Seeking ideas to resolve drainage issues in this corner of our backyard. Based in southern Victoria Australia. The whole yard is clay soil and we have some drainage issues over winter but now our neighbours installed auto water system that is creating a pond of stinky mud.
The area was for the kids and we wanted to put down some rubber tiles but now I think they will sink and slip? Plus mozzies and smell.
Ideas currently
Put lot of clay breaker and sand, put the tiles down and hope for best?
Move the kids area and put a water loving tree there?
Some kind of drainage to send the water back?
No experience in landscaping but willing to do hard labour. Budget is very small ($200) as only one income.
by Clairegeit
1 Comment
First off do not put sand on that clay unless you are trying to manufacture low-grade concrete because mixing fine sand with heavy clay just locks it up tighter. You also want to skip the rubber tiles for now since they will just sink into the muck and trap that smell you are worried about. Since this is effectively neighbor runoff you need to intercept that water at the fence line before it floods the play zone. With a two hundred dollar budget your best bet is sweat equity. Dig a trench along that fence line about eighteen inches deep and line it with landscape fabric then fill it with crushed gravel. This creates a catch basin to hold that runoff underground so the surface stays drier.
For the actual kid zone reach out to local tree services and ask for a drop of free arborist wood chips. A six inch layer of chips will keep the kids boots out of the mud and as it breaks down it adds organic matter that actually helps fix clay soil over time. Before you start breaking your back digging though you might want to upload a photo of that corner to Agrios GardenDream tool. It helps you visualize where to run the trench or if a rain garden setup might fit better so you do not waste energy digging a hole in the wrong spot. Get the drainage managed first or anything else you build there is going to rot.