- NEVER do anything to the soil when it is wet!
This advice can be extremely frustrating to hear to a home owner with a waterlogged garden, but whether it is digging, installing drains, or applying soil conditioner products, it always makes the situation worse if it is performed when the soil is wet.
A good rule of thumb is ‘if soil is sticking to your boots, it is too wet to work in the garden’!
Instead, wait until the layer causing the issue (normally a clay layer) has dried before trying to treat it.
The worst case scenario is using machinery like a rotavator on waterlogged soils, as this will create a horizontal clay ‘pan’ in the soil which works to seal the soil above from draining.
- For flower beds, apply organic matter. Great sources of organic matter include compost from a compost bin (not bagged compost), or well-rotted horse manure (not chicken manure). but…
- Do not apply organic matter to lawns, as it will encourage too many worms that will kill off the young grass seedlings with their castings (pooped soil). Plus as lawns are walked on more than a flower bed, the organic matter will get squished down and might further reduce drainage.
- If your garden is flooded due to the water table being too high, there is very little you can do!
You will need to install some serious drains, and crucially, have somewhere for these drains to go to solve this. Either that or a pump running continuously!
Once, a high water table has receded naturally, the other options on this list will help the soil and plants recover when the water table recedes.
- Apply Liquid Gypsum to flocculate compacted clay. Flocculation is a process where clay particles form ‘crumbs’ that create air pockets and channels. This allows water to flow through the clay soil better . All soils contain some clay, but those soils dominated by clay suffer worst when it comes to drainage after prolonged or intense rainfall.
Garden soils are often compacted due to foot traffic over years squeezing the air out of the soil, or from working the soil when wet.
Or in NEW BUILD properties, the top soil has been removed and all that remains is the clay-dominant sub soil. This sub-soil needs to be flocculated to get a nice crumb structure ideal for plant roots to grow in it.
- Apply a wetting agent to help the water drain from the clods of clay. Wetting agents reduce the surface tension holding the water to the clay. Using a wetting agent is not a magic bullet, but will help clay drain more easily and faster after a deluge of rain. At Eutrema we have developed a premium wetting agent formulated specifically for use on waterlogged gardens called ‘Clay Drainer’.
- Be wary of French drains. Whilst these can be effective in some situations, they are not a miracle cure. If there is deep soil compaction consider physical methods such as air injection (geo-injection). French drains are also useless if there is nowhere for the water to flow out to.
- Consider planting ‘thirsty’ trees and shrubs. Some species of tree will thrive in waterlogged conditions, and also evaporate a lot of water from the soil via their leaves. Care should be taken however, as they can have undesirable consequences, especially if they become too large and shrink the clay underlying building foundations, and the roots can block drains.
Examples of very thirsty plants include willows, bamboos, dogwoods, Liquidambar, Gunnera, and Tetrapanax.
Avoid plants sensitive to waterlogging, such as Maples.
- Protect the worms! Many waterlogged soils have low earthworm numbers due to the lack of oxygen. Worms are helpful to the soil as they aerate, so you really want to protect and encourage what worms are already there . For this reason, do not apply excessive amounts of iron fertiliser to a waterlogged lawn; especially cheap iron sulphate fertilisers. Yes, iron fertiliser kills moss, but it will also kill a lot (if not most) of the biology in the soil. Thousands of animals that decompose organic matter and fluff up the soil will be killed by iron fertilisers (other fertilisers should be fine).
- Avoid using ‘weed and feed’ products containing weedkillers (herbicides) on waterlogged lawns. The weedkillers in these products target broadleaf weeds like dandelions and buttercups. However, in waterlogged lawns the weekiller chemical will flow with the water into flower beds and will harm any of your precious plants that are not members of the grass family!
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Tired of your garden turning into a mud bath or flooding every time it rains? Liquid Gypsum instantly flocculates clay to break up clay pans in the soil that prevent rainwater from draining away.
Perfect for improving drainage in situations where deep digging or ploughing is not possible, such as garden lawns and beds. Liquid Gypsum is non-hazardous, so can be used in gardens with children playing and pets. Free postage on every order.
