How to Tackle Common Challenges in New-Build Gardens: Poor soil and drainage
If you’ve recently moved into a new-build house in Bedfordshire, it’s likely you have a blank canvas of a garden. So much potential! However, you might find that there are one or more barriers to building your dream garden.
Hurdles
There are a number of common problems which affect new-build gardens, including:
poor soil
drainage problems
lack of privacy
a lack of style or character.
Luckily, with the right knowledge and expertise these can all be addressed. Today we’re dealing with soil and drainage.
Improving Poor Soil
Compost is a great way to improve almost any soil
Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon to find poor or damaged soil, sometimes full of buried rubble, in new-build gardens. Developers tend to strip away the rich, fertile topsoil before they start building, and it doesn’t always find its way back…
The first thing to do with new soil is to test it. Inexpensive soil test kits, available from a good garden centre, allow you to check the pH of the soil (or how acid or alkaline it is). If it’s neutral (around pH7) you can grow most plants without a problem, but if it’s more alkaline or acid then you will need to adjust your plant choices accordingly. (I undertake soil tests as part of my Garden Consultation service - see this page for more information.)
Luckily, there’s a simple solution for improving soil, and that’s adding ‘organic matter’. According to the RHS, “organic matter derives from living things, mainly plants but also animal origin”. This usually means compost, manure, leafmould, or ‘soil conditioner’ (which is often a mix of the previous materials). This can be dug in to the soil, or laid on top as a mulch, on a regular basis, and will gradually add nutrients and help the soil develop a better structure.
How to remedy drainage issues
If you’re finding lingering puddles in your lawn, or worse, an impromptu stream running across it, you’re not alone. In Bedfordshire we generally have a lot of clay in the soil, which is slow to drain and is easily compacted. Combine this with heavy machinery and construction work, and you can see why new-build gardens here might have drainage issues.
Aerating wet lawns, by poking holes with a garden fork can help the water to drain away. You can also try to alleviate compaction with the fork, by gently lifting the soil. If the problem is more severe, a french-drain or soakaway might be the solution. The principle behind both of these is similar, collecting the water and allow it to drain away more slowly. A garden designer can help you decide where to locate these, to maximise their effect.
If you have a very wet garden, rather than spend money trying to change it, you could also invest in making the most of what can be an exciting habitat. Rain gardens are an increasingly popular way to deal with excess water, and plenty of plant species are adapted to thrive in this environment. In times of heavy rain, the rain garden collects the water, giving it chance to drain away slowly. The images below show two examples of rain gardens.
That’s soil folks… (sorry!)
Poor wordplay aside, I hope the above tips are helpful. Watch out for a future post addressing how to bring both privacy and style to your outdoor space. Alternatively, sign up for our mailing list to get all the best content straight to your inbox.
If you’re not sure where to start with your Bedfordshire new-build garden, a garden designer could save you time and money.