Stumbling upon a waterlogged garden might as well be every gardener’s worst nightmare. A boggy lawn is often the consequence of constant heavy rainfall and usually occurs over winter. It can be extremely unpleasant to look at and walk on, delivering a full package of discontent.
And although it might look futile to deal with a soggy lawn on your own, it is not, as long as you have the right amount of patience and drive. Detailed below, in this blog post, are some effective remedies for a waterlogged garden that you can try for yourself in your backyard. Chances are that you’ll be enjoying a garden, devoid of floods before you even know it.
If you fall into any of these categories, then this blog post’s for you:
Waterlogging is an occurrence, where water sits on the surface of the soil, failing to drain or doing so very slowly. However, all soils are not made equal and some are more susceptible to waterlogging than others. For example, dense clay soil and badly compacted ground tend to retain rainwater for much longer, which causes sogginess and even temporary flooding.
When plants are submerged in water for a prolonged period of time, it can prove fatal. As the ground becomes waterlogged and the air spaces in the soil get flooded with water, the plants begin to drown. This is the aftermath of the roots not being able to access oxygen. They slowly start to rot, consequently devoiding the leaves and stems of nutrients.
Now, before we jump onto the solutions, it’s good to examine what exactly are the causes for a waterlogged lawn and how to identify one. For one needs to know and understand the enemy in order to defeat them. The same holds true, especially when choosing the appropriate boggy lawn solution to match your situation.
To differentiate a waterlogged lawn from just a moist one, look out for the following occurrences:
There is more than one cause that can lead to waterlogging in the garden. So let’s go over them one by one.
Before you try out any soggy lawn solutions, be sure to avoid walking on the soaked grass. As this will squeeze out all of the remaining oxygen from the soil, accelerating the death of your greenery and making matters much worse. Therefore, wait for the water to go down a bit before you get down to work. Once the sod looks to be on the dry side, go over our 7 waterlogged garden remedies in order to improve your garden’s drainage.
Start off by buying a soil testing kit to ascertain the fertility of the soil and find out what nutrients are in the soil. Once you have a soil sample, take it to your local garden centre to have it analysed. When the results are in, study them over and amend the soil accordingly.
Spiking helps improve the drainage of your waterlogged lawn by allowing for more air to get into the soil, in turn aiding plant roots, live. The process is quite simple and won’t require more than a garden fork. You can also use aerator shoes or a hollow tine aerator. Now it’s good to note that the severity of the waterlogging will help indicate which tool is appropriate for the job.
For example, if your lawn is seriously boggy, a hollow tine aerator is the way to go. It’s a very useful tool for spiking a waterlogged lawn. The aerator helps remove cylinders of soil and make holes, around 15 cm deep. These can later be filled with horticultural sharp sand to help draw out the moisture while keeping the soil nice and loose. This process speeds up the lawn’s recovery.
Soil cultivation is essential when dealing with heavily compacted soil. Compost and other organic matter are good for improving the structure of the soil and bettering the lawn’s foundation. The amount of compost you should use will depend on the composition of the soil. The worse the soil, the more compost you’ll need.
Moist soil is ideal for moss to thrive. Therefore, it’s important to use moss killer to prevent the moss from taking over your garden. Overseeding your turf once or twice a year can also help keep the moss at bay.
Fertilise your lawn during spring to help the grass regain its green and lush colour after the wet winter season. Using a fertiliser stimulates the development of the root system, thus helping the roots withstand waterlogging the following winter.
An interesting way of creating proper waterlogged garden drainage is through sowing plants that thrive in soggy areas. A bog garden can help soak up water and also has a certain pleasing-to-the-eye, tropical look. Such water-thriving plants are Amsonia, Persicaria, Astrantia, Lysimachia and Cardamine, just to name a few.
As a last resort, you can always try digging a deep ditch at the lowest point of your garden. This will allow the water to drain in the ditch without doing any damage to the lawn. This method is quite effective, however, it works only for certain gardens, which are at a slope.
Heavy ill-drained soils such as clay ones have problems when it comes to water drainage. Such soils become heavy and compact when soggy, reducing the levels of oxygen and nutrients in the soil significantly. The result is a boggy lawn with deficient drainage. However, with the right care and know-how, the soil’s condition can be improved.
Top-dressing is a combination of sand, peat, and loam that can be used to improve compact soil. Just spread the sandy mix thinly over the lawn, making sure that it penetrates the clay soil. If done right, the grass should still be standing upright above the top-dressing layer.
When dealing with holes and bumps in your lawn, adjust the quantity of the top-dressing mixture accordingly, to smooth them out. Top-dress your lawn ideally in the autumn, around September after aeration.
Since clay soil tends to drain slowly and saturates quickly during the wet season, installing a drainage system might be the way to go. Lawn drainage systems are used to transfer water through pipes, from one area to another (like a ditch or waterway).
If you are interested in finding more about how to water your garden plants, read our helpful post on the topic.
A waterlogged lawn should be mulched regularly. When spread on top of the lawn, mulch starts to decompose, providing the soil with nutrients and inviting beneficial lawn friendly earthworms, which will act as natural aerators. These worms consume the mulch, helping to fertilise the soil. This process allows water, air and nutrients to reach the grassroots.
A great way to beat a waterlogged garden is to make your move before it becomes soggy. So, here are a few waterlogged garden remedies for stopping boggy lawns in their tracks.
Planting cover crops is a fantastic way of dealing with excess water. They also help aid the soil’s health and prevent your garden from turning into a huge mud puddle. If you’re looking to avoid waterlogging in the autumn and winter seasons, plant winter cover crops during late spring.
The water they absorb will stimulate them to release organic materials into the soil, helping with improving the lawn’s drainage. Annual ryegrass and winter rye are popular cover crop grasses.
Going no-till is a long term soggy lawn preventing strategy, but one that is totally worth it in the end. This especially applies if you have heavy clay soil in your backyard. Instead of trying to till the clayey soil, be it wet or dry, which will only compact it further, let the insects and fungi do their job and create air spaces in the soil. As mentioned earlier, using mulch will also improve the soil’s structure and help with drainage.
Now, this may sound a bit contradictory to what we’ve said about no-tilling, but it’s not. Subsoiling is done by only lifting the soil, without mixing it or turning it over. This doesn’t mess with the structure of the soil and actually creates air spaces in the soil, helping improve drainage. When dealing with smaller gardens you can easily utilise this method with the help of a broad fork.
Organic matter is ideal for breaking up tough and dense soils. When mixed with soil particles it allows for air spaces to form which in turn improves drainage. Another benefit of using organic matter is that it helps dry soil hold moisture for longer periods of time. Naturally, this advice is helpful before you establish your lawn.
It can feel devastating to wake up one morning after the cold seasons have just passed, to find out that your lawn has become a waterlogged hellhole. An area where most of your plants won’t thrive and will die within weeks. Although it might seem futile to deal with all this at first, as long as you follow our waterlogged lawn advice, your turf will be just fine.
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