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Design DilemmaDIYGardens
sally_wright48

Help needed - garden landscaping after renovation

Sally Wright
3 years ago

Hi all, my first time posting here, but I’ve taken lots of inspiration and tips from other posts in the past!


We’re lucky enough to have a great sized garden, but after our house renovation the garden has suffered. There is a very thick layer of clay under the grass across the whole garden (resulting in us needing to gig a soak away and creating a lot of mess).


The garden is in a complete mess and we don’t have the budget to get the professionals in. We’re more than happy to get stuck in ourselves, we just have no idea where to start. Any ideas?


We’d love mainly grass but would like a patio and a shed at the bottom of the garden.


thanks in advance



Featured Answer
  • PRO
    Peter Reader Landscapes
    3 years ago

    Hi Sally

    I would agree with Sonia here - your main challenge is to deal with the soil compaction. This will have occurred due to all the traffic over the soil and the storing of materials on it. This causes all the air spaces in the soil to get squashed away. Normally soil is around 25% air spaces. This has two very detrimental effects:

    1. It stops water being able to drain away so you get flooding and if you have clay you often get a hard crust on the surface which can be very hard

    2. With no air in the soil, all the beneficial bugs and bacteria etc will die making the soil itself dead and not able to support plants. Similarly plant roots need air too, so this also prevents them growing.

    The other thing to look out for is that digging trenches etc pulls up 'subsoil' to the surface. Subsoil cannot support plant growth either. Looking at the piles of earth in your photos I believe you can see the subsoil on the top - it is usually lighter in colour - often yellowy if clay. You need to make sure that if this subsoil is put back that it goes at the bottom of the holes and that the top 300mm of soil is proper topsoil. Any remaining subsoil should be got rid of.


    So, as Sonia says a rotivator can be helpful to to break up the soil. Because of the rotivators blade action it can often compress the soil at the bottom, so watch out for that. It is also an ideal time to improve the soil and feed it. I would suggest:

    1. If you need to top up the soil then use Multi-purpose topsoil - make sure it is BS standards compliant and buy from a good source. It is pretty cheap in 1 ton bags. You don't need to use expensive potting composts.
    2. To feed the soil dig in some form of organic manure. Options include well rotted horse or farmyard manure. I would suggest that you lay a 7cm depth of it over the soil surface and then dig it in with the rotivator. You need a lot to improve clay soil and this may feel like a huge amount; however you will be amazed at how quickly it seems to just disappear when you dig it in. It will feed the soil, help lighten it and improve the drainage. On clay it is also a good idea to dig in horticultural grit (not gravel/pea shingle) as this helps break up the clay and improve drainage. Again I would recommend 25kg per meter sq and dig it in with the manure.
    3. If you are planting a flower bed, spread a 3cm depth of the organic manure over the top when you have planted the beds.

    This is all hard work, but is much easier to do from a blank sheet and should give you a good soil that your plants will love, and is easy for you to work in the future.

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