Soakaway advice

[Eckybloke]

Hey. 
We have a garden at the bottom of a small hill and we’re having a really hard time keeping it from being waterlogged, especially once it’s been quite wet. 
I am considering whether a soakaway is going to be the best way of fixing this (someone mentioned a willow but I think that’s papering over the problem).  have attached two photos; one of the hill and another of my plan. 
Would a 7 x 0.5 x 1.2m trench, filled with soakaway crates just take the water away without the need for pipes coming in. Or would these need dug into the hill too. There’s a fallen down tree to contend with if that’s the case. 
 

Thanks

Stephen

[PeterW]

What is the ground ..? Sandy..? Clay..?? 
 

Is where that red line your land and your fence is just in front of it ..? And how would you get a machine in to dig a trench ..??

[Gus Potter]

Hello Eckybloke.

 

You may not be able to do this and it may not suit you if you have young kids. Looks like your ground water flow is towards your garden. What about a small pond on your side of the fence. Make it two different depths, 1.2 - 1.5 m in one spot,  0.3m shelving to zero at the other. This leaves a bit unfrozen at depth but allows frogs and small birds to enter and bathe in the shallow water.

 

Ask you neighbour if you can chuck the soil over the fence to create a planting bund and put some good looking but low growing trees on top of the bund to give you colour all year round, some shelter for the birds at high level and hedgehogs etc at the base.

 

Often you'll find the pond stays partly filled all year round, great for the wildlife, you could even plant some sloe bushes on the bund and make gin. If you have a friendly neighbour then they may well be fine with this type of proposal. Sometimes it's about working with the ground water rather than trying to fight it. It will take less than a day to make the hole with a jcb which can hopefully reach over the fence too. Then you can play for months setting up the pond planting and watching the wildlife discover your garden. It may become stagnent if you over feed it but you can aerate it with small air pump.

[ProDave]

If this is a high water table, not much you can do.

 

If this is water running down the hill, construct a berm around the perimiter of the garden to divert it around your land.

[Bonner]

Dig a couple of holes, one inside your boundary and another where the trench might go. If they fill with water, a soak away won’t work use it for a pond or bog garden. If it is just your garden holding water, you might be able to drain it. Trial holes about 2ft deep can be dug by hand and should give some idea what’s going on under ground.

[Dave Jones]

if I understand from your photo, water is flowing into your garden from the uphill side ? 

 

French drain along boundry with perf pipe and pipe it away downhill. Add latrerals to it from the garden as well if it hangs wet.

 

The question is where you pipe it to. Old houses pipe it into the sewer but this is frowned upon now.

 

Where does your roof drain to ?

[Eckybloke]

Thanks for the suggestions and advice.

 

Yes we thought the water drained down the hill into the garden although I wonder if the fact it’s not rained significantly for a few weeks and it’s still soaking is indicative of it being the water table?  The neighbours did say they had drainage issues years ago and did dig a trench to a drainage point further along. 
 

There isn’t really the room for a pond in the garden but my plan for the garden includes putting a gate in the back fence. The land behind is owned by a farmer and he has no real issues with stuff going on over there as long as you’re not taking the p***. I do fancy the idea of maybe digging out a pond then and putting a couple of trees. I might go with the willow idea and/or a red maple and keep the heights in check. We do like looking into the hill at the deer that go past!

 

Thanks all so much!