Has anyone put a pump in their garden to tackle flooding?

[LaBaDeeLaBaDa]

Just that, really. We bought the house two years ago and now realise the garden is under water probably 20% of the year. No exaggeration: after snowfall in December the water stayed for 6 weeks, after heavy rainfall it stayed for 4...you get the drift.

The soil is heavy clay, it's compacted from building work, the water table is high (there's a small river about 400m down the road) and we're a foot lower than the garden that backs onto us, and a few inches lower than the gardens on either side. So it all ends up in our garden. A friend suggested if we rotavated and aerated the soil that might fix the problem (by allowing the water to drain through the soil more easily) but seems to me that there's nowhere for it to drain away to?

It's really depressing! The kids can't go out except in wellies, lawn is ruined, there seems no point in planting anything. Really want to returf, put some beds in, and make it a lovely garden, but obviously don't want to put money and time and effort into that and then have it unusable/ruined by standing water.

I've had an impossibly expensive quote for a drainage system and electric pump (14k, absolutely no chance of affording that). Wondering about getting a quote for "just" a pump, which would be cheaper but still expensive. But if it doesn't work, it'll be an incredible waste of money at the cost of other things we really need.

So: have you had a flooded garden, did you put a pump in, did it work? Or if any gardeners have any ideas, all thoughts gratefully received before I jack it all in and go and live in a desert somewhere 😭

If it's a new build, I would contact the builders to ask them to fix the garden drainage.

You could try several simple stack drains at points where the water pools - it doesn't take the water away like a conventional drainage system, but removes it from the surface, and in time it drains away into the surrounding subsoil. Much cheaper as it's something you could potentially install yourself. It depends on the amount of water as to how successful this solution would be and how many drains you would need.

www.easymerchant.co.uk/patio-drainage/stack-drain/

If you're planning to re-turf and put in new beds - depending on the size of your garden - I would investigate the possibility and cost of raising the level of the garden with additional topsoil - a few inches might be sufficient to stop your garden being the run-off from the gardens either side.

For the garden at the back of you - could you dig a deep and wide trench along the border and fill with pea gravel? Again it won't remove the water but will give somewhere for the runoff to go until it soaks away into the surrounding soil. I have seen this method used successfully in a smaller garden.

A combination of all 3 of these approaches might be the way forward.

Land drainage, plastic pipe with holes in, relative cheap from builders merchants. Dig a trench about 1 foot deep, pea gravel the bottom of the trench lay the pipe on top. Back fill with more gravel then soil, turf or grass seed on top. A pump with a float switch can be bought from screwfix etc relatively cheap. That’s the easy part, the problem is you have to feed the surplus water somewhere.
one solution may be, to bury a tank and then use the water.

Thank you, really appreciate it

It's not a new build, the building work was ours to do an extension - the third closest to the house is definitely the worst for water, and that had building equipment/rubble on it for several months. In hindsight the drainage was bad before, though

The previous owner did a soakway, I think just as a load of rubble under turf rather than the bought ones. I think the water just does not go through the clay on top! Which worries me about a pump - water might take weeks to work its way to where the pump is?

Can you do that kind of pipe work yourself? I was assuming we'd need an expert. But if we could do it ourselves that would be much more affordable

A pump could connect to the drain/sewer (don't need permission as it's rain water, I checked) but it would need to pump up as the pipe is about 4 foot above the ground level (our house is 5 foot higher, so fortunately the house doesn't flood) - does that mean it would need to be an expensive/professionally fitted one?

Definitely up for raising the level of the top soil It is quite big though - not huge but too big too do it all over (the current lawn area is about 30m long, 5 metres wide)

The tench is a good idea! Could maybe do it - might need to be a trench between the paved area at the back (which adjoins the fence separating us from the garden that backs on) and the lawn. Could we put that kind of metal mesh over it like a pond? Would that water deep into the surrounding soil and keep the overall water level high?

What about digging a soakaway/pond. Landscape the area to be pond like, attracting pollinators at the same time and giving somewhere for the water to run off into. Clay soil will make a natural liner but it will naturally dry out.

How large is your garden? Could you plant some thirsty plants, small trees etc? Their roots will break up and aerate the soil too.

We put trees in the end of our garden, 5 silver birches. We thought about a weeping willow but it would be too large due to the fence.

Thirsty plants yes, I think trees would be tricky. In fact there's a tree at the back of the garden I think needs to come down, it diseased and looks liable to succumb to a storm any minute 😬 Oh god, that's going to make it worse isn't it? Hadn't actually thought of that 🤦‍♀️

Next door has a willow. Thank the lord. Presumably we'd be an actual swamp with alligators if not.

