Back garden water gathers at lowest point, which is on clay, and stays there

[sniederb]

Our back garden has a patio right by the house, surrounded by grass which is raised above the patio by about half a meter. There's a path along the house, crossing the patio and then along the house again. The patio is at the lowest point of both path segments, and as such the default place where water pools. There's a pipe at one end of the patio, clearly for drainage, but that seemed clogged. Some lifting of flagstones revealed the layout of the drainage (French drain kind of thing), the far end was completely full of mud.

 

However, looking at the area where the drain led to, it seems we have a combo of lowest point of the back garden + clay preventing water draining. One image shows the patio layout, the black drainage pipe can just be seen at the left, and then coming out again at the right where the black bucket is. The other image shows our involuntary pond, which holds water even after days without rain.

So our situation is: water seeps to the lowest point of our back garden. That lowest point happens to be on clay, and holds water for days with hardly any drainage. Putting in a proper drainage leading away from the entire back garden would require heavy equipment, as everything around is at least 50cm higher (some areas more like 80cm).

 

How can we get rid of that water? The only thing I can think of is a pump, but that seems a bit silly. I'm stumped.

[joe90]

45 minutes ago, sniederb said:

Putting in a proper drainage leading away from the entire back garden would require heavy equipment, as everything around is at least 50cm higher (some areas more like 80c

Do you have land lower than this? How far away is it? A pump would do it but the cost + running cost + maintenance 🤷‍♂️ cheaper to hire a mini digger and no ongoing costs.

[sniederb]

Just now, joe90 said:

Do you have land lower than this? How far away is it? A pump would do it but the cost + running cost + maintenance 🤷‍♂️ cheaper to hire a mini digger and no ongoing costs.

There is land lower than this, but it's far away, and digging a drain would mean exactly that heavy machinery (even a mini digger) which we want to avoid. But I do understand ... that's really the only option, isn't it

[Jilly]

Be careful of the timing when digging clay. When it is wet and sticky,  it won’t fall off the digger’s bucket easily and sticks to everything in sight. I was persuaded to get a digger in at the wrong time and the ground went like the Somme (and drove me potty).

[joe90]

7 minutes ago, sniederb said:

but it's far away,

How far🤷‍♂️, you could raise the level of this low lying ground but that will require tons of stone,soil, labour and the water will still need to go somewhere, get a quote for a mini digger (and driver if you don’t fancy doing it. )

7 minutes ago, sniederb said:

that's really the only option, isn't it

IMO yes.

Edited March 16 by joe90

[saveasteading]

2 hours ago, sniederb said:

There is land lower than this, but it's far away

Is it your land?

Yes? If should be easy enough to drain it away.

No? Pond on your land.