I am sick of the garden it's waterlogged again.

[WildFlowerBees]

Clay soil, garden is on a slight slope to garage. Every year at the lowest point against the garage wall it's waterlogged and the rest of the garden is just a squelchy mess. We have to wait months for it to dry out enough to mow it.

Are we going to have to remove the (rubbish) turf, mix in some sand and re lay decent turf?

I'm told we can't level off the garden as it'll cause damp in the garage.

I want to put some lovely plants in this year but I can't stand the crap grass and months of it being so soggy.

I feel for you op, my garden is unusable for 9 months of the year. If I owned the place I'd pave it over! I hope you find a solution.

Mine too. Clay soil and on a hill. The grass is waterlogged and slippery. It’s going to take so long to dry enough to do anything with the flower beds. It’s a mess.

Don’t know what the answer is. We dug out all the flower beds 10 years ago. Put in sand and new soil. A couple of years later the clay was back and it was like we’d never done it.

Soil could be impacted too after years of being walked on? Try aerating it with a garden fork. Every 6 inches or so push the fork right into the soil all over the lawn.

Ours is exactly the same. We had it levelled and relaid a couple of years ago after some building work and it was beautiful for a few months but is now muddy and waterlogged once again. I hope someone comes along with advice soon!

@PopcornPeacock

Soil could be impacted too after years of being walked on? Try aerating it with a garden fork. Every 6 inches or so push the fork right into the soil all over the lawn.

This is what we're doing now, we had leather jackets for 2 years so the grass was ruined. Had someone in to treat then reseed etc so it was half decent by September. Along comes the rain and we're back to square one.

I know it's a lot of work but I can't see any other way that taking some of it out and starting again.

I'm also a rubbish gardener hoped this year was my year!

Maybe I'll look into a French drain she says as if she has a clue seems to be an option according to RHS website

Same - clay soil, on a slight slope & we also have compacted hardcore/remains of a road underneath too (delights of a new build on a brownfield site) & north facing.
We've reduced the amount of lawn, put in some patio & have planted a tree (small cherry), loganberries & other fruit bushes & plants etc to maximise the amount of water taken from the soil.
It's still a slip'n'slide at present but it'll dry out in March or if we have a few weeks of dry weather in spring.

Is this article any use, OP? www.gardeningknowhow.com/special/spaces/rain-garden-design.htm

or this? www.rhs.org.uk/garden-features/rain-gardens

I'd love a gravelly wet bit in my garden to plant irises.

We gave up and now have artificial
Lawn. It pains me but once the kids are older we’ll hopefully put it back, in the meantime it has improved our lives.

Oh. Just spotted that a rain garden may not be right for heavy clay. Bugger.

Is your garden big enough to plant some thirsty shrubs or trees (crab apple is a nice size for an average sized UK garden) to help deal with the water?

@FolornLawn

Is this article any use, OP? www.gardeningknowhow.com/special/spaces/rain-garden-design.htm

or this? www.rhs.org.uk/garden-features/rain-gardens

I'd love a gravelly wet bit in my garden to plant irises.

This is interesting? Thank you @FolornLawn

No idea why there's a question mark should've been a full stop. Sorry!

Sounds like you really need to add some drainage to the garden
There is a good article here describing various solutions for waterlogged gardens that might be worth a look

www.housebeautiful.com/uk/garden/a31275047/garden-drainage/

This is nicely informative: www.urbafloria.com/post/2017/02/13/what-e2-80-99s-the-difference-between-a-rain-garden-and-a-swale

I would think you can level off but you need to make sure a good damp proof membrane is used between the soil layer and the garage wall. Or you can level off and use a retaining wall with a small gap between the retaining wall and garage (gravelled to help again with drainage). It’s not a cheap option but i wouldn’t think impossible. Similar to the image attached (not the most beautiful example but Google threw it up and it does illustrate my point)

We were told we would have to dig huge holes and fill with gravel, v expensive and might not work. Also afraid it would damage the tree roots. Just going to live with it

Ours is clay but no incline. Dh is a dedicated gardener, over the 13yrs we've lived here he has fork aerated, added sand and buckets of worms, scattered bags of grass seed and planted a small medlar tree and it's never any better.
There's a huge old wall at the back of the property and a neighbour removed an overgrown tree, maybe these haven't helped, but another neighbour presumably makes up for it by neglecting what has turned into a hedgerow and none of it seems to make a difference.

One of our dogs loves nothing better than to scratch like a chicken so patches of garden are seeded and fenced off regularly. My floors are muddy for half the year and I spend my winters circulating dog towels from cupboard to floor to dog feet to washing machine to drying rack and back to the cupboard.

Adding a layer of sand won't make any difference in the medium to long term.
What farmers do with fields with clay soil is put in a network of mole drains - little underground channels which drain water downhill to a bigger field drain.
So I would say, french drain at the base of the slope which takes the water away somewhere, then somehow install mole drains running down the slope to take water to the french drain.
Search mole plough - depends on how big your garden is but it might be possible to get someone in.
If not I would say an alternative could be to put in deep slits yourself, with a spade? Then perhaps backfill those slits with sand?

What about planting some small trees and bushes or putting in a hedge, they will take up water and might help?

One of our dogs loves nothing better than to scratch like a chicken so patches of garden are seeded and fenced off regularly. My floors are muddy for half the year and I spend my winters circulating dog towels from cupboard to floor to dog feet to washing machine to drying rack and back to the cupboard.

This is also me. The garden has no drainage and is on an incline and also tilted to the right, so you step out of the kitchen door directly into a massive puddle plus a large area of the 'lawn' is constantly under water too. I've aireated it with a fork, used sand, nothing makes a scrap of difference. If I owned the house I'd pave the whole thing as it's unusable for about 2/3 of the year and the bane of my existence at times.

We have this. I just accepted it, put a pond in and planted marginal plants around the pond. Got frogs now.

We had this problem and have had some soakaways installed. Typically it’s been very dry since then, but it was a fairly painless process (they were installed by a drainage company and we had several quotes) - usually this time of year our garden is a quagmire, so I feel your pain!

Planting small trees or thirsty shrubs is a good idea. If there's a part that is particularly bad at the end is it worth getting rid of the grass there and replacing with decorative gravel and pots? You need something that will still drain easily so would need to fork soil first

I'm glad I'm not the only one, in the nicest possible way!

Our garden is around 40ft by 50ft we want a tree as the back is overlooked so that will help hopefully. My dad suggested a soak away. I'm glad I posted because I'd have been ripping it all up at great expense now only to find it doesn't help much.

I've not planted anything yet apart from roses. So I'll look at some thirsty plants. I'm not a great gardener. Wanted to make part of the garden a wildflower patch with a bird bath etc.

Really grateful for all your input, lots to read up on!