I have an area of the garden that is prone to standing water, the soil 
is "clay" so drainage is poor at the best of times.  Was thinking of 
digging a hole and placing pipe with holes in it (what's the proper name 
for that?[weep pipe?]), covering it in pea gravel, then replacing soil 
on top (discarding any soil that doesn't fit back down the hole due to 
the pipe and the gravel).  This hole/pipe will run from the "bloody" bit 
the entire length of the garden.  Can anyone foresee any obvious gotchas 
or have alternate ways of doing things?
-- 
'S rioghal mo dhream
www.cheesesoup.myby.co.uk

soup wrote:
> the "bloody" bit 
  That should of course be " 'F'loody" (I don't hate the garden that much).

-- 
'S rioghal mo dhream
www.cheesesoup.myby.co.uk

On Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:39:16 GMT, soup  wrote:

>I have an area of the garden that is prone to standing water, the soil 
>is "clay" so drainage is poor at the best of times.  Was thinking of 
>digging a hole and placing pipe with holes in it (what's the proper name 
>for that?[weep pipe?])

Land drain? The pvc pipe we used was wavinflow


>, covering it in pea gravel, then replacing soil 
>on top (discarding any soil that doesn't fit back down the hole due to 
>the pipe and the gravel).  This hole/pipe will run from the "bloody" bit 
>the entire length of the garden.  Can anyone foresee any obvious gotchas 
>or have alternate ways of doing things?

There are things called fin drains which look like a pipe with a
vertical fin, the fin is covered in geotextile to filter any soil out.

Apart from that what you describe is much what land drains were but
nowadays geotextile is used to stop the shingle and pipe silting up,
effectiveness depends on the soil type as fine silt will soon clog
land drains and clay soils don't connect well to them (in agriculture
a mole plough will be used to form runs into the gravel above the
pipe).

AJH wrote:
> On Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:39:16 GMT, soup  wrote:
> 
>> I have an area of the garden that is prone to standing water, the soil 
>> is "clay" so drainage is poor at the best of times.  Was thinking of 
>> digging a hole and placing pipe with holes in it (what's the proper name 
>> for that?[weep pipe?])
> 
> Land drain? The pvc pipe we used was wavinflow
> 
> 
>> , covering it in pea gravel, then replacing soil 
>> on top (discarding any soil that doesn't fit back down the hole due to 
>> the pipe and the gravel).  This hole/pipe will run from the "bloody" bit 
>> the entire length of the garden.  Can anyone foresee any obvious gotchas 
>> or have alternate ways of doing things?
> 
> There are things called fin drains which look like a pipe with a
> vertical fin, the fin is covered in geotextile to filter any soil out.
> 
> Apart from that what you describe is much what land drains were but
> nowadays geotextile is used to stop the shingle and pipe silting up,
> effectiveness depends on the soil type as fine silt will soon clog
> land drains and clay soils don't connect well to them (in agriculture
> a mole plough will be used to form runs into the gravel above the
> pipe).
> 
I think if there is enough shingle below the pipe, that will silt up 
before the pipe does.

You may find that actually a bloody great hole backfilled with porous 
rubble and suchlike, going deep enough may take you below clay level 
anyway: when I was digging post holes here, I was intrigued to find the 
sopping wet soil gave out about 3 foot down, below that I was running 
into chalk and so on, and the subsoil was much drier. Our pond, which is 
unlined, never fills up to the brim, no matter how much water goes in it..

In fact, we have solved a muddy bit of garden by the simple expedient of 
slapping down a load of MOT and gravel, and heaping topsoil on it. It 
raises the walkable grassy bit just enough so that the normal sheet of 
water running over that part of the garden runs underneath it!

So waht iam sayingis that although a perforated pipe in a french drain 
is really good at draining a specific small area, if there is somewhere 
the water can run to, for a larger area, maybe all you want to do is 
simply raise the level abut 4-6" with MOT type 1, of the chalky sort, 
followed by gravel or sand, and push the topsoil back over it all.

On Sep 18, 11:18 pm, The Natural Philosopher <a...@b.c> wrote:
> AJH wrote:
> > On Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:39:16 GMT, soup  wrote:
>
> >> I have an area of the garden that is prone to standing water, the soil
> >> is "clay" so drainage is poor at the best of times.  Was thinking of
> >> digging a hole and placing pipe with holes in it (what's the proper name
> >> for that?[weep pipe?])
>
> > Land drain? The pvc pipe we used was wavinflow
>
> >> , covering it in pea gravel, then replacing soil
> >> on top (discarding any soil that doesn't fit back down the hole due to
> >> the pipe and the gravel).  This hole/pipe will run from the "bloody" bit
> >> the entire length of the garden.  Can anyone foresee any obvious gotchas
> >> or have alternate ways of doing things?
>
> > There are things called fin drains which look like a pipe with a
> > vertical fin, the fin is covered in geotextile to filter any soil out.
>
> > Apart from that what you describe is much what land drains were but
> > nowadays geotextile is used to stop the shingle and pipe silting up,
> > effectiveness depends on the soil type as fine silt will soon clog
> > land drains and clay soils don't connect well to them (in agriculture
> > a mole plough will be used to form runs into the gravel above the
> > pipe).
>
> I think if there is enough shingle below the pipe, that will silt up
> before the pipe does.
>
> You may find that actually a bloody great hole backfilled with porous
> rubble and suchlike, going deep enough may take you below clay level
> anyway: when I was digging post holes here, I was intrigued to find the
> sopping wet soil gave out about 3 foot down, below that I was running
> into chalk and so on, and the subsoil was much drier. Our pond, which is
> unlined, never fills up to the brim, no matter how much water goes in it..
>
> In fact, we have solved a muddy bit of garden by the simple expedient of
> slapping down a load of MOT and gravel, and heaping topsoil on it. It
> raises the walkable grassy bit just enough so that the normal sheet of
> water running over that part of the garden runs underneath it!
>
> So waht iam sayingis that although a perforated pipe in a french drain
> is really good at draining a specific small area, if there is somewhere
> the water can run to, for a larger area, maybe all you want to do is
> simply raise the level abut 4-6" with MOT type 1, of the chalky sort,
> followed by gravel or sand, and push the topsoil back over it all.

For this /particular/ application (curing a boggy lawn) MOT type 1 is
probably excessive.  Also, provided the sand is a bit dirty grass will
grow pretty happily on it (no need for expensive top soil).