Lawn of Clay Be Gone

(Photo by Bonnie D. Huval, copyright 2020. Charlie Green breaking up the clay.)

If we carried on doing everything ourselves, we weren’t going get new grass in place early enough. The end of the growing season was getting too close. We were also completely exhausted.

My wife hired a local landscaper for the rest of the 2020 portion of our garden transformation. He and his helper rented a big tiller to break up our clay and then dig soil enrichment material into it.

What I did before they started is deliberately invisible. Between the landscape cloth at the back of the gabion wall and the dirt, I tucked in gravel to a thickness of a couple of inches. That comes up to ground level. The top of the gravel is hidden from view by a strip of 2x3 lumber between the back of the gabion wall and the front of the fence posts. This is where I used the gravel I took out of the dirt excavated from the gabion trench.

Soil Enrichment

Fortunately, this is a rural area. From time to time, everything stinks of manure when local farmers fertilize their land. Our neighbors very kindly did not complain about having the stink so close by for a day or two until new sod could be laid.

(Photo by Bonnie D. Huval, copyright 2020. Soil improvement material. Basically, manure and some dirt.)

French Drain

Before grass could be put down, we also needed the French drain put in place. The entire trench in which the gabion wall sits drains toward the top of the French drain. In the photo above, you see it after it has been surrounded by gravel, before we laid landscape fabric and added slate chips to link the gabion trench with the slate chip border that surrounds the rest of the back garden. Here is what hides under all of that.

(Photos by Bonnie D. Huval, copyright 2020. French drain.)

Notice that we didn’t use special pipe for this. It’s ordinary pipe with slits cut into it. The pipe is surrounded by lots of gravel so the dirt isn’t right up against it. Water seeps in through the slits and runs down to the connection with a pipe that feeds runoff from our gutters into the storm sewer system.

We put a cleanout access at the top. Every spring we borrow a pressure washer from V’s dad. We bought a special attachment that we can feed into pipes to do a pressure cleanout. We use this to keep the drain from our kitchen clear of any grease and can also use it to maintain the French drain.

If not maintained, a French drain will clog and stop working. In some photos you can see the ends of pipes a little above the bottom of the highest retaining wall. Those were French drains. Neighbors say that in the first few years, those pipes gushed water onto the slate chips under them after rains. They weren’t maintained. No water emerges from them any more. All that water seeps under the wall to move through our ground.

New Grass

The fenced back garden is pounded by our dogs every day. As I’ve mentioned, lurchers play like they’re killing each other. V specified special grass. It’s the type used for playing fields and other high-traffic areas. With much effort, she had gotten a lovely mixture of typical grass seed and clover started in the lower part of the back garden, but it was not tough enough to stand a chance with our dogs. It looked like this.

(Photo by V, copyright 2020. Ordinary grass mixed with clover, from seed.)

Instead of seed, we had new sod laid. As the dogs rip patches in the new grass, we dig out and move some of the tough stuff from lower-traffic areas to repair gaps in high traffic spots. We use seed for a grass and clover mix to fill in at areas with lower traffic, similar to what V grew before we got special turf.

(Photo by Bonnie D. Huval, copyright 2020. New sod being laid. That isn’t one of our dogs. That’s Doris, Charlie’s dog.)

For a couple of weeks we had to stay off the newly laid grass so it could settle in and become firm enough to walk on. We took the dogs elsewhere on a leash (lead) for their walks and play. After the landscaping crew left, we could tiptoe over the new grass across boards to distribute our weight.

Veggie Patch Eaten (Not by Us)

While the crew was working, we couldn’t get to the veggie patch. That was only two or three days. Slugs and caterpillars had a party. This is when we realized growing things they like to eat is such an uphill battle here, we should simply grow something else.

(Photo by V, copyright 2020. Devastated veg.)

How It Looked

The photo below is from when the project was almost done. To finish, the square of slate chips by the house was shifted to where the yellow paving slabs were before we used them for the patio extension. The two yellow slabs left over became steps up from patio to ground level at one end of the gabion wall. We are considering a shed or summerhouse adjacent to the house where the slate chips used to be. That is now the soggiest portion of our ground and it is the only portion that never gets direct sunshine.

(Photo by Bonnie D. Huval, copyright 2020. North side.)

After a couple of weeks, the grass settled in. This is the best it has ever looked. The dogs make sure it looks heavily used, but for the most part this special turf is surviving them.

(Photo by Bonnie D. Huval, copyright 2020. Garden project results 2020.)

The clue to the existence of the French drain is its cleanout access in the shadow at the end of the gabion wall. You can also see that we made a virtue of the oddly angled access cover over a big pipe. We had the ground contoured so that cover is part of a slope up to the top of the back garden. It’s intentionally wheelchair accessible.

Does It Work?

The short answer? Yes, in more ways than we anticipated.

The first winter after we did all of this, our back garden drained reasonably well. We could tell where the French drain is. As soon as we got closer to the front of the garden than the French drain, the ground was significantly more mushy.

The dogs love it. The gabion wall is now central to a favorite new game. Bertie takes the high ground. Zola dashes across the patio from one end of the gabion wall to the other, trying to get past him. He, as the older dog, only has to take a few strides to dramatically cut her off and make a big show of it.

As I mentioned in the post about building the gabion wall, we were thinking mainly about drainage. We were stunned by getting a lovely outdoor entertainment space too.

The veggie patch is productive.

We didn’t stop with this. In the following year, we made more changes. After I catch my breath from this saga, I’ll show you those. Needless to say, they aren’t nearly as dramatic as the initial project. But with those changes, we grow more food and get more enjoyment of whatever sunshine the UK offers.