French Drains

The lowest edge of our garden gets very waterlogged often underwater for a good part of the winter, however we have a stream at a much lower level at the bottom of our garden, so I thought, easy enough, I just have to get the water from where its sitting into the stream.

after a small amount a of research I go exited about the idea of a french drains, (after Mr French, not The French). Effectivly a ditch that you put weedmatting in, some gravel and maybe a holy pipe, wrap it all up in the matting then you can put soil back on top!

Last autumn, I took the bull by the horns and started to dig, it was very hard work and after a little while it rained very hard and filled with water, so I decided to leave it for "another day".

Today finally the "another day" arrived, and here is my drain stages:

1. Dig a sloping trench from stream to low point in garden (at least 1 degree)

2. Line the trench with textile matting

3. Put some gravel in the bottom to get a consistent gradient

4. Put in your Holy pipe if you are using one

5.  Cover pipe in gravel

5. Wrap it all up

It is a little bit more work that it sounds. . . . . . . . but hopefully worth it, as it will be there a long time draining stuff.