I think my bind is: the most guaranteed solution is the pump, but (I) it's f'ing expensive, and (ii) i worry it might not work if the water takes forever to run down the length of the garden to it. But if I don't go for a pump, I'd redo the garden and design it to soak up much water as possible, but if that doesn't work I have to dig everything up and start again.

I'm just not sure a pump would work. The drainage man was effusive in its possibilities, but, you know. He would say that, wouldn't he

We have a similar problem, but on a bigger scale. Heavy clay, compacted by building work, lorries, skips etc then we compacted it further by over working the clay soil with a rotovator/plough thing on back of massive tractor. (We only know this in hindsight)

After doing this we put down 6 inches of fine compost then over seeded. It looked lovely until the rain.... massive puddles everywhere, basically on all the low points. The water couldn't drain through the clay so it just collected in pools and when the leaves dropped (we've also got masses of trees) they all collected in the same low points which then turned into festering brown bogs. Still haven't dried out!

Not sure yet what we're going to do about it but probably hire a digger, trenches, gravel, perforated pipes in a herringbone style, sloping down slightly and send water into field below us. It is really depressing. I also want to plant stuff but no point! 😟

Sorry whichwayiwonder, it's so hard to see all that hard work turn to sludge isn't it ☹️

Was it the rotavater that overworked the soil, or was it using a tractor? I've had rotavators recommended to me by three people now (in real life, not on here) but you've just articulated a worry I have with doing it

I put a swamp cypress in my wet area.

we don't have the same scale of problem, but do have heavy clay, lawn problems etc.

Our garden is not very big, but what we did was dig deep trenches in the lawn. Put in land drains (wide piping, w lots of holes). Covered that w gravel. Then back filled. I think they're about every 4-6 feet. They all then lead to our drains.

NB we did this quite a long time ago, and now I write it down, I wonder if it would still be legal - it joined onto a downpipe drain, so I think so? It's not perfect, and we still talk about putting down loads of sand and seeding on top of that, but it's such an effort...

For anyone considering buying a house, as well as the DEFRA flood risk maps, there is another set covering surface water. It’s rather hard to find - took me some while and I know it’s there - but this link may help.

and send water into field below us. It is really depressing. I also want to plant stuff but no point! It’s illegal to channel your surface water on to a neighbour’s land. Unlikely they’ll do anything (it’s a civil matter) but be aware of the possibility.

There are a lot of plants which would appreciate the wet condtions.

I put a swamp cypress in my wet area

Ha! Hopefully no alligators came too. Has it worked - as in, did it rid the surrounding area of standing water?

I know lots of plants will do well in wet conditions and I'm definitely keen to put some in, but I also want a lawn/grass area for the kids to kick a ball around on that isn't a slip n slide.

How well did it work, did it lesson/remove the standing water?

I think it would be legal - it sounds very much like part of what the drainage company who came to look at ours recommended. They said it was fine to connect to drains so long as it was rainwater not waste water from the house

MereDintofPandiculation thanks - just checked and yes, we are marked with a massive dark blue blob!

Swamp cypress? Never heard of that, I may have to look into it. Thank you.

Is your garden big enough for a swale? I love the look of them and they look a lot easier to create than putting in below surface drainage.

Ooooh that's interesting...that looks really nice

Ok, stupid question: would having somewhere for the water to collect work? Maybe another way of asking it is: if I regularly have an area of about 50m2 under a few inches of standing water, how big does a pond/ditch/swale need to be to drain away all of that?

There’s lots of info on Swales and how to make them online, I bet there’s advice there on dimensions.

Hmm, a quick look tells me that a swale is for a sloping site and a French drain is for a flat one.

Plant a dwarf willow, it will love the moisture.

If your garden is a foot lower than the two on either side, did they remove a load of topsoil when they did the building works?

Is there any drainage points [a drain preferably] in your back garden that is lower than the general level of the ground?

How well did it work, did it lesson/remove the standing water? We still get the water - it’s run-off from next door. It’s usually gone about 24 hours after the rain stops, by which I mean it’s no longer 6inches deep across the garden, it’s confined to the bath rub sized hole we dg as a sort of soakaway. We also put a land drain under the path, and raised the beds 4inches. Whether it’s better than it would have been, I don’t know, nor how the various elements contributed.

Taxodium distichium. Finely cut foliage which turns bronzey in the autumn before falling.