bits are like a wind tunnel, what can you see from the various different spots, what already grows there, what lives out there and so on and so on.

      You say the garden is soggy in places. At this time of year it is impossible to judge how that translates to summer time. It could bake so hard and dry in summer that it actually cracks, or it might stay permanently moist.

      If nature is already thriving there as you say, then sweeping changes are likely to do more harm than good if you are going for a wildlife garden. But it is your garden too, as well as the wildlife's, so obviously it has to work for you. Don't try to take the lot on in one go, especially if you're not yet an experienced gardener. Gardens have their own ideas, and they will implement those ideas faster than you can implement yours, so a good idea is to do a little bit at a time, see how the bit you've done integrates into the rest of the garden, then do another bit. You'll find yourself constantly changing your plans as you learn more about your particular patch, so I wouldn't aim for perfection on the first pass.

      I like your idea of a pond. I did one earlier this year, and literally within a few weeks the whole garden was transformed. Suddenly we had a wider range of birds and insects, a resident frog, and even a diverse range of dragonflies and damselflies in all manner of different colours.
       
      • Like Like x 1
      • Agree Agree x 1
      • sniffy

        sniffy Gardener

        Joined:
        Dec 24, 2013
        Messages:
        32
        Ratings:
        +43
        Thank you. Yes, the previous owners seeded it. The owners before that were elderly and the garden had been untended for a number of years. Before that I am told there was a 'border' there, so it sounds like something did grow there at one point.

        The garden faces north. There are some trees to the bottom left corner and a well made concrete base to the left where a garage was going to be built. Otherwise it's a fairly blank canvas, which is exciting.
         
        • Like Like x 1
        • sniffy

          sniffy Gardener

          Joined:
          Dec 24, 2013
          Messages:
          32
          Ratings:
          +43
          Sound advice. Thank you, clueless.
           
          • Like Like x 1
          • ARMANDII

            ARMANDII Low Flying Administrator Staff Member

            Joined:
            Jan 12, 2019
            Messages:
            48,096
            Gender:
            Male
            Ratings:
            +100,834
            Enjoy settling in and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.:snork:
             
          • Jenny namaste

            Jenny namaste Total Gardener

            Joined:
            Mar 11, 2012
            Messages:
            18,325
            Gender:
            Female
            Occupation:
            retired- blissfully retired......
            Location:
            Battle, East Sussex
            Ratings:
            +31,024
            aaaaahhhh,
            I've just had a vision Sniffy...:ideaIPB:
            a Greenhouse down there in the sun perhaps?
            Jenny
             
          • Fern4

            Fern4 Total Gardener

            Joined:
            Jan 30, 2013
            Messages:
            16,335
            Gender:
            Female
            Occupation:
            The gardener of the house!
            Location:
            Liverpool
            Ratings:
            +7,491
            Some photos of the garden would be good. :) Welcome to GC by the way and Merry Xmas!

            "big tree"
             
            • Like Like x 1
            • Kristen

              Kristen Under gardener

              Joined:
              Jul 22, 2006
              Messages:
              17,534
              Gender:
              Male
              Location:
              Suffolk, UK
              Ratings:
              +12,667
              Put drains in. Best time to do it is before you start creating the garden that you want ... nightmare to fit later. Has been plenty of rain recently, so may be worse than normal, but it is worthwhile putting in drains to handle "worst case" then your garden won't be under water when we get very wet water.

              Also, if you have plants that are borderline hardy they are much more likely to survive a cold winter with dry feet - cold & wet feet is a killer.

              You need a trench, put perforated drainage pipe in the bottom, cover the pipe with gravel, back fill the soil, job done.

              The pipe needs to go to somewhere where the water can run away, if not then dig a big hole at the lowest point and fill it full of rubble - a so-called soak-away. I would leave a vertical pipe in the soak-away, sufficient that you can get a pump into, so that if we get a really wet patch, like the Summer of 2012, you can pump the soakaway out to a drain. I've never had my garden flood ... until Summer 2012 ... then I had to buy a pump to pump out my soakaway ...

              Either way, do nothing until the Spring. You will, by then, have a better feel for how bad it is.
               
              • Like Like x 1
              • Agree Agree x 1
              • sniffy

                sniffy Gardener

                Joined:
                Dec 24, 2013
                Messages:
                32
                Ratings:
                +43
                Thank you everyone. I'm just uploading pictures of the garden onto photobucket so I'll post them on a new thread and get project wildlife garden started. Job one - watching, taking pics and drinking tea. :blue thumb:
                 
              Loading...

              Share This Page

              1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
                By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
                Dismiss Notice